ing, and relieve
her really excellent servants from all responsibility and anxiety, is
like a sacrilege, and I feel as if my heart was being torn asunder! So
many recollections of my childhood are brought back to me, and these
dumb souvenirs which she wore and used, and which so painfully survive
_what_ we so _dearly_ and _passionately_ loved, touch chords in one's
heart and soul, which are _most_ painful and yet pleasing too. We have
found many most interesting and valuable letters--the existence of
which I was not aware of--and which, I _think_, must have come back
with poor Papa's letters, viz. letters from _my_ poor father asking
for dearest Mamma's hand--and sending a letter from you, encouraging
him to ask her. And many others--very precious letters--from dear
Grandmamma; Albert has also found at Clarence House, where he went
to-day, many of dear Grandpapa's.[10] ...

Frogmore we mean to keep just as dear Mamma left it--and keep it
cheerful and pretty as it still is. I go there constantly; I feel so
accustomed to go down the hill, and _so_ attracted to it, for I fancy
_she_ must be there.

Was poor dear Grandpapa's death-bed such a sad one? You speak of its
distressing impressions.[11] ...

She watches _over us now_, you may be sure! Ever your devoted,
sorrowing Child and Niece,

VICTORIA R.

Albert is so kind, and does all with such tenderness and feeling.
Vicky goes on Tuesday, and we on Wednesday, to Osborne, where I think
the air and quiet will do me good.

[Footnote 10: Duke Francis Frederick of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,
and Duchess Augusta Caroline Sophia, the parents of the
Duchess of Kent and King Leopold.]

[Footnote 11: In a recent letter King Leopold had said that he
was not quite sixteen years old when his father died (1806),
and the elder son, Ernest, being alarmingly ill at Koenigsberg,
he was himself called upon to be the support of his mother.
"The recollections of that death-bed," he adds, "are fresh in
my memory, as if it had been yesterday. I thank God that your
recollections of that terrible moment are so peaceful,
and that you may preserve an impression ... without any
distressing addition."]

[Pageheading: FATHERLY ADVICE]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _1st April 1861_.

MY BELOVED VICTORIA,--Your dear letter of the 30th _moved me very
much_. I can see everything, and it makes me shed tears of the
s