by Jean Plaidy
Who would have believed it possible to be so unhappy after the bliss of Christmas!
‘You must cheer up,’ said Lehzen. ‘You must try to hold yourself aloof from this … this … wickedness. You must remember that you are the Queen. It used to be so different when you could take all your troubles to Lord Melbourne. Of course it is Stockmar who interferes so. He is trying to deprive you of Lord Melbourne. Oh, to think that the Queen could be so treated!’
But she was still not listening with all her attention. She kept going over that perfectly dreadful scene. There had never been such a scene. Always before Albert had been so calm. To see Albert in a temper was a terrible thing. It simply was not Albert.
Lehzen was saying: ‘Lie down, my precious. You are so overwrought … and when I think of all your anxiety …’
‘Oh, leave me alone, Lehzen,’ she snapped.
Lehzen merely smiled tolerantly. Lehzen implied that she understood. The Queen’s temper was short and naturally so, considering all she had to contend with.
Alone, lying on her bed, pressing her hands to flushed damp cheeks, she thought of life with Albert and all it meant to her. There must be an end to this terrible state of affairs. They must explain to each other, that they did not mean those terrible things they had said.
She waited for him to come to her, his usual calm self, to tell her that he was sorry; then she would say she was sorry too and they would agree that there just must never be a scene like that again.
She could endure it no longer. She wrote a note to him. She forgave him for what he had said yesterday. He attached too much importance to unimportant matters; he listened to rumours about certain people and believed them; if he would come to her and discuss his grievances she could explain so much to him and there would not be these distressing disagreements.
When he received this note Albert decided that this was a crisis in his marital affairs which could affect the whole future and he went to Baron Stockmar to ask his advice.
He told him in detail what had happened. He was worried about his children, for he believed the nursery was mismanaged; the household was in chaos. Witness the fact that the Boy Jones had been able to enter the palace and remain in it unobserved for several days. The Queen was completely under the spell of an intriguing old woman who hated him and was determined to wreck his marriage; the Queen’s education had been so neglected that she felt inferior in the company of intellectual people and therefore avoided that company; and what was more her hasty passionate nature made it quite impossible to reason with her.
The Baron listened attentively.
‘Everything you say is true,’ he answered, ‘and it is a state of affairs which must not continue. The Baroness Lehzen must go.’
Albert was relieved. He had been right to come to Stockmar; even Victoria would have to listen to him.
‘I fear I spoke out too strongly,’ said Albert, ‘but I felt it was necessary. I know you advised patience and calm and rightly so; but I was discovering that because she relied on my patience and calm she made no attempt to hold her temper in check. She made me feel like a child. It is more than I can endure.’
‘This is the moment when firm action must be taken. The Queen is being ill advised and subversively supported. That advice and support must be withdrawn … and soon.’
The Prince nodded eagerly.
‘We shall have to deliver an ultimatum. You cannot ask the Queen to choose between you and Lehzen for obviously you cannot leave her.’
‘Leave Victoria!’ Albert turned pale at the thought, and Stockmar smiled.
‘An impossibility of course, but if it were not so and you threatened it, I have no doubt that her regard for you would make her ready to dismiss Lehzen. But no, we cannot do that, but if I threatened to leave, if I offer her my conditions, I think that might be effective. It will be a matter of her choosing between Lehzen and myself.’
Albert was relieved and yet at the same time a little apprehensive. Lehzen whom she loved so devotedly, or Stockmar who was a sort of god in the household. Stockmar who could criticise even Lord Melbourne? Albert wondered what would happen if she agreed to let Stockmar go. He pictured himself attempting to stand against Victoria with Lehzen behind her.
However, some action must be taken; and if anyone could solve their difficulties it was Stockmar.
When Victoria read Stockmar’s note she was horrified. Stockmar was always candid and to the point. He stated quite clearly that he was displeased by the recent conduct of the Queen towards her husband and if such violent and undignified scenes occurred again he would not stay at Court. He would retire to Coburg and settle down with his family, which he had wanted to do for a long time.
Impulsively she replied to Stockmar that she hated these scenes, but Albert must not provoke them. He should not believe the foolish things she said when she was in a temper. Of course she did not mean them, and she only said them in the heat of the moment when she was not feeling well.
She could not ignore the implications that Lehzen must go. This last scene had made the animosity between the Baroness and the Prince so obvious. She remembered the happy time she and Albert had had when they made their tour of the Whig Houses just before the election; she thought of Christmas and how wonderful Albert had been with the Christmas trees and how he had danced Pussy on his knee and explained to her about Christmas in Coburg.
How could she live without Albert? He meant more to her than anyone else on earth – Pussy, The Boy and Lehzen. She was happiest alone with Albert. Dear Lord Melbourne had told her that Albert would be a great comfort and Lord Melbourne was as usual right. But this was not a matter of being wise; this was a deep need.
She loved Albert; she would always love Albert. She could never be happy away from Albert and she knew that nothing in her life could ever be as important to her as her love for Albert.
