Vienna, July 7, 1863.
My Dearest Mother:
. . . Lily is my assistant secretary of legation, and does an immense deal for
me, being able, by her thorough knowledge of languages, to accomplish more work
than most young gentlemen of her age would be competent to. The daughter of the
French ambassador is about Susie's age, and the two daughters of the Spanish
minister are also her contemporaries, and the four are very intimate and see
each other perpetually. Not a week passes but Susie passes the day with the Gramonts,
or they come and play in our garden. The little D'Ayllons have now gone to
Voslau (where we were last year),but I think that Susie will soon make them a
visit. Meantime they exchange letters, I should think, every day. What they
find to put in them is difficult to imagine. . . . Everything is calm just now.
Almost all Vienna has turned itself out of town, and we are left blooming
alone.
To-day we all four go out to dine with the Bloomfields, who
have a pleasant villa for the summer about an hour's drive from here. It is
very pleasant for us, when the relations between our government and those of
England and France are so threatening and disagreeable, that our personal
intercourse with the English and French ambassadors and their families can be
so agreeably maintained. Nothing can be more amiable and genial than both Lord
Bloomfield and the Duc de Gramont, and nothing but kind words and offices have
ever passed between us.
Your affectionate
son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume
2, p. 337
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