Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians

Osborne, 9th April 1861.

My dearly beloved Uncle,—Your dear, sad letter of the 5th found a warm response in my poor heart, and I thank you with all my heart for it. I am now most anxiously waiting for an answer to my letter asking you to come to us now. You would, I think, find it soothing, and it would painfully interest you to look over her letters and papers, which make me live in times I heard her talk of when I was a child. It is touching to find how she treasured up every little flower, every bit of hair. I found some of dear Princess Charlotte's, and touching relics of my poor Father, in a little writing-desk of his I had never seen, with his last letters to her, and her notes after his death written in a little book, expressing such longing to be reunited to him! Now she is! And what a comfort it is to think how many very dear ones are gone on before her whom she will find! All these notes show how very, very much she and my beloved Father loved each other. Such love and affection! I hardly knew it was to that extent. Then her love for me—it is too touching! I have found little books with the accounts of my babyhood, and they show such unbounded tenderness! Oh! I am so wretched to think how, for a time, two people most wickedly estranged us!... To miss a mother's friendship—not to be able to have her to confide in—when a girl most needs it, was fearful! I dare not think of it—it drives me wild now! But thank God! that is all passed long, long ago, and she had forgotten it, and only thought of the last very happy years.

And all that was brought by my good angel, dearest Albert, whom she adored, and in whom she had such unbounded confidence....

On Sunday our dear little Beatrice was four years old. It upset me much, for she was the idol of that beloved Grandmamma, and the child so fond of her. She continually speaks of her—how she "is in Heaven," but hopes she will return! She is a most darling, engaging child.... Ever your devoted Niece,

Victoria R.