CANNES, _January 6, 1870_.
DEAR FRIEND: I thank you for your letter, and for your good wishes. I
did not reply at once, because I did not have the physical strength. The
cold weather, which has come upon us suddenly, is very severe, and has
done me a great deal of harm. I feel a little better to-day, and take
advantage of it to write to you. I am deeply discouraged; nothing does
me any good. I try all the remedies, and find myself again back at the
point from which I started; after a few days of relief, the disease
manifests itself again as forcibly as ever. I sleep wretchedly, and with
the greatest difficulty.
Not only do I not eat, but all kinds of nourishment inspire in me a
feeling of disgust. Nearly all day I suffer frightfully, sometimes
accompanied with spasms of pain. I read with great difficulty, and
frequently do not understand the words under my eyes. I have an idea of
something which I should like to put into a work, but how is it possible
to write in the midst of these troubles! So you see, dear friend, the
situation in which I find myself. I have the certainty that a slow and
painful death is to be my fate. I must become reconciled to it.
The political situation, of which I understand nothing at all, is not
calculated to offer me an agreeable distraction. It seems to me that we
are marching on to a revolution, which will be more disastrous than the
one through which we passed so blithesomely twenty years ago. I should
like the performance to be delayed a little while, so that I may not
attend it.
It froze here at six degrees, a phenomenon which has not occurred since
1821, so say the oldest inhabitants; all the gardens have been ruined.
The cold snap came just when one might have supposed it to be midsummer;
the season was advanced, and everything in bloom. It was lamentable to
see great, beautiful plants, full of blossoms, from seven to eight feet
tall in the evening, in one night reduced to the consistency of spinach.
Good-bye, dear friend. Keep well, and let me sometimes hear from you. I
wish you a happy New Year....