Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/253

 own name and that of my children, to express, from my heart, my warm gratitude to all.

These testimonies of sympathy with us, and appreciation of my dear Grandson, whom I loved as a Son, and whose devotion to me was as great as that of a Son, will be a help and consolation to me and mine in our affliction.

My bereavements during the last thirty years of my reign have indeed been heavy. Though the labors, anxieties, and responsibilities inseparable from my position have been great, yet it is my earnest prayer that God may continue to give me health and strength to work for the good and happiness of my dear Country and Empire while life lasts.

The noble and touching words of the last sentence fitly recall the child of eleven years old who, on first learning that she was next in the succession, lifted her little hand and said, "I will be good."

The Duke of York, Prince George of Wales, occupies, by the death of his elder brother, the next place in the succession after his father. The union, in 1893, of the young Prince with Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (Princess May, as she was generally called) resulted in the birth of a son in May, 1894. This baby, who bears the fine historic title of Prince Edward of York, is now the third in the direct line of the succession. Pictures of the four generations, the Queen, her son, grandson, and great-grandson, have ornamented all the illustrated papers, and have been looked at with loyal interest by millions of English men and women all over the world who have mingled with their good wishes to the Royal House a heartfelt prayer that it may yet be many a long year before the Crown of England passes to another head.