(Undated.)
Your Majesty will perceive by this box, which I received this morning but had not time to open, that Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia,13 has been appointed Ambassador to the Coronation....
Footnote 13: Soult entered the French army in 1785, and became Marshal of France in 1804. After distinguishing himself at Austerlitz in 1805, he was made Duke of Dalmatia in 1807. Serving in the Peninsular War, he pursued Moore to Corunna, and became Commander-in-Chief in Spain in 1809. Subsequently he conducted the French retreat before Wellington in Southern France, 1813-14; was banished, but recalled and created a peer. He was Minister of War 1830-34.
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
OLD SERVANTS
Windsor Castle, 17th April 1838.
My dearest Uncle,—... You will by this time have learnt the sad loss we have all sustained in the death of dearest, faithful, excellent Louie, who breathed her last, without a struggle or a suffering, on Sunday night at nine o'clock. I don't think I have ever been so much overcome or distressed by anything, almost, as by the death of this my earliest friend; it is the first link that has been broken of my first and infantine affections. I always loved Louie, and shall cherish her memory as that of the purest and best of mortals as long as I live! I took leave of her before I left London on Wednesday, and never, never shall I forget the blessing she gave me, and the grasp she gave my hand! I was quite upset by it! And I feared and felt I should behold her on earth no more; it was, however, a beautiful lesson of calmness and contentment and resignation to the will of her God! Prepared as she was at every moment of her life to meet her heavenly Father, she was full of hope of recovery, and quite unconscious of her approaching end. You will, I am sure, dearest Uncle, feel the loss of this excellent creature; I cannot restrain my tears while writing this. One great consolation I have, which is, that I have been the means of making her last days as happy as she could wish to be, after having lost what she loved most!
... Poor Mason, our faithful coachman for so many years, is also dead. These old servants cannot be replaced; and to see those whom one has known from one's birth drop off, one by one, is melancholy! You will think this letter a very sad one, but I feel sad....
Queen Adelaide to Queen Victoria.
Marlborough House, 17th April 1838.