gel, prevented from sleeping for full
three weeks. When there was a possibility I was lifted into a carriage
and brought here; stayed two days at the inn in Siena, and then removed
to this pleasant airy villa. Very ill I was after coming, and great
courage it required to come; but change of air was absolutely a
condition of living, and the event justified the risk. For now I am
quite myself, have done crying 'Wolf,' and end this lamentable history
by desiring you to absolve me for my silence. We have been here nearly a
month. My strength, which was so exhausted that I could scarcely stand
unsupported, is coming back satisfactorily, and the cough has ceased to
vex me at all. Still, I am not equal to driving out. I hope to take my
first drive in a very few days though, and the very asses are
ministering to me--in milk. All the English physicians had found it
convenient (the beloved Grand Duke being absent) to leave Florence, and
Zanetti was attending the Piedmontese hospitals, so that I had to attend
me none of the old oracles--only a Prussian physician (Dr. Gresonowsky),
a very intelligent man, of whom we knew a little personally, and who had
a strong political sympathy with me. (He and I used to sit together on
Isa Blagden's terrace and relieve ourselves by abusing each other's
country; and whether he expressed most moral indignation against England
or I against Prussia, remained doubtful.) Afterwards he came to cure me,
and was as generous in his profession as became his politics. People are
usually very kind to us, I must say. Think of that man following us to
Siena, uninvited, and attending me at the hotel two days, then refusing
recompense.

Well, now let me speak of our Italy and the peace. 'Immoral,' you say?
Yes, immoral. But not immoral on the part of Napoleon who had his hand
forced; only immoral on the part of those who by infamies of speech and
intrigue (in England and Germany), against which I for one had been
protesting for months, brought about the complicated results which
forced his hand. Never was a greater or more disinterested deed intended
and almost completed than this French intervention for Italian
independence; and never was a baser and more hideous sight than the
league against it of the nations. Let me not speak.

For the rest, if it were not for Venetia (Zurich[65] keeps its secrets
so far) the peace would have proved a benefit rather than otherwise. We
have had time to feel our own strength,