MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I received your very kind and long letter of the 7th on Sunday, and thank you very much for it. I am delighted that my accounts interested you, and I shall try and give you some more to-day, which you will see come from an unbiassed and impartial mind, and which I trust therefore _will_ be relied upon. The excitement has ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and I am still confused about it. I will go back to where I last left you. The _Revue_[15] on the 5th was really very interesting, and our reception as well as that of the Emperor _most_ enthusiastic. Louise tells me you had a review the same day, and that it also was so hot. Our children were there, and charmed. On the 6th we went with the Emperor and King to the races,[16] and I never saw such a crowd; again _here_ the reception was _most brilliant_. Every evening a large dinner in the Waterloo Room, and the two last evenings in uniforms, as the Emperor disliked so being _en frac_, and was quite embarrassed in it. On the 7th we took him and the King back here, and in the evening had a party of 260 about. On Saturday (8th) my Angel took the Emperor and King to a very elegant breakfast[17] at Chiswick, which I for prudence' sake did _not_ go to, but was very sorry for it. In the evening we went to the Opera (_not_ in State), but they recognised us, and we were most brilliantly received. I had to force the Emperor forward, as he never would come forward when I was there, and I was obliged to take him by the hand and make him appear; it was impossible to be better bred or more respectful than he was towards me. Well, on Sunday afternoon at five, he left us (my Angel accompanied him to Woolwich), and he was much affected at going, and really unaffectedly touched at his reception and stay, the simplicity and quietness of which told upon his love of domestic life, which is very great. I will now (having told _all_ that has passed) give you _my_ opinion and feelings on the subject, which I may say are Albert's also. I was extremely against the visit, fearing the _gene_, and bustle, and even at first, I did not feel at _all_ to like it, but by living in the same house together quietly and unrestrainedly (and this Albert, and with great truth, says is the great advantage of these visits, that I not only _see_ these great people but _know_ them), I got to know the Emperor and he to know me. There is much about him which I cannot help liking, and I think his character is _one_ which should be understood, and looked upon for _once_ as it is. He is stern and severe--with fixed principles of _duty_ which _nothing_ on earth will make him change; very _clever_ I do _not_ think him, and his mind is an uncivilised one; his education has been neglected; politics and military concerns are the only things he takes great interest in; the arts and all softer occupations he is insensible to, but he is sincere, I am certain, _sincere_ even in his most despotic acts, from a sense that