ms as if, were they
touched, sparks must fly from them. All this is partly due to
the amount of work to be accomplished at the Home Office, where
it is no longer a question of regular hours, but where even the
humblest secretary, if he be conscientious, must strain every
muscle. When I first obtained this position through the
kindness of Count Cavour, I felt I was not really earning the
bread the government gave me. This is no longer the case, but I
am about to withdraw from this field of strenuous labour; and
this brings me to another topic, to something I have long had
in my heart, and which I now impart to you with feelings of
indescribable emotion.

"In a week my friends and I are going to enlist in the army as
volunteers, for the duration of the coming campaign. We are
entering the ninth infantry regiment, stationed in Turin. Here
at the Home Office they would like to keep me some time longer,
but I intend to become familiar with my duties in the regiment
before the campaign opens, and I have therefore simply promised
not to leave the Office until the day before we enlist.

"Luisa, we have not seen each other for three years and almost
five months! It is true you are under police surveillance, and
that you may not go to Lugano, but I have several times
proposed means to you of meeting me, at least at the frontier,
or on the mountains, and you have never even answered. I
believed I knew why. It was because you could not tear yourself
away even for a short time, from a certain sacred spot. This
seemed too much, and I confess I had many bitter feelings. Then
I reproached myself, I felt I was selfish, and I forgave you.
Now, Luisa, circumstances have changed. I have no forebodings
of evil; indeed, it seems impossible that I should be destined
to end my days on a battlefield, nevertheless this is not
impossible. I am going to take part in a war that promises to
be one of the greatest, one of the longest and most desperate,
for if Austria is risking her Italian provinces, we, and
perhaps Emperor Napoleon as well, are risking everything. It is
said we shall spend next winter beneath the walls of Verona.
Luisa, I cannot run the risk of dying without seeing you once
more. I shall have only twenty-four hours, I cannot come to the
front