as I like their country; they are not polite, talk too loud, and the conditions are in many ways behind those in Russia.  Custom-houses and passport annoyances without end, an incredible number of turnpike tolls, four francs for one hour’s drive, or else I should stay here still longer, instead of bathing in Biarritz, where a bathing-suit is necessary.  Love to our dear parents and children.  Farewell, my angel.

Your v.B.

Biarritz, August 4, ’62.

* * * I am sitting in a corner room of the Hotel de l’Europe, with a charming lookout over the blue sea, which drives its white foam between wonderful cliffs and against the light-house.  I have a bad conscience, seeing so many beautiful things without you.  If one could only bring you hither through the air, I would go right back again to San Sebastian.  Imagine the Siebengebirge with the Drachenfels placed by the sea; next to it Ehrenbreitstein, and between the two an arm of the sea, somewhat wider than the Rhine, forcing its way into the land, and forming a round bay behind the mountains.  In this you bathe in water transparently clear, and so heavy and salty that you can lie easily right on top of it and can look through the wide gate of rocks to the sea, or landward, where the mountain chains tower up one after another ever higher and ever bluer.  The women of the middle and lower classes are strikingly pretty, sometimes beautiful; the men surly and impolite, and the comforts of life to which we are accustomed in civilized lands are entirely lacking.  In this respect I find Russia pleasanter to travel in than Spain.  What actually drove me out of the country was the swinishness in certain indispensable arrangements, and then the cheating in the hotels, and the tolls.  The heat there is no worse than here, and doesn’t bother me; on the contrary, I am very well, thank Heaven.  Day before yesterday there was a storm whose like I have never seen.  I had to make three attempts before I succeeded in climbing the flight of four steps at the head of the pier.  Pieces of stone and of trees flew through the air; so I unfortunately gave up my place in a sailing-vessel for Bayonne, as I didn’t believe it possible that all would be quiet and cheerful again in four hours’ time; so I missed a charming sail along the coast, stayed one day longer in San Sebastian, and left yesterday by the diligence, rather uncomfortably packed in between attractive little Spanish women, to whom I could not speak a single word.  Still, they understood Italian enough for me to make clear to them my satisfaction with their exterior.  Gr.  Gallen and wife were very kind to me.  As I was looking for a fan, they presented me with theirs for you; it is simple, but painted in style characteristic of the country.  You would like the wife very much; he, too, is a good fellow, but she amounts to more intellectually.  I got Bernhard’s long-expected letter today.  He looks very black over politics, is expecting another child, and is building barns and stables.  I long for news from you and the children. * * * Dearest love to all.