"The Queen was moved to tears on reading Mr Martin's beautiful and too kind letter. Indeed it is not possible for her to say _how_ touched she is by the kindness of _every one_. People are far too kind. What has she done to be so loved and liked? She did suffer acutely last year, she will not deny, and it made her ill; but the sore feeling has vanished entirely, and the very thought of it has lost its sting.... Mr Martin must keep very quiet to-night, and be very good, and _do_ what Mrs Martin and the doctor tell him." Three days later the Queen wrote to me again on the same subject. Her Majesty had the special virtue of dating all her letters and notes, however slight--a grace her subjects too little cultivate. "OSBORNE, _Jan. 19, 1868_. "The Queen would have liked to go to Mr Martin, but ever since she came in, at a quarter past five, she has done nothing but read the reviews in the newspapers. She is very much moved--deeply so--but not uplifted or 'puffed up' by so much kindness, so much praise. She sends one [review] that is very gratifying, which Mr Martin has _probably_ not seen. Pray, let the Queen have it back after dinner. "Two things there are in some of the reviews which the Queen wishes Mr Martin could find means to get rectified and explained: 1. That the Queen wrote _The Early Years_.[3] Pray, have that contradicted. 2. That it is the Queen's _sorrow_ that keeps her secluded to a certain extent. Now, it is her _overwhelming work_ and her health, which is greatly shaken by her sorrow, and the totally overwhelming amount of work and responsibility--work which she feels really wears her out. Alice Helps was wonder-struck at the Queen's room; and if Mrs Martin will look at it, she can tell Mr Martin what surrounds her. From the hour she gets out of bed till she gets into it again there is work, work, work--letter-boxes, questions, &c., which are dreadfully exhausting--and if she had not comparative rest and quiet in the evening, she would most likely _not be alive_. Her brain is constantly overtaxed. Could this truth not be openly put before people? So much has been told them, they should know this very important fact, for _some_ day she may _quite_ break down." It was not till a subsequent visit that I had an opportunity of seeing, in Her Majesty's working-room, the huge piles of despatch-boxes arriving daily from every department of the Government, by which she was surrounded. But Mrs Martin saw them during this visit, and this is what she wrote of them to a friend: "Her Majesty took me into her own room one morning to show me the piles of despatch-boxes, all of them full of work for her, and all requiring immediate attention; and this goes on from day to day. It is the Queen's great aim to follow the Prince's plan, which was to _sign nothing_ until he had read and made notes upon what he signed. You may imagine how such conscientiousness swallows up the Royal leisure."