Alix surveyed her with tears in her eyes. ‘You are so good,’ she told her. ‘I know that you do not like little babies and everything that concerns their being born. But you are here …’
Tears always affected the Queen deeply. They were a sign of feeling.
‘Dear sweet Alix,’ she said at once, ‘how glad I am that you came to us. It was a very happy day for Bertie and for me.’
Then she bent over and kissed the dear girl who looked so pretty.
When she was gone Alix lay still with her eyes closed thinking about the Queen who still mourned for the husband she had clearly adored. She wondered whether she would ever learn to feel the same way about Bertie. She loved her husband; he was charming and kind; she wondered whether he was faithful to her. There were often suggestions that he was not. Albert would always have been faithful to Victoria of course; but Bertie and his father were as different as two husbands could be.
She had learned quite a lot about the Prince Consort; one could not be long in the Queen’s company without doing so; and sometimes she thought he seemed intolerable. On the whole perhaps she was better off with a man like Bertie. In time, she thought, he will change. He just feels that he has so much to make up for after being under the sway of his stern father.
While she was brooding letters were brought to her. How good to hear from home!
There was one from her father. She read it through and let it flutter on to the quilt. Her fingers seemed too limp to hold it.
‘For God’s sake, Alix,’ was the message, ‘England must help us. We are going down before the might of the Prussians. You are English now. Help us, Alix.’
What could she do?
When Bertie came to see her he found her sunk deep in depression.
‘What’s wrong, Alix?’ Bertie wanted to know; and she showed him her father’s appeal.
‘Something will have to be done,’ said Bertie. ‘England will go in and stand by the Danes. They’re waiting for the right moment. Old Pam loves to sweep in with dramatic effect. Don’t worry. We shall be there … beside the Danes.’
She allowed herself to be convinced.
‘Why, Bertie,’ she said, ‘if England did not help my poor country I should be so ashamed. They’d think I had failed them in some way.’
‘You’re not going to fail them,’ said Bertie, and she thought how kind he was until he started to tell her about the races he had visited that day and she saw then that he didn’t really care very much about the great tragedy overhanging her family.
The news grew worse. The Prussians were invading Schleswig-Holstein. Vicky’s husband had left Berlin to join the forces which were fighting against Alix’s father.
News came that Holstein, the pro-German of the two Duchies, was in the hands of German troops and that the Danish authorities had evacuated it. Bismarck demanded that the position of Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish constitution should be investigated, and when King Christian refused to consider this German troops began to march on Schleswig.
The Prime Minister and Lord Russell came to see the Queen.
‘The Austrians and Prussians are power crazy,’ said Palmerston. ‘They won’t stop at Schleswig-Holstein; they’ll march on and crush Denmark. This is what Bismarck means with his blood and iron.’
‘The fleet should be sent to Copenhagen,’ said Russell.
The Queen stared at him in dismay. ‘I should never consent. It would be tantamount to declaring war on Germany.’
‘Which might do that rather blown-up country some good,’ said Palmerston.
Oh, how she disliked those old men! Albert had always believed in neutrality.
‘Prince Albert would never have agreed to make war on Germans.’
‘We have to consider what is best for England, M’am,’ Palmerston reminded her.
‘War is never good for any country,’ retorted the Queen.
The two ministers exchanged glances. When it was considered the moment to act, Palmerston would do so; at the moment it was better perhaps to prevaricate; and the attitude of the Queen gave him an opportunity of doing so.
Alix was growing frantic. Her country was in danger and England was doing nothing to help. She fretted and grew pale and thin. Bertie declared it was a shameful thing that England did not go to the rescue of Denmark. He was far from discreet and at every opportunity declared his contempt for the shilly-shallying government and the wicked Prussians.
Palmerston, while deciding it was better for the Prussians, Austrians and Danes to work this matter out for themselves kept an anxious eye on the Baltic ports. He took an opportunity of warning the Austrian ambassador in London that if their fleet appeared in the Baltic they would find the British Navy there too.
The Queen was horrified; she could visualise the country’s being dragged into war. She declared that she would not give her consent, and refused to sign the speech from the throne, which the government had prepared for the opening of Parliament. She herself had not attended an opening since the death of Albert.
Throughout the country sympathy ran high for Denmark. Everywhere they went Alix and Bertie were cheered. The people wanted to go to the aid of ‘Little Denmark’ because the Press had given the impression that if Prussia marched on that country Britain would be Denmark’s staunch ally. Moreover, the Danish Princess of Wales had appealed to them; she was young, pretty, and had already given birth to the heir in rather dramatic circumstances. Good old Bertie was a gay dog, often at loggerheads with stern Mama, who in any case had offended the public by shutting herself away.
Alix was cheered by public sympathy, but what good was that while Denmark was being hopelessly beaten by the Prussian and Austrian hordes?
She raved to Bertie. Had not Lord Palmerston promised help to Denmark? Hadn’t he said: ‘I am convinced – we are convinced – that if any violent attempt were made to overthrow the rights and interfere with the independence of Denmark, those who made the attempt would find in the result that it would not be Denmark alone with which they would have to contend.’
Alix remembered it word for word; and what was he doing now … nothing. Denmark wanted more than sympathy.
Some members of Parliament flung those words in Palmerston’s face; but he was too wily for them. His sympathies were with Denmark because he could see the dangers to Europe of a strong Prussia; but he was not going to drag England into a war unless it was going to be very much to England’s advantage. He had made that remark, he had said, yes, he admitted it. But he had meant that he believed that some European country would come to the aid of Denmark; he had not meant England. It was more important to countries which were geographically nearer for instance, such as France, to preserve the peace of Europe, but the Emperor was remaining aloof. If the Emperor had intervened … but that was another story.
‘It’s perfidious,’ cried Alix in despair. ‘My country relied on England.’
Bertie was furious and ashamed, he said. So were the people. But many knew that Palmerston, though perhaps not morally right, was doing England the greater service by keeping her out of war.
By April the war was over – disastrously for Denmark. They had lost Schleswig-Holstein.
Chapter IX
JOHN BROWN COMES SOUTH
The Queen was scarcely ever in London and the people were getting restive. Surely it was the duty of the Sovereign to show herself now and then? The Queen retorted, when her ministers reproached her, that she worked unceasingly for the good of the country and she could not see how her parading in public did her subjects any good.
But even she was taken aback when several notices were stuck on the walls of Buckingham Palace announcing: