Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/55

Rh cutta Course; within a few minutes the light of his life had gone out for ever. 'He fell to the ground as if suddenly stricken dead. From that time forth,' says Captain Trotter, 'the sense of his bereavement never left him.' 'For the first two days he shut himself up alone with his grief. Then he wrote a line to Courtenay (his Private Secretary) begging only for "work, work," no matter what kind. For several months he would see no one except on urgent business, and seldom left the room even for a drive.'

Consolation he would none of. Each mail brought letters of tender sympathy : from the greatest Lady of England, whose royal heart has never failed to share the sorrows of those who serve her in distant lands, down through a long succession of illustrious and humbler friends whose knowledge of his strong nature made them recognise the depth of his desolation. It was, however, a touching letter from his eldest daughter, Lady Susan Ramsay, that 'first taught him in his own words that he had "still something left to love."' In December, 1854, this dear daughter, then seventeen years old, joined her father in India. How she laboured to fill the place which was left empty; with what fine womanly tact and girlish brightness she won her way into the darkened chambers of that sad heart; how she shared Dalhousie's public cares, and at length brought a new sunshine into