m weakness, not disease,
and died at three o'clock on Thursday. It is a dreadful blow to _him_,
for he was _so_ attached to her, and I don't believe two people ever
were happier together. I send you his pretty letter to me, which I
think you may be interested to see; he is _dreadfully_ beat down by
it, but struggles manfully against his grief, which makes one pity him
more. She has left four children by her first husband, _now orphans_,
the eldest a sweet girl twelve years old, and two little girls by Lord
John; the eldest of these two is two and a half, and the youngest a
_fortnight_. I had known her _very_ well and liked her, and I assure
you I was dreadfully shocked at it. You may also imagine what a loss
she is to poor Miss Lister, who has no mother, and whose only sister
she was. I fear, dear Uncle, I have made a sad and melancholy letter
of this, but I have been so much engrossed by all this misery, and
knowing you take an interest in poor Lord John, that I let my pen run
on almost involuntarily.

We have very good accounts of the Queen-Dowager from Gibraltar.

Please return me Lord John's letter when you have done with it.

Lord and Lady Howard[30] have been here, and I urged him to _bear_
Dietz as an inevitable evil, and I think he seems very anxious to do
what is right. I have likewise written to Ferdinand, urging _him_ and
Dietz to be reasonable.

Will you tell Aunt Louise that she will receive a box containing the
Limerick lace dress (just like mine), which I lay at her feet. I
fear, dear Uncle, you will think I'm making you my commissioner _de
toilette_, as in these two letters I have plagued you with commissions
on that subject....

[Footnote 29: Daughter of Mr Thomas Lister. She had been widow
of the second Lord Ribblesdale, and married Lord John Russell
in April 1835.]

[Footnote 30: Charles Augustus, sixth Lord Howard de Walden,
was the British Minister at Lisbon, and afterwards (1846-1868)
at Brussels.]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _9th November 1838._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--Your kind and interesting letter of the
6th reached me yesterday morning. I hail in you those simple and
unaffected feelings which it contains. May you _always_ preserve that
great warmth and truth of character which you now possess, and rest
assured that it will be an ornament to you, and the means of finding
the same truth and warmth of feeling in others. Those w