ABSTRACT
I was a mere child when I came to the court, and wrote twice a day to my parents. However, none of this correspondence has survived, because at the time my father warned me not to leave my mother's letters lying about the court, nor to write at too great length myself, but rather to send back a short greeting appended to each note from my mother. This I did, and once the note, with my few words of greeting, had been read by my parents, the brush-strokes were erased.
