The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-04-04 00:00:00

A _ROYAL
_ROMANCE.

The imaginative "London correspondent" of the
New YorL Home Journal, gives the following illustra-
tion of the course of true love in Court circles. The
writer remarks that the departure of the Rev. :"anon
Duckwotth, A.M., for India, as a member of the
W Prince of ales's suite, and chaplain to the royal
party. bears no particular outward significance, but
his appointment to that coveted position calls forth a
host of memories, makes • world of reflections, in
which love, convents, a girl's hot-headedness. a man's
firmness in honourable decisions; a forced marriage
o. ,one, and gradual promstion and honour for the
other, in a Sovereign's displeasure and approval, from
the warp and woof upon which the story weaves. In
its details it may be new to American readers. The
Princess Louise before he beell.lllo the Marchioness of
Lorne, and while yet under the immediate eye of her
royal mother, was found a tutor in the person of a
rather obscure. vet thoroughly intellectual curate, the
licv. Mr. Duckworth. A.M.

Ile Wai then, as he is now, a young awl fascinating
man. with dark ey., and haw, winninz manners, soft
vice. A fine vocalist, evvrythim: wthetic found in
him a cordial patron, and he was in great favour with
the rwal family, the younger branches of which were
under his care. As a consequence the handsome
princess was soon much more engrossed with thoughts
of her tutor and his well-cut face than pages of
phil,,sophy or intricate tcrows of verbs. Her feelings
ripened into affection, which she did not hesitate to
show. While in Scotland she frequently, in company
with her brother Arthur, Duke of Connaught, visited
her tutor at his humble inn, and, after taking tea, the
evenin.; would pleasantly pass in ginging and social
conversation, a proceeding harmless enough in its
way, if the young lady was not a royal princess, and
guided by an affection for her tutor which she thus
sought to gratify, . . .

Thin lio; soon became too potent and too strong for
the curate's sense of propriety, and he considered, in
view id the circumstances, that it was him duty to
inf irm the Queen. This he did in a delicately-worded
letter, in which, with consummate art, he tried to
shield his pupil as far as possible, but suggested
another tutor for the princess should be procured at
once. The Queen was very much troubled at the
hint c eataineil in Mr. Duckworth's brave communica-
tion ; and when the princess was called and spoken to,
the strength of her paesion showed itself am she
leclared that she would "either marry him or go into
a convent" Her manner of sayiug and firmness in
maintaining it left no shadow of a doubt as to her
intent in the matter. lier love was her life, and in it
rleterinined to cut her destiny. There eeemed,
indeed, no loophole through which influences might be
directed with a view of changing her determination.
rh, Queen was in a quandary, the royal mind per-
plexed for a royal fate. There was no unmarried
prince in Europe with whom England cared to wed.
Majesty and its advisers were floored. The matter of
marrying the curate was, of course, out of the question;
and the alternative of a convent was seriously con-
sidered. At Clewer there is situated a convent
conducted by the High Church interests in the Church
of England, and so high as t be almost out of sight
to an ordinary Churchman. The discipline is extra-
ordinarily strict, the life monastic in form and rigid in
daily duty. In fact, it seems to have been a convent
kept from forgotten centuries of ancient England. It
is, of course, headed by a Mother Superior. To this
istabliehment the Queen determined to go and examine
into its system, so that if the worst came to the worst.
and Louise should seek a convent, the place would
have been decided on. Commands were given to the
Mother superior that the visit should be kept a
profound secret. No sister was to know who the guest
was within the convent walls. So her Majesty came,
and while examining into the convent discipline, a
sister passed in one of the long covered corridors, and,
in passing, made the most profound obeisance, bending
nearly to the ground. The Queen, turning quickly to
the Mother Superior, said, "I thought I commanded
that my visit should be unknown to anyone."
"Your orders have been obeyed; the reverence
made by the sister was to me, as a superior of the
order ; no one knows of your Majority's visit."
This incident and answer was hardly calculated to
pour oil on a tronbled conscience, but whether it had
any determining influence is not known. In the
meantime, the plan of marrying the love-smitten
princess to a nobleman had been broached and
considered feasible, if the bridgegroom to be captured
was of sufficient rank. Of necessity, it must be the
eldest son of a duke, the heir to the highest nobility
next to the crown. The plan being approved of, the
young men obtainable were talked over. Whether
the young noblemen then in London knew of the
Queen's intentions, is not known outside; but cer-
tainly their actions at the time of the Queen's return
from Chimer and the consideration of the plan of
marriage would confirm that supposition. Lord
Hamilton, the future Duke of A bercorn, started for
Ireland. Lord Hartington, the Duke of Devonshire
that is to be, also left London. The Marquis of Lorne
alone remained, and he was summoned to the royal
presence. As the coming Duke of Argyll, the highest
of Scottish nobility, he was far better for rank than
any halfpenny prince of a twopenny German princi.
pality. 'Then the marriage might be turned to
account in cementing the loyalty of the Scotch to the
fortunes of the Crown. So, as a sequel, after a proper
time, the Duke of Argyll became royalty's father-in.
law. The annonncement was received in various
ways ; by the people with astonishment; by the Scotch
with joy; and by the royal family with feelings and
orpreanons that were anything but cordial approval.
The Princess Beatrice, who at once saw that she was
the future walking companion to the Queen, the lone
woman of the family, was furious, remarking, con-
temptuoudy, when she heard it, that there was, "no
one left for her but Fred Grant (the President's son),
or a young man from Lewis and Allenby's." But the
matter was settled, and the Princess became the
Marchioness of Lorne in due time.

