Believe me always, my dearest Uncle, your most affectionate and dutiful Niece, VICTORIA.
[Footnote 19: Marie de Rabutin Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne, born 1626.

At twenty-four she was left a widow, and devoted herself to her children's education.

When her daughter married the Count de Grignan, she began that correspondence with her on which her reputation chiefly rests.

She died in 1696, and the letters were first published in 1726.] [Pageheading: THE PRINCESS'S CONFIRMATION] [Pageheading: HONESTY AND SINCERITY] _The King of the Belgians to the Princess Victoria._ CAMP OF BEVERLOO (in the North of the Province of Limburg), _3rd August 1835._ MY DEAR LOVE,--By your Mother's letter of the 31st ult^o., I learned of the serious and important action in your young life[20] which has passed recently, and I cannot let it pass without saying some words on the subject.

I am perhaps rather strangely situated for a preaching--somewhat in the style of those old camp preachers who held forth to many thousand people on some heath in Scotland.