"What terrible news! Though yesterday we awaited your telegram not without anxiety, still we were reassured towards evening. As long as I live I shall not forget to-day's awakening--I opened the telegram without agitation--speechless, and with the keenest heartache, I read it again and again. For a long time I could not believe in the possibility of the destruction of your domestic happiness. God's ways are inscrutable! He has for only too short a time entrusted to you a being whom He loved so much that he could not but recall her to Him. These lines are not meant to console you, for at such moments there can be no consolation: they are only to remind us all that we must humbly submit, come what may!" _To_ PRINCE CHARLES ANTHONY, _May 5th_. "We established ourselves here (Cotroceni) yesterday, and we hope to find more peace and a little consolation for our sorrowing hearts, since we shall now be close to the resting-place of our loved child. The palace in the capital seemed so empty and melancholy to us that we awaited with impatience the day when we could leave it. But we shall feel our loss bitterly even here. Our daily walk is to her grave, where we sit and talk over the legacy of rich and manifold memories left us by our dear child. The whole country mourns for little Marie; this you know, and will have seen from our newspapers; many expressions of sympathy have also reached us from abroad. The German Emperor wrote me a very kind letter in which he shows his true kindness of heart. I also received a letter from the King of Italy, and Elisabeth one from the Queen of England, which was couched in very warm and affectionate terms. The Empress Eugénie also telegraphed her sympathy with me. "... Elisabeth's nerves are so shaken that the greatest care is necessary. I must confess to you that I am often anxious myself, and am much depressed by pain, sorrow, and apprehension. I get but very little sleep at night, and have repeatedly heard my poor Elisabeth cry out in her dreams: 'Dead, dead!' This cry of pain is each time a fresh stab in my wounded heart!" * * * * * Whilst Princess Elisabeth sought to conquer her grief by distraction in translating Roumanian legends and fairy tales, Prince Charles's time was claimed by affairs of State. Great Britain, in pursuit of its Turkophile policy, wished to accredit its new agent, Mr. Vivian, with a letter in which mention was made of the "good relations which exist between England and the Sublime Porte and the territory governed by your Highness." The Roumanian Government declined to receive this communication, but the incident was eventually settled by an exchange of Notes between the English Consul-General and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Vivian had a private audience on May 4 with the Prince, who expressed his opinion very plainly on the Oriental policy of England. _To_ PRINCE CHARLES ANTHONY, _May 26th, 1874_.