nted, to the father of the young
wife.

ROTTERDAM, Dec. 1, 1835.

MY DEAR SIR,--I trust that my last letter to my father has in some
measure prepared your mind for the melancholy intelligence which
this will bring to you. Our beloved Mary is no more. She expired on
Sunday morning, Nov. 29, without pain or suffering, either of body
or mind, and with entire resignation to the will of her heavenly
Father. Though her sickness was long, yet I could not bring myself
to think it dangerous until near its close. Indeed, I did not
abandon all hope of her recovery till within a very few hours of her
dissolution, and to me the blow was so sudden, that I have hardly
yet recovered energy enough to write you the particulars of this
solemn and mournful event. When I think, however, upon the goodness
and purity of her life, and the holy and peaceful death she died, I
feel great consolation in my bereavement, and can say, "Father, thy
will be done."

Knowing the delicate state of Mary's health, I came all the way from
Stockholm with fear and trembling, and with the exception of one
day's ride from Kiel to Hamburg we came the whole distance by water.
Unfortunately our passage from Hamburg to Amsterdam in the Steamboat
was rather rough, and Mary was quite unwell. On the night of our
arrival the circumstance occurred to which I alluded in my last,
[the premature birth of a child] and which has had this fatal
termination.... In Amsterdam we remained three weeks; and Mary
seemed to be quite restored and was anxious to be gone. To avoid a
possibility of fatigue we took three days to come to this place--a
distance of only forty miles; and on our arrival here Mary was in
excellent spirits and to all appearances very well. But alas! the
same night she had a relapse which caused extreme debility, with a
low fever, and nervous headache. This was on the 23d October. In a
day or two she was better, and on the 27th worse again. After this
she seemed to recover slowly, and sat up for the first time on the
11th, though only for a short while. This continued for a day or two
longer, till she felt well enough to sit up for nearly an hour. And
then she was seized with a violent rheumatism, and again took to her
bed from which she never more arose.

During all this s