Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/250

 1892, was another heavy blow to the Royal House. The Duke had only lately become engaged to the Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, when all the preparations for the wedding were ended by the death of the bridegroom-elect. Influenza, followed by acute pneumonia, was the cause. The whole nation mourned with and for the Queen. The tragic circumstances of the unexpected transition from wedding to funeral, from the throne to the bier, called forth a genuine expression of deep feeling from all classes. But just as a discord sometimes serves to prepare the ear for the full sweetness of a harmony, so in this case one of the most touching expressions of sympathy was called for by the refusal of some boorish members of the Miners' Federation at Stoke to pass a vote of condolence to the Queen on the death of her grandson and heir. There were women in the immediate neighborhood, widows of men who had perished in the Oaks Colliery explosion, twenty-six years earlier. They retained a lively recollection of the Queen's sympathy with them in their bitter grief, and the aid she had given to the fund for their relief; and to think that any men connected with coal mining should now refuse to express sympathy with the Queen, was enough, they felt, to make the very stones cry out. Little accustomed as these poor women were to address letters to great personages, they sent the following to Her Majesty:—

"To our beloved Queen, Victoria.

"—We, the surviving widows and mothers of some of the men and boys who lost their lives by the explosion which occurred in the Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, in December, 1866, desire to tell your Majesty how stunned we all feel by the cruel and unexpected blow which has taken Prince Eddie from his dear grandmother, his loving parents, his beloved intended, and an admiring nation. The sad news affected us deeply, we all believing that his youthful strength would carry him safely through the danger. Dear Lady, we feel more than we can express. To tell you that we sincerely condole with your