The Prince had seemed to gain strength with years, and in 1882 he married Princess Helen of Waldeck, sister of the present Queen-Regent of Holland. A little girl was born to him and his wife in 1883, named Alice, after the sister whose words of love have just been quoted; but a little son, born in 1884, did not see the light for some four months after his father's death. The Queen's loving, motherly tenderness protected and sustained her young daughter-in-law in her sorrow and loneliness.
Almost as much as for the death of her children, the Queen mourned the loss of the gallant General Gordon at Khartoum early in 1885. She wrote from Osborne to Miss Gordon in February of that year:—
Dear Miss Gordon,—How shall I write to you, or how shall I attempt to express what I feel! To think of your dear, noble heroic brother, who served his country and his Queen so truly, so heroically, with a self-sacrifice so edifying to the world, not having been rescued. That the promises of support were not fulfilled—which I so frequently and constantly pressed on those who asked him to go—is to me grief inexpressible! indeed, it has made me ill! My heart bleeds for you, his sister. … Some day I hope to see you again, to tell you all I cannot express. … Would you express to your other sisters and your elder brother my true sympathy, and what I do so keenly feel, the stain left upon England for your dear brother's cruel, though heroic fate! Ever, dear Miss Gordon, yours sincerely and sympathizingly.
V. R. I.
A few weeks later, Miss Gordon presented her brother's Bible (which he had constantly carried with him) to the Queen, and again Her Majesty wrote a letter, vivid with her grief and shame and high appreciation of the hero whose life had been sacrificed. This second letter was left by Miss Gordon to the nation, and may now be seen, one of the most interesting of the collection of royal autographs, in the British Museum. The well-worn Bible now lies open in an enamel and crystal case, called the St. George's Casket, in the south corridor of the private apartments at Windsor.
