us expressed himself on this matter in a Letter to
Christophine of 9th May. "The last Letter of my dear good Mother has
deeply affected me. Ah, how much has this good Mother already
undergone; and with what patience and courage has she borne it! How
touching is it that she opened her heart to me; and what woe was mine
that I cannot immediately comfort and soothe her! Hadst thou not gone,
I could not have stayed here. The situation of our dear ones was
horrible; so solitary, without help from loving friends, and as if
forsaken by their two children, living far away! I dare not think of
it. What did not our good Mother do for _her_ Parents; and how greatly
has she deserved the like from us! Thou wilt comfort her, dear Sister;
and me thou wilt find heartily ready for all that thou canst propose
to me. Salute our dear Parents in the tenderest way, and tell them
that their Son feels their sorrows."

'The excellent Christophine did her utmost in these days of sorrow.
She comforted her Mother, and faithfully nursed her Father to his last
breath; nay she saved him and the house, with great presence of mind,
on a sudden inburst of French soldiers. Nor did she return to
Meiningen till all tumult of affairs was past, and the Mother was
again a little composed. And composure the Mother truly needed; for in
a short space she had seen a hopeful Daughter and a faithful Husband
laid in their graves; and by the death of her Husband a union severed
which, originating in mutual affection, had for forty-seven years been
blessed with the same mutual feeling. To all which in her position was
now added the doubly-pressing care about her future days. Here,
however, the Son so dear to her interposed with loving readiness, and
the tender manner natural to him:

"You, dear Mother," he writes, "must now choose wholly for yourself
what your way of life is to be; and let there be, I charge you, no
care about me or others in your choice. Ask yourself where you would
like best to live,--here with me, or with Christophine, or in our
native country with Luise. Whithersoever your choice falls, there will
we provide the means. For the present, of course, in the circumstances
given, you would remain in Wuertemberg a little while; and in that time
all would be arranged. I think you might pass the winter months most
easily at Leonberg" (pleasant Village nearest to Solituede); "and then
with the Spring you would come with Luise to Meiningen; where,
however,