Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/213

 her loneliness, surrounded as she was by difficulties, jealousies, and misrepresentations; he had always appreciated her warm heart and innate truthfulness. He wrote of her that "she was by sheer natural instinct truthful, affectionate, and friendly, unselfish, sympathetic, and even magnanimous." All these testimonies to her worth were recalled now with gratitude and love by the sorrowing Queen. She was deprived of one solace which she might have had, the presence of her half-sister, Princess Feodore of Hohenlohe, the only other surviving child of the Duchess. She had recently been left a widow (April, 1860), and could not leave Germany.

Lady Augusta Bruce (afterwards Lady Augusta Stanley) had been one of the Duchess's ladies-in-waiting, and had been almost a daughter to her in love, and more than her own daughter could be in tender, watchful service. The Queen now transferred Lady Augusta to her own household, nominally as Resident Bed-Chamber Woman, really as assistant secretary; and from this time a very strong bond of affection was established between them, which was unbroken until Lady Augusta's death. The Queen also received help and consolation from the presence of her eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, who hurried to her parents on hearing of their loss. But notwithstanding all consolations, the Queen's heart was very sore, and her faithful, tender nature is one which clings with tenacious gratitude to the memory of precious friends hid in death's dateless night. Eleven years after her mother's death, Her Majesty's journal for the 17th August, 1872, has the following entry: "Beloved mamma's birthday. That dear mother, so loving and tender and full of kindness! How often I long for that love!" The Queen did not attend her mother's funeral. "I and my girls," she