Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness and prosperity, and believe me, most truly yours, R.E.LEE.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT, _Commanding United States Army_.
In this letter, full of dignity and grave courtesy, Lee vainly attempts to hide the acute pain he felt at parting from his friend and abandoning the old service.

Another letter, written on the same day, expresses the same sentiment of painful regret: ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, _April 20,1861_.
MY DEAR SISTER: I am grieved at my inability to see you ...

I have been waiting "for a more convenient season," which has brought to many before me deep and lasting regret.

Now we are in a state of war which will yield to nothing.