313 



the excellent * * : they were uncivil enough here not 

 to give me a syllable, to say that my request had been 

 complied with. As you and your gifted niece, 

 Miss Ludmilla, love " Curiosa," and in my patri- 

 archal age all shame of self-praise has long since 

 disappeared, I communicate to you a letter from 

 Queen Victoria, who through the Princess of Prussia 

 had asked me for a few passages, in my own hand- 

 writing, from the " Aspects of Nature" and from 

 "Kosmos," (a poetical description of nature): an- 

 other letter from the American Minister of War, who 

 has been obliging to me in behalf of the traveller 

 Mollhausen, the son-in-law of my Seiffert, for whom 

 he procured the appointment as draughtsman in the 

 two expeditions to the coast of the Pacific, and who, 

 mirdbile dictu, has put aside all political grudge 

 against me on account of my friendship with Fre- 

 mont. The last letter, morally speaking, gives me 

 more enjoyment, although immeasurably exag- 

 gerated with its big epithets. 



It is also, alas ! true that nothing has as yet been 

 finally decided regarding the Regency, necessary 

 as such a settlement has become for the completely 

 wasted honour of the country. May the Prince of 

 Prussia keep what he has till now promised : that 

 under no other condition than with the express 

 title of Regent, would he continue to act ; but how 

 to take the initiative, considering the seclusion of the 

 King, whom I myself have not been allowed to see 

 since his return ? To leave the initiative with the 

 Chambers would be acting hastily, and in a spirit of 

 ignoble fear. Aleajacta^ and the sum of intelligence 



