As it is eleven o'clock at night, I offer you my respects, and remain, ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Your poor Aunt fainted this morning; she is much given to this, but it was rather too long to-day.
The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
AMIABILITY OF THE PRINCE
Brussels, 4th February 1840.
My dearest Victoria,—I have now treated all the questions you wished me to touch upon with Albert, and I was much pleased with his amiable disposition. At a certain distance explanations by letter are next to impossible, and each party in the end thinks the other unreasonable. When he arrived he was rather exasperated about various things, and pretty full of grievances. But our conversations have dissipated these clouds, and now there will only remain the new parliamentary events and consequences, which change a good deal of what one could reasonably have foreseen or arranged. You will best treat these questions now verbally. Albert is quick, not obstinate, in conversation, and open to conviction if good arguments are brought forward. When he thinks himself right he only wishes to have it proved that he misunderstands the case, to give it up without ill-humour. He is not inclined to be sulky, but I think that he may be rendered a little melancholy if he thinks himself unfairly or unjustly treated, but being together and remaining together, there never can arise, I hope, any occasion for any disagreement even on trifling subjects.... Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
Brussels, 8th February 1840.