AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM VICTORIA, DUCHESS OF KENT AND MOTHER TO QUEEN VICTORIA

addressed to Monsieur Le Comte Alphonse de Mensdorrf Pouilly, on mourning stationery, in German, reading "I send you and your dear little wife many thanks for your loving sympathy at my very deep loss that is also yours. Apologise for me to your little wife for not thanking her myself for her dear letter. I have so much to write and my eyes are badly affected. I am quite convinced that your angel father and yourself, my dear Alphonse, will be sincerely saddened by the unexpected death of the dearly beloved uncle. I am getting used only with difficulty to the draedful certainty. I am deeply saddened. Today my heart is too heavy. God has decided that one must endure it without complaining.Yesterday I received the account of his funeral. With what heartache I saw it all beofre me and could still not comprehend it, as his body was carefully lowered into the cold vault. Victoria and A. are more composed and look better. They grieve, however, in deep shock and, how awful dear Albert looked. It is his first great pain in his young life", two pages, address leaf, folding marks with light splitting, occasional discolouration, 8vo, Frogmore, 14 February 1844.