"Farewell, and be invariably assured that I shall never cease to love you
strongly and deeply.

"Your faithful mother, who loves you to eternity."

Sand replied:--

January 1820, from my isle of Patmos.
"MY DEAR PARENTS, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS,--

"In the middle of the month of September last year I received, through
the grand-duke's special commission of inquiry, whose humanity you have
already appreciated, your dear letters of the end of August and the
beginning of September, which had such magical influence that they
inundated me with joy by transporting me into the inmost circle of your
hearts.

"You, my tender father, you write to me on the sixty-seventh anniversary
of your birth, and you bless me by the outpouring of your most tender
love.

"You, my well-beloved mother, you deign to promise the continuance of
your maternal affection, in which I have at all times constantly
believed; and thus I have received the blessings of both of you, which,
in my present position, will exercise a more beneficent influence upon me
than any of the things that all the kings of the earth, united together,
could grant me. Yes, you strengthen me abundantly by your blessed love,
and I render thanks to you, my beloved parents, with that respectful
submission that my heart will always inculcate as the first duty of a
son.