The Baron looked sternly at the Queen.
‘I can assure you,’ she said, ‘that quarrels with Albert are far more distressing to me than to him.’
‘Then they must no longer be provoked,’ said the Baron. ‘And there is one reason why they start. Let us be frank. The Baroness Lehzen and the Prince are not good friends, never will be good friends and there will always be trouble while the Baroness remains in your household.’
The Queen was very pale and agitated. It was true of course. Lehzen and Albert – although of the same nationality – were sworn enemies and they could never be anything else. Strange that the two people she should love so dearly should be so very different. Albert was so meticulous, such a good organiser; Lehzen was always in a muddle; and she had to admit that the nurseries were not properly run. What if Pussy was suffering because of that?
She said: ‘There is a mistaken idea that Baroness Lehzen is a sort of power behind the throne. That is not so. Lord Melbourne understood perfectly. She was good to me when I was a child; she was like a mother to me; I only want her to have a home with me. That’s all. There is too much speculation and imagination.’
‘I think she should go away,’ said Baron Stockmar. ‘Indeed she must go away.’
‘You mean for a holiday?’
‘A long holiday,’ said Stockmar. ‘You would see then how differently your household could be managed.’
Victoria now knew that all she really wanted was to be back on good terms with Albert. Suppose Lehzen went back to her home in Coburg for a long holiday. Then they could see how they managed without her. ‘Dear Daisy,’ she would say, ‘it is so long since you saw your home. You have worked far too much. You know that you are not well. There was that attack of jaundice. Have a long rest.’
Poor Daisy! She would understand of course. Perhaps in her heart she would know that there was no room at the palace for her while the Prince was there; and the plain fact was that Victoria could not be happy without Albert.
Stockmar smiled benignly.
‘I can see that Your Majesty has made up your mind.’
; He went back to Albert. ‘I have made her see reason.’
‘You cannot mean that the Baroness is going!’
‘In due course. I’m certain that before the year is out she will have said goodbye to the palace.’
‘But the Queen has consented to this?’
‘Not in so many words. But she realises that I shall not stay here if Lehzen remains and even more important she knows that you and Lehzen cannot continue amicably under the same roof. She has to choose between her old governess and a happy life with her husband. I had no doubt that when she saw exactly how matters stood she would have no hesitation in making her choice.’
Albert seized Stockmar’s hand and wrung it warmly.
‘There is still need for caution,’ said the Baron. ‘We have won the first skirmish only. The main battle is to be won. You will act with care. Your task, even when the Baroness is gone, will be to show the Queen that, although in public she is the Queen and you are only her consort, in the home you are the master.’
‘You think it is possible to show Victoria that?’
‘Not only possible but a necessity. Her nature demands that you should do this. You must be very careful indeed until Lehzen departs and even after that you will tread warily. Make no concessions. Be your calm self; that disconcerts her. But I think you were wise on this one occasion to match your temper with hers. But not again. From now on you will be the calm, judicious husband.’
Stockmar laughed – something he rarely did.
‘I think I see victory,’ he added.
The Queen waited for Albert to come to her. Why did he not? She had made concessions. She was going to agree to the Baroness’s going on a long holiday. Now she expected him to come and tell her how pleased he was and how much he appreciated the sacrifice she was making for him.
She went to his sitting-room and found him there reading. How dared he be so calm.
‘Albert,’ she said, ‘I had thought that you would have come to see me.’
He raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. ‘You were not in a very pleasant mood when we last met.’
‘Nor were you,’ she reminded him.
‘It was most regrettable.’
‘Put your book down, Albert. I have to talk to you.’
Albert said coolly: ‘Is that an order?’
‘When I come in I expect you to put aside what you are doing.’
She frowned. She was longing for him to embrace her and tell her how noble she was to agree to do without Lehzen and to tell her he adored her for her self-sacrifice; and there he was serenely sitting there, looking as though he found his wretched book more interesting than she was.
Oh, he was clever, of course. And she was not. And he wanted to have clever people to dine with them so that they could all talk over her head and he could show how much more clever he was than the Queen.
‘If it was a request instead of a command I might be prepared to concede,’ said Albert with a grave smile.
‘A request. Must I then request the privilege of speaking to you?’
‘It might be considered courteous to do so.’
‘Courteous!’ she cried. ‘Am I expected to curtsy every time I see you as well as ask permission to speak?’
Albert rose, went through to his bedroom and shut the door.
She hurried after him and when she tried to open the door found that he had turned the key in the lock.
‘Open this door at once!’ she cried.
There was no answer. Furiously she hammered with her fists on the panels.
‘Open this door!’ she commanded.
Albert was standing on the other side of it. ‘Who is that?’ he asked.
‘Who is that?’ she cried in passion. ‘You know who it is. It is the Queen.’
She waited. The door remained locked.
She took the handle and shook it.
‘Who is there?’ asked Albert.
‘The Queen is here,’ she said. ‘Open this door at once.’
