r, which had such magical influence that they
inundated me with joy by transporting me into the inmost circle of your
hearts.

"You, my tender father, you write to me on the sixty-seventh anniversary
of your birth, and you bless me by the outpouring of your most tender
love.

"You, my well-beloved mother, you deign to promise the continuance
of your maternal affection, in which I have at all times constantly
believed; and thus I have received the blessings of both of you, which,
in my present position, will exercise a more beneficent influence
upon me than any of the things that all the kings of the earth, united
together, could grant me. Yes, you strengthen me abundantly by your
blessed love, and I render thanks to you, my beloved 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, d