"POTSDAM, _July 27th, 1879_. "Your kind and sympathetic letter, no less than Elisabeth's deeply touching verses, were very welcome to my poor wife and myself. You both feel with and for us, for God decreed a like trouble for you, and even though your fate was much harder, still we all have to bear the heavy destiny of surviving our children. "We endeavour to bear God's decree with resignation, but we cannot even now become reconciled to the loss of another son from the happy circle of our family, a son, too, who justified our highest hopes, and already displayed character at an early age. It is so difficult to accustom ourselves to everyday life without our most dearly loved child, for every step reminds us that he will never appear again, and that we must learn to live without our companion. "... Our life, which, moreover, has never been a tranquil one, had already become gloomy by the moving incidents of last year; with this sorrow it has lost what remaining joy it still had to offer us, and we can only gather satisfaction from the execution of our tasks and duties. "You very rightly lay stress upon the fact that such grief causes us more than ever to sympathise with others in their sorrow and to seek their society. Many other things are first apparent to us in our time of mourning, and it is certainly through the medium of this chastening that we are to be prepared for a higher calling, which appears dark and mysterious to dwellers on earth. It is not for us to inquire 'Why?' and yet we do so; we are but human beings, to whom the work of Divine justice is hidden here, but will be made clear to us _there_." The chivalrous Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who had been elected Prince of Bulgaria, experienced the greatest difficulties in taking over the reins of government, as the following letter shows: "I am now passing through the same stage as you did last year: devoted with my whole heart to the Czar Alexander, I am anxious to do nothing that can be called anti-Russian. Unfortunately the Russian officials have acted with the utmost want of tact; confusion prevails in every office, and peculation, thanks to Dondukow's decrees, is all but sanctioned. I am daily confronted with the painful alternative of having to decide either to assent to the Russian demands or to be accused in Russia of ingratitude and of 'injuring the most sacred feelings of the Bulgarians.' My situation is truly terrible; I reject everything opposed to my conscience, and therefore have to write daily to the Czar in order to obtain a hearing before the calumnies of the Russian officials shall have had time to reach him. I will tell you everything shortly on the occasion of my visit." _From_ ALEXANDER PRINCE OF BULGARIA, _August 22nd, 1879_.