re expensive. "Many persons,"
said Lord Stanhope, "use the balls, without the moral courage to confess
it." No doubt they did.

CHAPTER VIII

1852-55

The middle of November found the travellers back again in Florence, and
it was nearly three years before they again quitted Italy. No doubt,
after the excitement of the _coup d'etat_ in Paris, and the subsequent
manoeuvres of Louis Napoleon, which culminated in this very month in
his exchanging the title of President for that of Emperor, Florence must
have seemed very quiet, if not dull. The political movement there was
dead; the Grand Duke, restored by Austrian bayonets, had abandoned all
pretence at reform and constitutional progress. In Piedmont, Cavour had
just been summoned to the head of the administration, but there were no
signs as yet of the use he was destined to make of his power. Of
politics, therefore, we hear little for the present.

Nor is there much to note at this time in respect of literature. A new
edition of Mrs. Browning's poems was called for in 1853; but beyond some
minor revisions of detail it did not differ from the edition of 1850.
Her husband's play, 'Colombe's Birthday,' was produced at the Haymarket
Theatre during April, with Miss Faucit (Lady Martin) in the principal
part; but the poet had no share in the production, and his literary
activity must have been devoted to the composition of some of the fine
poems which subsequently formed the two volumes of 'Men and Women,'
which appeared in 1855. Mrs. Browning had also embarked on her longest
poem, 'Aurora Leigh,' and speaks of being happily and busily engaged in
work; but we hear little of it as yet in her correspondence. Her little
son and her Florentine friends and visitors form her principal subjects;
and we also see the beginning of a topic which for the next few years
occupied a good deal of her attention--namely, Spiritualism.

The temperament of Mrs. Browning had in it a decidedly mystical vein,
which predisposed her to believe in any communication between our world
and that of the spirits. Hence when a number of people professed to have
such communication, she was not merely ready to listen to their claims,
but was by temperament inclined to accept them. The immense vogue which
spiritualism had during 'the fifties' tended to confirm her belief. It
was easy to say that where there was so much smoke there must be fire.
And what she believed, she believed strongly and with a p