_Magdeburg, June 1, 1843._--A most annoying incident has just happened; I have missed the train for Berlin which I hoped to reach this evening, and I ought to be very satisfied that I have got so far safe and sound; to cover thirteen leagues, the distance from Harbke to this town, I was obliged to spend ten hours on the road. The continuous deluge of the last few days and the waterspouts which have burst over the country, have devastated everything, swollen the streams, carried away the dykes, swept away earth, &c. Nothing can describe my anxiety.
_Berlin, June 2, 1843._--At length I have reached the first halting-place on my long and tiresome journey. I have arrived literally at the end of my resources, with a ragged dress, reduced to my last crown and so exhausted that I feel as if I had spinal curvature. The railway from Magdeburg here is very well managed and the journey is accomplished in eight hours, though the line is not direct, as the railway passes through Dessau and Wittenberg. I did as I have done on board the steamers and remained in my own carriage: this seemed to me the most suitable plan, as I had no male companion and a very mixed number of people were travelling.
_Berlin, June 3, 1843._--The Duchesse d'Albuféra writes to say that Princesse Clémentine went to Brest to embark for Lisbon and Brittany where she was excellently received; while good news has arrived from the Prince de Joinville and the Duc d'Aumale is distinguishing himself in Algeria. The Duchesse de Montmorency tells me of an extraordinary incident: Madame de Dolomieu has sold for thirty-five thousand francs certain autograph letters by living writers in which there are some that could only be circulated with unpleasant consequences. The King of France bought back his letters for twenty-five thousand francs. Really impudence at the present time knows no bounds! General Fagel forced Madame de Dolomieu to buy back for eight hundred francs a letter from the King of the Low Countries which he had given her and which she had sold with the collection.
The author of the tragedy of _Lucrèce_, M. Ponsard, and the author of the tragedy of _Judith_, Madame Emile de Girardin, whose plays have met with such different receptions, came across one another at the house of the Duchesse de Gramont. Madame de Girardin was bursting with rage, in a manner said to be absolutely grotesque.