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ray of hope shone on me, it has incessantly occupied 

 my mind. It has even awakened some superstition, 

 since I connected with it the circumstance of my 

 health having improved so much during the whole of 

 December, as to excite in me the liveliest hope. This 

 prospect of recovery, thought I, is granted me that I 

 may still, for some while longer, enjoy the happiness 

 which the dear picture of my honoured master is cal- 

 culated to bestow ! a prospect which I cannot pretend 

 formerly to have entertained, seeing that the expe- 

 rience of myself and others differ as often as they 

 agree ; and the result of my meditations on this mystery 

 is this, that it belongs to the innumerable mysteries 

 which lie yon side the curtain, dividing us from the 

 great secrets of our own nature and those which Nature 

 herself has placed between first causes and things per- 

 ceptible around us. True, I made allowances for 

 the rising superstition, by reflecting on the indis- 

 putable axiom, that vivid and cheering influences on 

 the mind and spirit manifest themselves through reac- 

 tion on the body. But why, then, has not the latter 

 shown itself in my case ? Be that, however, as it may, 

 this fact remains the picture of the King has ever 

 been before my eyes in sleepless nights, and every 

 morning gave me hopes that day might bring me 

 tidings of it. 



, I can well understand that the care for the welfare 

 of millions of subjects, equally dear to the heart of 

 the monarch, rules the ruler himself; that it compels 

 him to surrender to the pressure of the moment 

 the adjustment of the countless and conflicting in- 

 terests around him. I, therefore, fully comprehend 

 that the King, even if he does not forget benefits 



