The portrait to which the Prince alludes in the preceding letter was a handsome painting of himself, done by Sir John Watson Gordon, and sent to Mr. Buchanan. The Prince also presented Miss Lane with a set of engravings of the Royal Family, which are now in her possession. A newspaper correspondent, after Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, wrote that the appearance of the Mansion was very much changed by the removal of the portraits, which had been presented for the White House. Mr. Buchanan could not let so grave a charge remain unanswered, and wrote to Lord Lyons, whose letter is for the first time published. “WASHINGTON, _Dec. 24th, 1861_. “SIR: I have this morning had the honor to receive your letter of the 19th of this month, requesting me to state the facts connected with a present made by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, to Miss Lane, of a set of engravings representing Her Majesty, the Queen, and other members of the Royal Family. “The Prince of Wales told me, when His Royal Highness was at Washington, that he had asked Miss Lane to accept these engravings—he said that he had not them with him there, but that he would send them, through me, from Portland. His Royal Highness accordingly sent them on shore immediately after he embarked at that place. “They were marked with Miss Lane’s name, in the handwriting of General Bruce. “In obedience to the commands I had received from the Prince, I presented them in his name, to Miss Lane. I had the honor of placing them myself in her hand. “I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, “Your most obedient humble servant and friend, “LYONS. “The Honorable “JAMES BUCHANAN, etc., etc., etc.” When the secession movement was inaugurated by South Carolina, immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln, the position of Mr. Buchanan become one of extreme delicacy and difficulty, and in its great cares as well as in its petty social annoyances, Miss Lane bore a heavy part. During those last months of his administration, when Mr. Buchanan was harassed on every side, when his patriotism was doubted, when his hands—eager to hold steady the reins of Government—were tied fast by the apathy of Congress and the indifference of the Northern people, his mind was lightened of much of its load of anxiety by the consciousness that his niece faithfully represented him in his drawing-room, and that his patriotism and good sense would never suffer by any conversational lapse of hers. He always spoke with warmth and gratitude of her admirable demeanor at this critical time. And now we see Miss Lane once more at Wheatland, sharing and enjoying the dignified retirement of her uncle.