The Queen's Husband (39 page)

‘What an excellent – and delightful – way of helping trade,’ cried the Queen.

Albert said that it had been effective on this occasion but a habit should not be made of that kind of entertainment because the magnificent costumes and the gaiety did in a way draw attention to the different lives led by the rich and the poor.

Albert was absolutely right of course; but she did enjoy the dancing.

Albert thought it would be an excellent idea if her birthday was spent at Claremont where they could be quiet and enjoy the country. The country no longer bored her as it used to. There was so much of interest to be learnt and Albert was teaching her to enjoy the scenery and the wildlife. She feared she had been very ignorant of these things in the past.

‘Oh, it was the way you were brought up,’ said Albert, smiling tolerantly. ‘Not your fault in the least. But that will be remedied now. It is such fun to teach you these things and I must say, my love, that you are an apt pupil.’

Poor Lehzen, all the Queen’s faults were laid at her door; all her virtues had been inherited. Victoria was so comforted by the implication that she did not examine it very closely. Even the violent temper, so to be deplored and even now feared lest it should break out, was attributed to a lack of control during her formative years.

At Claremont there was a ball for her birthday. Even Albert realised that she could not be denied that, though in time he was sure she would realise the futility of such a pastime, and they danced in the gallery.

It was such a happy birthday, shadowed a little by the memories of other birthdays when Lehzen had been so happy arranging treats. And Lord Melbourne was not present either. Times changed. She was very kind to Lehzen, but not too familiar lest she thought there was to be a return to the old ways and her hopes should be raised, which would be cruel, for more and more Victoria was seeing how right Albert was and how really there was no place for Lehzen at Buckingham Palace.

She wrote to Lord Melbourne telling him about the birthday.

‘The Queen was grieved,’ she added, ‘that Lord Melbourne could not be there.’

It was a beautiful Sunday in June and the Queen and Albert were returning to Buckingham Palace from the Chapel Royal at St James’s. Crowds lined the Mall to see them pass; the Queen was quite popular now. The people were delighted with the babies and although they would never really like Albert who was still called ‘the German’, most people agreed that the devotion of the royal couple was an example to all. There was no longer slander about the Queen and Lord Melbourne; the Flora Hastings scandal had been forgotten.

Albert, looking very handsome in uniform, sat beside her nodding to the cheers.

‘The people seem very pleased with us today,’ he said.

‘They do,’ replied Victoria, turning slightly to bow to the crowd on her right.

Albert said suddenly: ‘Victoria, did you hear that?’

She turned to him. ‘What was that?’

‘I may have been mistaken,’ went on Albert, ‘but I am sure I saw someone take aim at us and heard a trigger snap.’

‘Albert!’

‘I may have been mistaken. No one seems to have noticed anything.’

She reached for his hand and gripped it firmly. ‘Can you see anything now, Albert?’ she asked.

‘Nothing unusual. It must have been a mistake.’

‘If it was someone planning to take aim he may still be lurking in the crowds.’

‘Behave as though nothing has happened. I shall be watchful.’

They were relieved when they reached the palace.

‘It must have been a mistake,’ said the Prince.

In the afternoon Sir Robert Peel, accompanied by the head of the police, called at the palace.

‘We have some disturbing news,’ said Sir Robert to Victoria and the Prince. ‘A boy named Pearse has told the police that while he was in the crowd in the Mall he saw a man who was standing close to him lift a pistol and point it at the carriage. He did not apparently fire. The boy heard him murmur to himself that he had been a fool not to do so.’

Turning pale Victoria looked at Albert, who said: ‘I must tell you, Sir Robert, I saw this man. I mentioned it to the Queen at the time. I thought that I might have been mistaken.’

‘This is no mistake,’ replied Sir Robert, ‘and I think every precaution will have to be taken, for this man may make the attempt again.’

A long discussion followed. Victoria was very alarmed. It was not the first time she had been shot at. It was a terrifying experience even when one escaped, but at least it was unexpected and all over before one realised that it was happening. The man might decide not to act again for months. They couldn’t stay in all that time.

At length it was agreed that Victoria and Albert should take their drives as usual. The equerries, Colonel Arbuthnot and Colonel Wylde, were called in and told what had happened; they were to ride very close to the carriage and one would watch the right-hand side of the road and the other the left; the drives would be taken at a faster pace than usual.

The Queen spent a sleepless night. She was frightened, she said. ‘For Albert what if
you
were to be killed.’

Albert said that would be better than that she should, but he trusted Sir Robert’s thorough precautions; the police would be out in force and at the first sign of trouble he would put himself between the Queen and the gun.

