We found the children very well, and Bertie quite recovered, but poor fat Alice (who, I must say, is becoming very pretty) has had the earache.
Mamma with Feo and Ernest are with the Queen Dowager at Witley Court since Thursday last, and only return next Thursday (the day after to-morrow). Clem seems very happy, and writes that she is happiest when she is tête-à-tête with poor Gusti, which I should not fancy. Ever, dearest Uncle, your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
BETROTHAL OF THE DUC D'AUMALE
I open my letter, dearest Uncle, to say that I have just seen in a confidential despatch from Lord Cowley that Aumale is authorised to ask for the hand of the daughter of the Prince de Salerno83 (a singular coincidence after what I wrote to you in utter ignorance of this report), and that he was also to find out what the opinions of the Neapolitan Royal Family were respecting an alliance with the Queen of Spain. But tell me, dearest Uncle, if these reports are true? You may rely on my discretion, and I shall not breathe a word of what you may answer me, if you wish the secret to be kept.
Footnote 80: The Royal party went by road from Paddington to Cambridge, and stayed at the Lodge at Trinity; on the following day Prince Albert was made LL.D. The party then went to Wimpole, and visited Bourn (Lord Delawarr's). At the ball which was given at Wimpole, there was a sofa, covered with a piece of drapery given by Louis XIV. to the poet Prior and by him to Lord Oxford, the owner of Wimpole, before its purchase by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. See Lord Melbourne's letter of 7th November, post, p. [503].
Footnote 81: Louis Rellstab (1799-1860), a prolific German writer of novels, whose thinly-veiled attacks on public men earned him at one time a sentence of imprisonment.
Footnote 82: The Marquis Astolphe de Custine (1790-1857), author of La Russie en 1839, at this time recently published.
Footnote 83: The Due d'Aumale married in November 1844, Caroline, daughter of the Prince and Princess of Salerno.