“The blow has fallen at last, and I am desolate. My poor darling was taken from me at two this morning, without suffering. It seems to me as if years had gone over since she smiled her last good-bye to me. All the happiness of my life has gone, and all the support. God’s greatest mercy would be to take me from a life of daily looking back, which is all that remains to me now. “You are, I feel, a true friend who will feel for my great sorrow, and I write this as to one who will pity me.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Trieste, _May_ 28, 1870. “Though I cannot read your note by any other light than an affectionate desire to be of service to _me_, veiled under the notion that I could be of any use to _you_; and though I say I see all this, and see besides how little capable I now am of even a weak effort, I accept your offer and write at once for leave of absence, which, between ourselves, I do not think would be accorded me if it was guessed that I intended to visit Greece. Indeed I _know_ that Mr Gladstone’s Hellenism is calculated on at Athens to sustain the Greek government through anything that the public opinion of Europe would be likely to submit to.* * Mr Blackwood proposed that Lever should pay a visit to Greece, for the purpose of making investigations about an act of brigandage which had shocked the civilised world. A party of English tourists, which included Lord and Lady Muncaster, had been seized by brigands at Oropos, near Marathon. During the course of the negotiations for the ransom of the tourists, some members of the British Legation at Athens had been murdered. Many influential Greeks were conniving at the act of brigandage, and matters were at this time in a very disturbed condition in high quarters.--E. D. “Erskine is an old friend of mine, but he is a very self-contained and reserved fellow, who will reveal nothing, and I would be glad of some Greek introductions to any persons not officially bound to sustain the Queen’s Cabinet. My wish would be to take the Constantinople boat that leaves on Saturday next, the 4th, and reaches Athens on Thursday following, 9th; but if my leave is not accorded me by telegraph I cannot do this, and there is only _one_ boat in the week. I have to-day seen a private telegram from M. W------, the Greek Minister to the Austrian government here, saying that he is on the track of this most infamous outrage, and that if his suspicion prove true, some men of political eminence will have to fly from Greece for ever. “I cannot thank you enough for your kind and affectionate remembrance of me: it is very dear to me such friendship in this dark hour of my life. There is something gone wrong with the action of my heart, and I have short moments when it seems disposed to give in,--and indeed I don’t wonder at it.