I wish, therefore, my good darling, that our terrible tortures may soon be ended.
I have received during the month letters from your dear parents from all our family. I have answered them.
My best kisses to all.
And for you, for our children, all the tenderness of my heart, all my love, all my thoughts, that never leave you for one single instant.
A thousand kisses more.
Alfred.
6 December, 1897.
My dear and good Lucie:
I cannot let the mail leave without writing to you, to repeat to you always, it is true, the same words.
As I have told you, for long months I have lived only by an incredible tension of the nerves, of the will; and it is when I fall under the weight of my sufferings that the thought of you, that of the children, lifts me up quivering with grief, with determination, before that which we hold most precious in this world—our honor, the honor of our children, of us all. And then I send out again the thrilling cries for help, the cries of a man who from the first day of this sad tragedy has begged for nothing but the truth.
Here, then, is a work of justice far above all passions, a duty that devolves upon all, and it must be accomplished. I wish, indeed, for both our sakes, my good darling, that it may be accomplished at last; that our terrible and too long torment may soon be ended.