‘But that is exactly what I fear, Albert,’ she cried.

It was a very uneasy pair who drove out the next day. The Queen carried a parasol which was lined with chain mail and the carriage was surrounded by guards; the colonels rode very close to the carriage and the pace was brisk.

The sun shone hotly as they drove towards Hampstead; there were crowds of people about but that did not add to their peace of mind. The drive was almost over and Victoria, relieved to see the trees of Green Park, said to Albert: ‘But imagine, it could go on like this for months before he decides to make his second attempt.’

They were approaching the palace – on one side of them the park, on the other the garden wall – when Albert saw the man again but not before he had fired. The shot went under the carriage; they heard the shouts of ‘Get him! Catch him!’ as the horses were whipped up and the carriages rumbled through the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Albert took the Queen’s trembling hand and with his arm about her led her inside.

Sir Robert Peel reported to the palace immediately. The man had been arrested. He was a certain John Francis, a joiner by trade and twenty-two years old. When arrested he was truculent but this attitude soon changed when he was sentenced to death.

Victoria was distressed.

‘You see, Albert,’ she explained, ‘I cannot bear that people should hate me so much that they want to kill me.’

‘He was a madman.’

‘Perhaps, but he did it and sometimes I wonder whether there will always be these people who want me dead. It makes me very uneasy. All the same I do not like to think that he is going to die because of this.’

‘He deserves it.’

‘I am going to ask that his life be spared in any case.’

‘I know well your tender heart,’ said Albert, ‘but examples have to be made.’

‘That’s true. All the same I am going to ask Sir Robert what can be done about sparing his life.’

Sir Robert pointed out that the royal prerogative of mercy could not be exercised except under the direction of government but since the Queen felt so strongly on the matter, he would have the case considered.

The result was that John Francis’s death sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

Albert said that had John Francis been hanged as he so richly deserved it would not have entered the head of John William Bean to follow his example. Bean was four feet tall, a hunchback and therefore easily identified.

Since Francis had attempted to kill her, the Queen had become very popular and whenever she drove out crowds congregated to see her pass by.

She and Albert were driving to the chapel in St James’s Palace, when the hunchback pointed the pistol at them. A boy of sixteen named Dassett, with the help of his brother, seized the hunchback and shouted to the police. Thinking the deformed Bean to be only a child and his captors not much more, the police believed the affair to be a game and told the brothers to let the little fellow go. But the Dassett boys kept Bean’s pistol and showed it to another policeman. There could be no doubt that it was a dangerous weapon and, thinking the Dassetts had been seen to fire it and were pretending to be innocent, he was about to arrest them when their uncle – who had brought them to see the Queen ride by – hurried over and by this time others said that they had seen what had happened. When powder was found to be in the pistol the Dassett boys were commended and it did not take long to identify the hunchback, who was an assistant in a chemist shop, and he was promptly arrested.

Sir Robert, who was in Cambridge, came hurrying back to London on hearing the news and presented himself at Buckingham Palace.

When the Queen entered the room his emotion was so great at the sight of her that tears came into his eyes and he could not control his voice.

So deeply affected was the Queen that the somewhat frigid and formal Sir Robert could feel so deeply about her safety, that from that moment every vestige of the dislike which she had fought so hard to overcome disappeared. It was the constant tears in Lord Melbourne’s eyes which had made her so devoted to him and now she had discovered without a doubt that Sir Robert was just as kind and
feeling
a man and none the less sincere because he was not always proclaiming his devotion.

‘My
dear
Sir Robert,’ she cried, ‘we are once more safe.’

‘Ma’am,’ replied Sir Robert brokenly, ‘I must ask you to excuse me. For the moment …’

‘Albert and I understand,’ said the Queen warmly.

Although Sir Robert recovered his habitual demeanour he could not altogether hide his emotion. The law must be tightened up, he said, or these attacks might continue. It so often happened that an offence was committted and accompanied by a great deal of publicity and then someone else would attempt it.

Sir Robert never prevaricated as Lord Melbourne had, the Queen noticed. A Bill was immediately introduced into Parliament which set out that any attempts on the life of the Sovereign would be punishable by seven years transportation or imprisonment of three years, the miscreant to be publicly or privately whipped.

Bean was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment.

This, said Sir Robert, would deter people from thinking it was an afternoon’s amusement to take a shot at the Queen, for, he was convinced, this was not a serious attempt on her life. There was unrest throughout the country over the appalling social conditions but no one could blame the charming young Queen for this.