The Princes meet the public

Tears as Princes Visit Palace

After arriving in London from Balmoral, they asked to go to the Palace, which until the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992 was their family home.

On their arrival they witnessed for themselves the amazing scenes which they had been seeing on television and in newspapers, in which the historic Palace is surrounded by a sea of flowers and thousands of mourning people.

Prince Charles and his sons: Overcome with emotion

As the crowds watched them inspecting some of the countless flowers and the emotional messages left with them, many openly wept.

The princes, wearing black ties, were clearly prepared for the crowds and smiled in gratitude at the handshakes proferred as they walked slowly along.

But when they were suddenly confronted with the main ocean of colour in front of the central black and gold iron gates to the Palace, the royals themselves were clearly overcome.

They simply stood in awe at the sheer scale of this tribute to the late Princess. Prince Harry, 12, had to wipe the tears as they formed in his eyes. Prince William, 15, had damp eyes as he looked across the huge swathe of flowers that stretched across the front of the home where he grew up.

Prince Harry had to wipe away tears

The Prince of Wales gulped several times before he was able to talk to his sons, as they stood together, drawing their attention to various parts of the display.

The princes' arrival had been kept a secret to avoid attracting too much attention. Just a few representatives of the media were allowed to be present to witness the extraordinary scenes.

All week police have been manning barriers around the sea of flowers, limiting the numbers allowed close to the flowers at any one time, and supervising the long queues across the park.

Spontaneous applause broke out among the crowds as the princes walked through a side gate and began to inspect the flowers attached to, and leaning against, the ornate fence of the Palace grounds.

Within moments people were holding out the flowers they had brought, across the barriers, and the sad little family group soon found themselves carrying bouquet after bouquet from the crowd to add to the growing display.

As they continued their inspection for nearly 15 minutes, repeatedly carrying more flowers to the display, there were cries of "God bless you", and "we love you", from the crowd.

Many had tears running down their faces as they grasped the hands of the two young princes, often reaching out to pat them on the back consolingly.

"We're so sorry, so sorry", were the words on everyone's lips. The three princes looked sad but clearly heartened at the huge display of welcome they received.

Charles shook countless hands, thanking people over and over again for their thoughts.