“Hardly arrived there, I wished to see once more the terrace by the sea, of which my recollection was so vivid. I went down and sat there but, in changing my seat, again I fell on my face. Two passers-by lifted me with great difficulty and took me to the Hotel des Etrangers, where I was staying, which was close by. I was put to bed and there I stayed, without a doctor, seeing no one but the servants for a week.
“Feeling a little better after my week’s seclusion and damaged as I was, I took the train back to Paris.
“My mother-in-law and servant exclaimed with horror on seeing me; but now I have had a doctor and he has treated me so cleverly that, after more than a month of it, I can barely walk, holding on to the furniture.
“My nose is nearly all right outside.
“Would you kindly find out why my score of the Trojans has not been returned. I suppose the copying is finished and that it is no longer needed.
“I can write no more ... if I wait till I am better it may be a long while.... Do write to me. It will be a real charity.”
To Auguste Morel.
“Paris, 26th May 1868.—I have been greatly tried and find it still hard to write. My two falls, one at Monaco, the other at Nice, have taken all my strength.
“The traces are almost gone now, but my old trouble has come back and I suffer more than ever.
“I wish I could have seen you and Lecourt when I was near Marseilles; I should have gone round that way had I not been in such a sad state.