ved parents, with that respectful
submission that my heart will always inculcate as the first duty of a
son.

"But the greater your love and the more affectionate your letters, the
more do I suffer, I must acknowledge, from the voluntary sacrifice that
we have imposed upon ourselves in not seeing one another; and the only
reason, my dear parents, why I have delayed to reply to you, was to give
myself time to recover the strength which I have lost.

"You too, dear brother-in-law and dear sister, assure me of your sincere
and uninterrupted attachment. And yet, after the fright that I have
spread among you all, you seem not to know exactly what to think of me;
but my heart, full of gratitude for your past kindness, comforts itself;
for your actions speak and tell me that, even if you wished no longer to
love me as I love you, you would not be able to do otherwise. These
actions mean more to me at this hour than any possible protestations,
nay, than even the tenderest words.

"And you also, my kind brother, you would have consented to hurry with
our beloved mother to the shores of the Rhine, to this place where the
real links of the soul were welded between us, where we were doubly
brothers; but tell me, are you not really here, in thought and in spirit,
when I consider the rich fountain of consolation brought me by your
cordial and tender letter?

"And, you, kind sister-in-law, as you showed yourself from the first, in
your delicate tenderness, a true sister, so I find you again at present.
There are still the same tender relations, still the same sisterly
affection; your consolations, which emanate from a deep and submissive
piety, have fallen refreshingly into the depths of my heart. But, dear
sister-in-law, I must tell you, as well as the others, that you are too
liberal towards me in dispensing your esteem and praises, and your
exaggeration has cast me back face to face with my inmost judge, who has
shown me in the mirror of my conscience the image of my every weakness.

"You, kind Julia, you desire nothing else but to save me from the fate
that awaits me; and you assure me in your own name and in that of you
all, that you, like the others, would rejoice to endure it in my place;
in that I recognise you fully, and I recognise, too, those sweet and
tender relations in which we have been brought up from childhood. Oh, be
comforted, dear Julia; thanks to the protection of God, I promise you:
that it will be easy