coming to the throne at the mature age of sixty-five, was so excited by
the exaltation that he nearly went mad... The young Queen, who might well
be either dazzled or confounded with the grandeur and novelty of her
situation, seems neither the one nor the other, and behaves with a
propriety and decorum beyond her years."

Doubtless nature was kind to Victoria in the elements of character, but
she must have owed very much of this courage, calmness, modesty,
simplicity, candor, and sterling good sense to the peculiar, systematic
training, the precept and example of her mother, the much-criticised
Duchess of Kent, so unpopular at the Court of the late King, and whom Mr.
Greville had by no means delighted to honor. Ah, the good, brave Duchess
had her reward for all her years of patient exile, all her loving labor
and watchful care, and rich compensation for all criticisms,
misrepresentations, and fault-finding, that June afternoon, the day of
the Proclamation, when she rode from the Palace of St. James to
Kensington with her daughter, who had behaved so well--her daughter and
her _Queen!_




PART II.

WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD.




CHAPTER IX.