From Queen Victoria to the Empress Frederick – Pavillon de la Rochefoucauld, Biarritz, 9 March 1889
I must write another line, for I have thought so much of you today. Oh, what a year of suffering and anxiety between hope and fear! Surely then that dear, dear, too precious life, and that reign, was not thought to be so short! Surely some months were hoped for! It is all too sad and no time can obliterate the feeling of bitter grief and longing that it should have been otherwise. God orders all for the best, we know, and some day we shall see why this terrible misfortune was permitted. Today had been beautiful and I wish you could have seen that marvellous sea with those towering waves and the strange rocks…
The air is delicious, so soft and light and the mimosas and camellias are in full blossom and primroses, violets, white and blue, and jonquils are all making such lovely nosegays. We wish we could send them to you. This afternoon we drove to Bayonne (only half an hour). It is a very curious old town, part of it very Spanish-looking. On our way back we drove for some way through fir woods like at Darmstadt and visited the curious convent of the Bernardines (sort of female Trappists) which is connected with a refuge or penitentiary which we had not time to visit today. It is most curious and in the woods. The Mère Supérieure Générale is a very pleasing, cheerful, nice looking person. We are very quiet and unmolested here.1
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