The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-05 00:00:00

THE LATE PRINCE IMPERIAL.

A solemn requiem mass was performed on Tuesday
at Chislehurst to commemorate the anniversary
of the death of the late Prince Imperial, who
fell at Isandlana on the Ist of June, 1879. Prince
Lucien Bonaparte, M. Rouher, the Due de Bassano,
and the Marquise de Bassano (whose husband, the son
of the Duke, accompanies the Empress), M.
d'Espinasse, M. Bizot (the Prince's personal friend and
legatee), and many other devoted adherents of the
Imperial House were present.
The service was celebrated by the Right Rev.
Monseigneur Goddard, chaplain to the Empress. Her
Majesty the Empress Eugdnie herself was expected to
arrive at Isandlana on the same day. Monseigneur
Goddard was assisted by the Rev. L. Kcenig, curd of
Sainte Eustache, and the Rev Mr. Hood, of Canada.
The choir was composed of priests and boys from the
Blackheath 0 rphanage, and was conducted by Mr. Doyle.
Miss Danvers, the organist, played during the mass
the andante from Beethoven's "Sonata Passionata,"
and at the close Beethoven's beautiful funeral march,
the same which was at the Queen's command played
at the funeral of the Prince. The church was very
full of mourners, chiefly French, and at the close they
passed singly before the coffin which lies in the little
side chapel and sprinkled it with a few drops of holy
water. The little church was draped in black, and
the side chapel was decorated with beautiful flowers
and wreaths brought by the visitors.
The Empress is expected to arrive at Camden.
house on the 26th inst. from South Africa.

Among the telegrams ti-day (Wednesday), says the
Daily Telegraph in a leader, is one announcine, the
arrival of the Empress Eugenie in the immediate
vicinity of the death-place of her son. The mother's
pilgrimage was, therefore, completed yesterday, the
fatal Ist of June; and her love and courage have re-
ceived their reward in seeing with her own eyes the
spot where the gallant young Prince lost his
life, with his face to his assailants. Yet it is
impossible, when thinking of the youth as a son so well
worthy of his lineage, not to remember also that
he was a Prince upon whom centred and with whom
perished the expectations! of a Royal House; and the
mind, though attracted first to the scene by the simple
pathos of its circumstances, glances almost involun-
tarily from the widowed mother praying by the deso-
late death-place of an only son to the Empress grieving
for the lost hope of a nation. It is only natural, then,
that in this two-fold sympathy, with human nature
so keenly wrung, and with regal aspirations so cruelly
wrecked, all the incidents of that episode, histo-
rically momentous and intrinsically tragic, should
pass in mental review. A glamour of romance as sad
as picturesque, will for ever lie upon the story of the
death in Zululand of the Prince Imperial. Indeed, no in-
cident of it, from that bright morning when he rode away
to his death from the British camp to the touching act
of the Empress in placing on the spot where he fell
the violet wreaths and crosses which she had brought
with her from England and from France—can ever
lose its freshness or its pathos. To-day, indeed, the
story assumes a vivid interest from the fact that the
loving pilgrimage has been safely accomplished, and
that yesterday, the anniversary of the Prince's death,
the Royal lady would have arrived at the donga by
the Ityotosi river, where the Prince drew his last
breath, and on the cross that marks the fatal spot
placed the floral emblems of a mother's sorrow and of
a dynasty that has passed away. . . . In the future,
however, there will be strange growths of beauty in
that desolate place, for the violet and the rose are
already planted, and many another favourite of our
gardens is sure to follow. The scene of massacre
under the Isandhlawana bluff is this year a waving
field of English oats, and the donga where the Zulus
assegaied the French Prince a bank of violets