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_2 August, 1895, 8 o’clock in the evening._
I had just ended this letter, so that it might leave to-morrow for
Cayenne, when they brought me your letters of the month of April and
your letters of June, with the letters of all the family. I have just
read through your letters rapidly. I will answer at greater length by
the next mail.
I have nothing to change in what I have just written to you. No matter
how appalling to me the moral situation may be in which I am placed, no
matter how my heart may be bruised, I shall stand erect to my last
breath, for I want my honor, your honor, that of our children. As for my
friends, I have never doubted them. They know what I am. But what is
necessary, what I will have, is light, so brilliant that no one in all
our dear country can have any doubt of my honor. It is my honor, the
absolute honor of a soldier, that I must regain. This mission I confide
to you, to you all. You will accomplish it, I have no doubt of it.