ve it yet_; but if _my beloved parents_ and the remainder of
the family are at least _safe_ I won't mind the rest. In the hours of
agony we have gone through I asked God _only_ to spare _the lives_,
and I ask still _nothing else_: but we don't know them yet _all_
saved, and till I have heard of my unfortunate parents, of my unhappy
brothers far away, of all those for whom I would lay my life at any
moment and whose danger I could not even share or alleviate, I cannot
exist.

I was _sure_, my beloved Victoria, of all _you_ would _feel for us_
when you would hear of these awful events. I received yesterday your
two kind, warm, sympathising letters of the 25th and 26th, and thank
you with _all my heart_ for them, and for yours and Albert's share and
sympathy.

_Our anguish_ has been _undescribable_. We have been _thirty-six hours
without any news_, not knowing even if my parents and the family were
still alive or not, and what had been their fate. Death is not worse
than what we endured during these horrible hours. We don't know yet
what to think, what to believe, I would almost say, what to wish; we
are _stunned_ and _crushed_ by the awful blow. What has happened is
_unaccountable, incomprehensible_; it appears to us like a _fearful_
dream. Alas! I fear my dear beloved father was led away by his
_extreme courage_; by that same courage which had made his success and
a part of his strength; for it is strange to say that even those that
deplored most his resolution never to yield on certain things gave him
credit for it. The exaggeration of the system of peace and resistance,
or rather _immobility_, lost him, as that of war lost Napoleon. Had he
shunned less war _on all occasions_, and granted in time some trifling
reforms, he would have satisfied public opinion, and would probably
be still where he was _only eight days ago_, strong, beloved, and
respected! Guizot's accession has been _as fatal_ as his fall, and
is perhaps the _first cause_ of our ruin, though my father cannot be
blamed for having kept him in office, as he had the majority in the
Chamber, and an overwhelming one. _Constitutionally_, he could not
have been turned out, and it was _impossible to foresee_ that when
all was quiet, the country prosperous and happy, the laws and
liberty respected, the Government strong, a _Revolution_--and _such
a Revolution_--would be brought on by a few imprudent words, and the
resistance (lamentable as it was) to a manifestati