"How happy it will make him to see that you have had one thought of him!" "As to the asylum for the orphans and young girls abandoned by their parents, I should wish, my dear father, that--" Here Rodolph's letter was broken off by these words, almost illegible: "Clemence, Murphy will conclude this letter! I am lost,--bereft of sense! Ah, the thirteenth of January!" At the end of this letter Murphy had written as follows: _Madame_:--By the order of his royal highness I complete this sorrowful recital. The two letters of monseigneur will have prepared your royal highness for the overwhelming news I have to communicate. Three hours since, whilst monseigneur was writing to your royal highness, I was waiting in the antechamber for a letter to be despatched by a courier, when suddenly I saw the Princess Juliana enter in the greatest consternation. "Where is his royal highness?" she said to me, in an agitated voice. "Writing to the grand duchess," I replied. "Sir Walter," she said, "you must inform monseigneur of a terrible event. You are his friend,--you should tell him; from you the blow may be less terrible!" I understood all, and thought it most prudent to charge myself with the distressing intelligence. The superior having added that the Princess Amelie was sinking gradually, and that monseigneur must hasten to receive his daughter's last sigh, I went into the duke's room, who saw how pale I was. "You have some bad news for me?" "Terrible, monseigneur! But courage! Courage!" "Ah, my forebodings!" he exclaimed; and, without adding a word, he ran to the cloisters. I followed him. From the apartment of the superior, the Princess Amelie had been conveyed to her cell, after her last interview with monseigneur. One of the sisters watched over her, and at the end of an hour she perceived that the Princess Amelie's voice, who spoke to her at intervals, was weaker, and more and more oppressed. The sister hastened to inform the superior, who sent for Doctor David, who administered a cordial; but it was useless, the pulse was scarcely perceptible. He saw with despair that the reiterated emotions having probably exhausted the little strength of the Princess Amelie, there was not a hope of saving her left. Monseigneur arrived at this moment. The Princess Amelie had just received the last sacrament; a slight degree of consciousness remained. In one hand, crossed over her chest, she held the remains of her little rose-tree.