waiting for me to take the seals off his property. A will in which he has left me everything has been found, but where or what may this everything be? This is as yet unknown, and there is some fear that there may be more debts than property, which fact would prevent me from beginning the charitable foundations which I promised to take in hand after his death. I shall find a very obvious void at Rochecotte, and shall miss that gentle look which clung so affectionately to me. And then how sad are the details of his death!

Rochecotte, May 10, 1836.—No interesting news can be expected from me in this retired corner of the world, where I can boast only of peace and silence and of solitude—three excellent things which I appreciate the more as I have left, in the words of the "Imitation," "the tumultuous commerce of men, which arouses vanity even in the simple-minded, and eventually enslaves the soul."