Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THIRD LETTER. PRINCES AND PRINCESSES. Princess Augusta Victoria, wife of Prince William, is so insignificant, that I only need say she fulfils her duties admirably, and that she will not leave Prussia destitute of heirs. It is asserted that she might be more amiable, but probably the impatience with which she is reproached is due to the irritability natural to a woman who passes her life in an interesting situation, rather than to a bad temper. Though not pretty, she is graceful. She is rather shy, but inspires regard. The relations between the young couple are good and affectionate without being tender. The Prince likes to amuse himself, but that is natural in a young man offive-and-twenty, and surely an Empress’s crown in prospect is more than sufficient to console a Princess of Schleswig for the trifling infidelities of her husband. Prince Frederick Charles, the Emperor’s nephew,1 who was so much talked of in 1870, does not at all justify the fuss which has been made about him. He is not a remarkable man, but simply a brave, good officer, hopelessly boorish in private life, capable of obedience, an excellent tactician, disliked for his boorishness, without ambition, and without passions except for hunting and wine. He lives almost always in his house of Drelinden, detests society, and is happy only when surrounded by a small circle of deep-drinking friends, with whom he need not stand on his dignity. He is, it is said, more than rough to his wife, a charming person, both good and clever. She is capable of any self- sacrifice, but is afflicted by complete and incurable deafness; this has contributed not a little to render her an object of aversion to her husband. Beyond the intimate friends of the Prince, the couple see hardly any one; they are much neglected by Society…