and increase it. And I think he deserves something from you for the great protection which he has shewn me, and he continues to defend and protect me with so remarkable a show of good will that I find myself engaged by new obligations not to fail in anything which I perceive to be due. And I am happy, except that I have had no opportunity of procuring news of you. … I have everything that can give me complete satisfaction in this life, nor do I now wish to think I have reason to complain. If the love of a sister who nursed you in her arms really exists, there must always be something to say, since there is nothing she cares more for than to hear of her kindred, and this love is so delicate that it concerns itself with the smallest trifles. … The Savoy Resident here informed us on behalf of Madame Royal that the Duke, after he ceases to be a minor, will ratify the new treaty, of which we think highly. The King I hope will be———(obliterated) to your great joy and mine, and to the great welfare of this kingdom, towards which I bear much good will. Adieu.
Your sister, who loves you with all her heart.[1]
Much of this letter is obliterated, but an old endorsement on it notes that in it Catherine complains that her brother's wife shows favour to her enemies. This must be taken on trust, in the present state of the document, but it is proof of Catherine's magnanimity and generous heart, that she can write so kindly of the English people soon after they had been conspiring to send her to her death.
In the days that followed, Charles and Catherine were constantly together, in public and in private. He was engaged in his great scheme of converting the old castle at Winchester into part of a palace that should rival Versailles, and he contemplated pulling down a large slice of the beautiful old houses in the city, to make a splendid avenue from the palace to
- ↑ Egerton, i, 534, Letter i.