She waited for the sound of a key in the lock. It did not come. She was very near to tears. She felt wretchedly unhappy. She had agreed to Lehzen’s taking a holiday and now Albert was being unkind to her.
She would not endure it. Again she hammered on the door.
That maddeningly calm voice answered: ‘Who is that?’
‘As though you don’t know!’ she cried, her voice rising to a hysterical note. ‘Open this door I say.’
‘Who is there?’ he repeated maddeningly.
‘The Queen!’ she answered regally. Silence. He would not open the door. Oh, how dared he?
She was so miserable. She wanted Albert to be kind and loving again; she could not endure these differences. Albert was right in a way. She was imperious. She did have a violent temper, and when it was roused she said things that would have been so much better left unsaid.
She wanted to lean on Albert’s chest and sob out her miseries. She wanted to tell him that only if they were together, as they had been on those blissful occasions which were all too short, could she be entirely happy. No matter who went away, she would still be happy if only Albert continued to love her.
She went back to the door and this time rapped on it somewhat gently.
Albert’s voice came again, more gentle this time. ‘Who is there?’
‘This is your wife, Albert,’ she answered tearfully.
The door was unlocked. Albert stood there, his arms outstretched.
She ran into them and clung to him.
‘Oh, Albert, never, never, never let us quarrel again.’
Chapter XII
A LONG HOLIDAY FOR THE BARONESS
The baptism of the new baby was an important occasion because the child was the heir to the throne. The chief sponsor was to be the King of Prussia who had travelled to England to fulfil his role. Albert met the King at Greenwich and travelled with him to Windsor where the Queen was waiting to receive him. Victoria had always been delighted to entertain guests particularly when the entertainment was a grand ball; and a grand ball it must be to be worthy of Frederick of Prussia.
The King turned out to be charming. Although as tall as Albert he was very fat; he was going bald and his whiskers were very sparse, the Queen noticed; but his charming manners and obvious desire to please made up for that.
He was very interested in everything he saw and was delighted with the children, particularly Pussy, whose health had improved a little and when she was well she was so very lively. The Queen insisted on his dancing a quadrille with her and although he told her that it was a long time since he had danced and he feared he cut rather a poor figure, he danced with the Queen and it was a very pleasant ball.
The real purpose of the visit though was the baptism, and as little Albert Edward was the heir to the throne it was decided that he should be baptised in a consecrated building. Hence instead of the palace baptism which had been the lot of the Princess Royal, this more important ceremony was to take place in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Albert Edward, the Queen was delighted to note, behaved perfectly, although he did not show Pussy’s intelligent interest in everything. (She would never forget Lord Melbourne’s amusing remark that the little Princess Royal was perfectly aware that everything was for her benefit); but of course the chapel was a beautiful setting and this was a far more grand occasion.
Albert, who was so musical, decided that there should be no anthem, although one had been specially composed for the occasion.
‘No,’ he explained to Victoria, ‘if we have a new composition everyone will be paying attention to that and discussing the merits of it. They are not here to criticise music but to rejoice in the birth of the heir to the throne. So there will be no anthem. We should leave the chapel on a note of triumph. I suggest the Hallelujah Chorus.’
‘But that is wonderful,’ cried the Queen. ‘We all know it and it is certainly triumphant music. Poor Mr Elvey is going to be very disappointed that his anthem is not sung, though.’
‘There will be plenty of occasions for us to hear Mr Elvey’s anthem,’ said the Prince. ‘There can only be one christening of the Prince of Wales.’
‘You are absolutely right, Albert,’ said the Queen; and she said afterwards how imposing the ceremony was. The music was particularly beautiful.
The absorption with the baptism meant that it was possible to put off telling Lehzen that it had been decided she should have a long holiday. The more she thought of it, the more Victoria wondered how she could ever do it. She kept postponing it, which meant that she found herself avoiding Lehzen’s company. Albert was aware of this and decided, as he had over the affair of the bedchamber ladies, that he must take action.
He found Lehzen alone one day and asked her how she was feeling. She was clearly not looking well, he told her, and he believed it was due to that attack of jaundice from which she had never fully recovered.
She replied that she was recovering and that she had so much with which to occupy herself that she did not notice her own slight indisposition.
‘The Queen is concerned about you,’ said Albert. ‘She is saying that you have never had a real holiday.’
The Baroness’s face softened at the mention of the Queen. ‘Her Majesty’s heart is very tender for those she loves. I am well enough. A spell at Windsor will make me completely well again.’
‘The Queen thinks you need a complete change. It must be years since you were in Coburg.’
‘Coburg! Is the Queen thinking of paying a visit? She has not mentioned this to me.’
‘The Queen could not of course leave the country. She was thinking of you.’
The Baroness gave a short sharp laugh. ‘Her Majesty knows that my place is by her side.’
‘Not if you are unwell and need to regain your strength,’ replied the Prince and left her.
The Baroness was alarmed. What did that mean? No, Victoria would never agree to banish her. Banish her? But he had said a holiday. Oh, but she knew his devious ways. Once let him get her away and he would try to keep her away.