More good big kisses for you and for Jeanne. Your
Papa.
27 May, 1895.
My dear Lucie:
I profit by each mail to Cayenne to write to you, because I want to give you news of me as often as possible. During the month I wrote you a long letter. I sent it on the 18th.
Although I have not heard from you since my departure—all the letters having been dated earlier than our last interview—I am hoping that by the time that you receive this letter the denouement of our tragic story will be at hand.
However that may be, I cry to you always with all the strength of my soul: Courage and perseverance!
My nerves often get the better of me, but my moral energy remains unshaken; it is to-day greater than ever.
Let us, then, arm our hearts against every feeling of anxiety or grief; let us conquer our sufferings and our miseries, so that we may see nothing before us but the supreme object—our honor, the honor of our children! Everything should be effaced by that.