Permit me, on the present occasion, to express to you my most sincere thanks and gratitude for the many favors you have so kindly bestowed on me during my visits to my native land. I shall never forget the interview you procured me with his highness, the Duke of Brabant. We pray daily at the holy altar, during the sacrifice of mass, that the Lord may preserve this most Christian Prince, and his august family, for the welfare and happiness of Belgium, and may continue to grant them his choicest blessings. We receive regularly the PrIciS Historiques of Father Terwecoren, which frequently gives very interesting details of the Duke and Duchess, and which we always peruse with the greatest pleasure.
Please present my kindest regards and respects to Mrs. Conway, and believe me to be, etc.
November 26, 1866.5
* * * * * * * * * My personal views are not worth speaking of. You know the routine of our houses -we get up early in the morning; about ten o'clock in the evening we go to bed; in the meantime every one works at his little tasks.
My health is, thank God, pretty good just at present. I seldom have recourse to the doctor and still less often to his drugs. Two little bottles have stood full on my mantel for the last three months to bear witness that the druggist has been appealed to in my behalf. Thus far I have done nothing but look at them and take care that they do not evaporate, for perhaps I might want them later. I shall soon enter upon my sixty-seventh year, an age when ordinarily the overcoat covers a multitude of infirmities. I shall end in believing that I bear my years pretty well, for everybody
6 Extract from letter in French to Nephew Paul.