Victoria R.
Albert is so kind, and does all with such tenderness and feeling. Vicky goes on Tuesday, and we on Wednesday, to Osborne, where I think the air and quiet will do me good.
Footnote 10: Duke Francis Frederick of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Duchess Augusta Caroline Sophia, the parents of the Duchess of Kent and King Leopold.
Footnote 11: In a recent letter King Leopold had said that he was not quite sixteen years old when his father died (1806), and the elder son, Ernest, being alarmingly ill at Königsberg, he was himself called upon to be the support of his mother. "The recollections of that death-bed," he adds, "are fresh in my memory, as if it had been yesterday. I thank God that your recollections of that terrible moment are so peaceful, and that you may preserve an impression ... without any distressing addition."
The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
FATHERLY ADVICE
Laeken, 1st April 1861.
My beloved Victoria,—Your dear letter of the 30th moved me very much. I can see everything, and it makes me shed tears of the sincerest sorrow.
The bereavement, the impossibility, they are what one feels most deeply and painfully, that nothing will bring back the beloved object, that there is a rupture with everything earthly that nothing can remedy. Your good, dear Mamma was without ostentation, sincerely religious, a great blessing, and the only solid support we can find. Happy those whose faith cannot be shaken; they can bear the hardships of earthly life with fortitude.