I long to live to see the day when honor shall be returned to us. I wish for this with all my strength, with all my power, with all the energy of a man who places honor above all else. May this wish soon be realized! You must do all in your power to accomplish it.
I embrace you again, with all my heart.
Your devoted
Alfred.
Kiss your dear parents and all our family for me.
27 September, 1895.
My dear Lucie:
For nearly a year I have struggled with my conscience against the most inexplicable fatality that can pursue a man.
There are times when I am so harassed, so disgusted, that I am like the soldier who, worn out by long-continued fatigue, lies down in a trench, longing to have done with life.
My soul awakes, the sense of my duty puts me on my feet again, all my being then nerves itself for a supreme effort, for I wish to find myself again with you and with my children on the day when my honor shall be returned to me.
But it is truly an agony that is renewed with every day, a punishment as horrible as it is unmerited.
If I tell you all this, if at times I have allowed you to catch a glimpse of how horrible is my life here, how this lot of infamy, whose effects continue day by day to harrow my being, to revolt my heart, it is not that I would complain; it is to tell you again that if I have