The tutor, now Canon Duckworth, having acted in
such a straightforward, manly way, won, naturally,
no end of royal favour. Various favours were shown
him at once, and, on the death of Canon Kingsley,
that great man's valued position in Westminster
Abbey was given to Ducicworth. His appointment
to the suite of the Prince of Wales is the latest exhibi-
tion of this favour in memory of his action.
Whenever Lorne attends Court, he enters the
palace at the entrance reserved for noblemen. He
sits below the salt at the royal table; he is known only
as the Marquis of Lorne, and it is to be presumed that
the Princess Louise does not care, as she has force of
will sufficient to have him treated as the husband of a
royal princes., or else go herself an the Marchionness
of Lorne, the to he Duchess of Argyll. He cann,d
but remember the beautiful American girl to whom
he was devoted with all the devotion of a true lover.
His attentions were thoroughly constant to his ideal,
as found in Miss Bradhurst, whom he met for the first
time at the Court of Berlin. Miss Bradhurst and her
aist,r, both of whom are very beautiful, and both now
morn,' 1, were favourites with the Crown Princess of
Prussia, the eldest daughter I,f Queen Victoria;
consequently, these two American girls were constantly
at Court, and were much admired. Lorne, being in
the royal capital at the time, visited the Court, where
he met, and was captivated by, the tall, pale beauty,
Margaret Bradhnrst, described so well in these
lines, that one might readily believe they were written
of her

o !sweet, Pale Margaret, 0I rare, pale Maripuet,
What lit your eyes with tearful power,
Like moonlight on a falling shower!
Who lent you, love, your mortal dower
Of pensive thought and aspect pale, your melancholy,
sweet and frail
As perfume of the cuckoo-flower r'
But Lorne 's love was soon known at home, and
parental injunction was laid upon further proceedings
by the command that money was the primal requisite
for an Argyll. So Lorne came home on his orders
from the Duke of Argyll, went through London, and
met his fate..

Is—the story--a royal romance in real life, a
real romance of royal life. Lorne live.; Margaret is
married, and Lorne is nothing to her, only a preeenoe
which has passed away, a dream forgotten in the
light of later days. -Duckworth is on his way to
power and position, the only one who secured aoy:
, thing in the imam of the royal "row." To him fell
the prin.