We are in a state of
great suspense as to peace or war. The English newspapers are filled with
extracts from the American journals, breathing fire and fury against England, and
expressing the conviction, real or pretended, that as they have the law on
their side, we shall bluster a little, but in the end submit, and that there is
no fear of our going to war. The vessel bearing our ultimatum will have reached
Halifax on the 15th. It was passed at Cape Race by one of our steamers, and its
contents will have been telegraphed from Halifax to Washington and New York on
that day; so that on Monday we may know the general effect produced by them.
People are betting even on the result, and I hear that Palmerston has no faith
in peace. At Paris the general opinion is that the French despatch will produce
no effect, and very likely that the American Government will refuse to accept
it, because it is styled the 'Federal,' not the United States Government.
I have had an
interesting letter from Mary Ponsonby, with further details of the Windsor
tragedy. When the gentlemen who were sent to Lisbon to condole on the late King
of Portugal's death returned, and after the Prince had seen them, the Queen
told Charles Grey that the Prince said to her, You may be glad, my dear, that I
have not got a fever, for if I had, it would be just the same case as Pedro's.'
And he then went on to say, what he had often told her before, that he did not
care enough to live, to make a struggle for it, though he was very happy. The
Queen felt alarmed at the dejected way in which he spoke of himself, and when
Jenner told Her Majesty the following day that he believed the Prince's malady
to be gastric fever, she desired that he would on no account mention this to
anyone, for fear the Prince might hear of it, as she felt how fatal it would be
if he got it into his head that he should not recover. Jenner kept his own
counsel until the Saturday, when he told Phipps and Charles Grey that he had no
doubt of the nature of the illness, as the appearance of spots made it evident.
The next week was considered to be the eight days' crisis; Jenner always said
he saw his way over four days of the time, but he doubted much whether he would
pull him through the week.
However, the fever
symptoms and all the characteristics of the illness abated from that moment,
and they were all full of confidence that he would do well until the
Friday, when congestion of the lungs came on, which he had no strength to fight
against. The opinion was that he would not live through the night. There was a
slight rally on Saturday, but the difficulty of breathing came on at the same
hour as on Friday, and at eleven he expired. His muscular strength surprised
the doctors, for he half got out of bed on Saturday, and those who attended him
would not believe him to be dying, for except the look of fever, he had no
appearance of being wasted or weak. He knew the Queen to the last, telling her
in German that he loved her, and there was more speaking when they were alone,
which those who were in the next room might have heard, as the doors were open,
but they of course kept away. The last words he said to Princess Alice were
'Good child.' The Queen has appointed Lord James Murray Groom of the
Bedchamber, vacant by the death of Bowater, and has made Francis Seymour, who
was one of the Prince's oldest servants, an Extra Groom of the Bedchamber.
The young Portuguese
Prince who was here lately with the present King has fallen ill of the same
fever as that which carried off his two brothers. The King, at the urgent
request of his Ministers and people, has removed from the Palace, and there
have been tumults in the streets, a suspicion having arisen that the late King
and his brothers had been poisoned. They probably were so by the bad drainage
of the Palace, and a Sanitary Commission has been appointed to inquire into the
matter. It would really seem as though the Coburgs were particularly bad
subjects for fever, or had bad constitutions, and one cannot but feel some
anxiety for our own Royal Family, who are also the offspring of first cousins.
King Leopold arrived at Osborne yesterday.
SOURCE: Alice
Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872,
pp. 3-6
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