Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 1.djvu/260

240 "In our domestic circle," wrote President Buchanan to the Queen, "the Prince has won all hearts. His free and ingenuous intercourse with myself evinced both a kind heart and a good understanding." What, we wonder, were the impressions the President's "niece and housekeeper" (as one gossiper describes Miss Harriet Lane) formed of him? They would be worth reproduction, if any were written. There was a wild passage home, and the good ship rolled along at ten knots. Ten knots! They thought that wonderful in 1860. Be it remembered, too, that in choppy weather, the Hero rolled to forty degrees. The Prince must have had a horribly uncomfortable journey in consequence; but he was a good sailor, and all had to make the best of working in an Atlantic gale, with a persistent easterly wind, dead against the ship. It is recorded that considerable anxiety was felt by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort at the delay which was thus occasioned.

The Prince's nineteenth birthday was celebrated on board, roll the Hero never so dangerously. The middies had a high old time. We cannot help thinking that the Prince enjoyed the society of these young gentlemen even more highly than that of the Duke of Newcastle. At length came fair winds, and on the I4th of November the watch made out the Lizard Lights. On the morning of the I5th, twenty-six days out from Portland, the Prince shook hands with all aboard and disembarked in Plymouth Sound.

Hearty was the rejoicing of the nation at his safe return; affectionate indeed the welcome of his parents and brothers and sisters. In the family circle we leave him before entering upon a new phase of his life.



WINDSOR FROM THE RIVER.