ord Clarendon had the honour of an Audience of the King on Sunday.
His Majesty was most friendly and kind, but evidently unwell and
irritable. Lord Clarendon therefore thought that it would be neither
prudent nor useful to say the many things that the Queen had wished
that the King should hear from Lord Clarendon. He touched upon the
subject of Constitutional Government, and His Majesty said: "I have
sworn to maintain our Institutions, and I declare to you, and I wish
you to inform your Government, that I will maintain them."

Lord Clarendon proposes to remain Friday at Brussels, and hopes to
have the honour of seeing the King.

[Pageheading: DEATH OF KING OF PORTUGAL]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _12th November 1861_.

MY BELOVED UNCLE,--I hardly know _how_ to _write_, for my head reels
and swims, and my heart is very sore![51] _What_ an awful misfortune
this is! How the hand of death seems bent on pursuing that poor,
dear family! once so prosperous. Poor Ferdinand so proud of his
children--of his five sons--now the eldest and _most_ distinguished,
the head of the family, _gone_, and also another of fifteen, and the
youngest _still_ ill! The two others at sea, and will land to-morrow
in utter ignorance of everything, and poor, dear, good Louis (whom I
thought dreadfully low when we saw him and Jean for an hour on Friday)
King! It is an almost incredible event! a terrible calamity for
Portugal, and a _real_ European loss! Dear Pedro was so good, so
clever, so distinguished! He was so attached to my beloved Albert, and
the characters and tastes suited so well, and he had such confidence
in Albert! _All, all gone!_ _He_ is happy now, united again to dear
Stephanie,[52] whose loss he never recovered.... Ever your devoted
Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 51: King Pedro of Portugal died of typhoid fever on
the 11th of November; his brother Ferdinand had died on the
6th; and Prince John, Duke of Beja, succumbed in the following
December.]

[Footnote 52: The young Queen Stephanie of Portugal had died
in 1859.]

[Pageheading: THE AFFAIR OF THE _TRENT_]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _13th November 1861_.

... Viscount Palmerston met yesterday at dinner at Baron Brunnow's
the Grand Duke Constantine and the Grand Duchess, and they were
overflowing with thankfulness for the kind and gracious reception they
had met