you, to cry to all, "Lift up your heart! be strong in your determination!"
I wish with all my heart, for both our sakes, for all of us, to learn that this suffering is to have an end.
Embrace our children for me, and for yourself the fondest kisses of your devoted
Alfred.
Embrace your parents, all our family, for me.
24 August, 1896.
Dear Lucie:
I replied at the beginning of the month in a few lines only to your dear letters of May and June. The impression they made upon me after I had waited so long for them was such that I could not write at length. I read and re-read them each day, and it seems to me that thus for a few moments I am near you, that I feel the beating of your heart close to mine; and when I look at this bit of paper on which I write to you, I wish that I could put in it all my soul, all my heart contains for you, for our children, for you all; I wish that I might imprint upon it all the ardor of my soul, all my courage, all my determination.
Believe, dear Lucie, that I have never had a moment of discouragement as to the end to be attained. But yet what impatience devours me to see the end of our atrocious torture!
There are for those who have hearts sorrows so bitter that the pen is powerless to express them. And this grief, equally poignant for us all, I hide it in my breast day and night, and not one complaint escapes from my
