The engagement was publicly announced in May, 1857, and though, when first rumoured, it had been coldly looked on by the English public, now it was accepted with great cordiality.  The Prince was openly associated with the royal family; he and his future bride appeared as sponsors at the christening of our youngest Princess, Beatrice; he rode with the Prince Consort beside the Queen when she made the first distribution of the Victoria Cross, and was a prominent and heartily welcomed member of the royal group which visited the Art Treasures Exhibition of Manchester.  The marriage, which was in preparation all through the grim days of 1857, was celebrated with due splendour on January 25th, 1858, and awakened a universal interest which was not even surpassed when, five years later, the heir to the throne was wedded.  “Down to the humblest cottage,” said the Prince Consort, “the marriage has been regarded as a family affair.”  And not only this splendid and entirely successful match, but every joy or woe that has befallen the highest family in the land, has been felt as “a family affair” by thousands of the lowly.  This is the peculiar glory of the present reign.

[Illustration:  Charles Kingsley. From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry.]

Happy and auspicious as this marriage was, it was nevertheless the first interruption to the pure home bliss that hitherto had filled “the heart of the greatest empire in the world.”  The Princess Royal, with her “man’s head and child’s heart,” had been the dear companion of the father whose fine qualities she inherited, and had largely shared in his great thoughts.  Nor was she less dear to her mother, who had sedulously watched over the “darling flower,” admiring and approving her “touching and delightful” filial worship of the Prince Consort, and who followed with longing affection every movement of the dear child now removed from her sheltering care, and making her own way and place in a new world.  There she has indeed proved herself, as she pledged herself to do, “worthy to be her mother’s child,” following her parents in the path of true philanthropy and gentle human care for the suffering and the lowly.  So far the ancient prophecy has been well fulfilled which promised good fortune to Prussia and its rulers when the heir of the reigning house should wed a princess from sea-girt Britain.  But the wedding so propitious for Germany seemed almost the beginning of sorrows for English royalty.  Other betrothals and marriages of the princes and princesses ensued; but the still lamented death of the Prince Consort intervened before one of those betrothals culminated in marriage.