- tion of honor there can be no consolations, but only a
goal to be struggled for so long as we can keep up to have that honor restored to us.
Then, for you, as for all of us, I can only cry from the depths of my soul, Lift up your hearts! There must be no recrimination, no complaint, nothing but the unswerving march onward to our end—the wretch or the wretches who are really guilty—and we must attain our end as soon as possible.
As I have already told you, there must not remain one single Frenchman who can doubt our honor.
Kiss our dear children with all your heart for me, and yourself a thousand kisses the most tender, the most affectionate kisses of your devoted
Alfred.
Embrace your dear parents, all our family and friends for me. In the mail which I have just received I have not found letters from any of my sisters except Henriette. I hope that these dear sisters are not sick from these terrible and continued trials.
22 May, 1896.
My dear Lucie:
Your good and most affectionate letters of March have been the dear and sweet companions of my solitude. I have read them and re-read them to recall to me my duty each time that the situation was crushing me with its weight. I have suffered with you, with you all; all the frightful anguish through which you have passed has echoed in my own.
You ask me to write to you, to come and tell you all that is in my crushed and bleeding heart whenever my
