It was during these dark days that he poured out his innermost thoughts to his truest friend, his father: "When once this enormous difficulty has been surmounted I shall be able to say that I have stood the ordeal of fire; then the cruel sport will be finished; then you will find me some spot where I can rest my weary head--some quiet remote corner where one can entirely forget oneself for a time. Switzerland would be the most welcome to me; there we might blot out the hard separation of five years in your company, my dearest parents. But for the present these are but pious wishes, since I cannot to-day fix the moment of their fulfilment: may it not be long in coming!" The Chamber found worthy representatives--the chief instigators of the recent insurrection--to convey the scandalously worded address to the ruler who had never a thought save for the welfare and prosperity of his country. In reply to that passage of the Speech from the Throne referring to the Plojeschti sedition--"A free government, that is, one which is always in agitation, cannot maintain itself without laws _capable de correction_"--the Chamber declared that "the best means to prevent such occurrences in the future would be compliance with the wishes of the people and respect for the law!" Prince Charles informed his Ministers that he could not accept an address couched in such terms, but eventually gave way to their prayers and entreaties that he would not offer the Opposition such an opportunity for attacking the dynasty. The ill-considered action of passionate and reckless Deputies, they urged, would only gain an importance which it otherwise would have lacked, from the fact of the Prince refusing to acknowledge it. A most interesting document, dated December 22, 1870, the publication of which at a later period had so far-reaching an effect on the Roumanian nation, contains the reasons which led Prince Charles to confess himself beaten. "Nearly five years have now passed since I formed the bold resolution of placing myself at the head of this country, so richly endowed by Mother Nature, and yet, in other respects, so poor. On reviewing this period, so short in the life of a nation, so long in the existence of a man, I must confess that I have not been able to be of much use to this beautiful country. I often ask myself the question, 'At whose door does the fault lie--at mine, in being ignorant of the character of this nation, or at that of the nation, which will neither allow itself to be guided nor understand how to guide itself?'