Letter from Charles Dickens, Naples, to Emile de la Rue, 1845 February 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning Madame de la Rue and his mesmerism of her; praising de la Rue's care for her and explaining a previous letter in which he wrote strongly about "the Great and terrible symptom which is hovering about her" and thanking God that they "can exercise great power" over it; discussing at length her condition, alluding to her interviews with a "Phantom" and supernatural events in a sick room, and describing Dickens's connection to her; referencing the de la Rues' plans to travel to Rome, and briefly discussing his own travels, noting the cold weather and an infestation of fleas in his flannel dressing-gown; imagining "that when I listen very hard outside my Portmanteau, I think I can distinctly hear them, leaping up inside the lid, and knocking their heads against it."