Take him in your arms for me, as well as our dear little Jeanne.
Oh, my precious children! . . . Draw from them your invincible courage.
I embrace you with all the forces of my being, as I love you.
Alfred.
Embrace your dear parents, all the family for me; my health is good.
I received from you at the beginning of the month a dozen packages of provisions and some cardigans. I thank you for your touching care for me. I have not yet received any of the reviews and the books you announced in your letters of September, December, and January; not one of them has yet arrived at Cayenne. Please send the things so that they may come by parcels post. Either address them to me directly, care of the Director of the Penitentiary Service at Cayenne, or else have them addressed to me from the Ministry, at your own expense.
26 March, 1896, evening.
Dear Lucie:
Before sending you the letter that I had written, I reread, perhaps for the hundredth time, your dear letters, for you can imagine what my long days and nights are like, when, my arms crossed, I am alone with my thoughts, without anything to read, sustaining myself only by the force of duty, so that I may uphold you so that I may see, at last, the day when our honor is given
