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The Life of Queen Victoria and the Story of Her Reign
The Life of Queen Victoria and the Story of Her Reign Author:Charles Morris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III From Princess to Queen AN era of supreme importance came in the life of the youthful Princess when she first learned of the high dignity that s... more »eemed to await her. Fearing that the sweet modesty of childhood might be spoiled by a premature perception of the dazzling prospects before her, the Duchess deemed it wise, in her earlier years, to withhold from her daughter the knowledge that she would probably become Queen of England. When, however, she was about the age of twelve, circumstances occurred which indicated she should be informed of the dignity to which she would possibly be called. Various stories have been told as to how this was done; but the following, having received the Queen's approval, may be taken as correct. It is given in a letter addressed to the Queen by her former governess, Baroness Lehzen: " I said to the Duchess of Kent that your Majesty ought to know your place in the succession. Her Royal Highness agreed with me, and I put the genealogical table into the historical book. When Mr. Davys (the Queen's instructor, afterwards the Bishop of Peterborough) was gone, the Princess Victoria opened, as usual, the book again, and seeing the additional paper, said, ' I never saw that before.' ' It was not thought necessary you should, Prin cess,' I answered. ' I see I am nearer the throne than I thought.' ' So it is, madam,' I said. After some moments the Princess resumed : ' Now, many a child would boast; but they don't know the difficulty. There is much splendor, but there is more responsibility.' The Princess, having lifted up the forefinger of her right hand while she spoke, gave me that little hand, saying, ' I will begood 1 I understand now why you urged me so much to learn Latin. You told me Latin is the foundation of English grammar, and of a...« less