"These are hours in which, in spite of all Christian principles, one still asks: why need it have been? And certainly it is hard to say: 'Thy will be done!' "I wrote this text on the tomb of my son Sigismund, your god-child, because I know of no other consolation: and yet I cannot conquer that pain to-day, though many years have already passed, and though God has given me a large family. Time does certainly blunt the keenest edge of a parent's anguish, but it does not remove the burden, which remains a companion for life.... "Your grief is also ours, and you are both the object of our anxiety and our prayers; for that my wife is at one with me in these thoughts of sympathy you know as well as that these lines are for poor Elisabeth no less than for you. God be with you, and be merciful to you!" * * * * * In the following letter, addressed to the President of the Ministry, Prince Charles endeavoured to thank his people for their sympathy. "The Almighty has summoned our only and dearly loved child from this world of trouble. "If a proof of my country's devotion had been needed, it could not have been shown in a more affecting manner than in these days of sorrow, when the sense of the sincere sympathy of all has been our chief consolation in distress. "And so I desire to assure my country that just as it has supported me by its affection in the hardest moment of my life, so I shall endeavour to repay in good measure the kindness which it has manifested towards me. "The sweetest memory which our lost daughter has left us as an inestimable treasure is her boundless love for the country in which she was born, a love so strong that despite her tender age she felt the pangs of home sickness during her first stay abroad. "Our child's faith and the language which she spoke have assumed a new sanctity in our eyes, for every Roumanian word will from henceforth be to us the echo of that voice which we shall never again hear on earth. "Though the dearest and most intimate bond of our family circle has been severed, a still stronger tie unites us now with our greater family, the Roumanian nation, which joins with us in mourning the loss of our and their child. "It is a sacred duty with the Princess and myself to express to one and all, from the depth of our sorely tried hearts, our cordial gratitude, together with the hope that all will unite with us in prayer that the Almighty may grant us strength and patience in the trial which He, the Father of All, has in His inscrutable wisdom sent to us." _From_ PRINCE CHARLES ANTHONY, _April 15th, 1874_.