ords. But to oppose the whole Austrian Empire with our unorganised,
however heroic, forces, is impossible. We might _die_, indeed....

May God bless both of you always! I have pretty good letters from home.
Home! what's home?

Your ever affectionate and grateful
BA.

Read 'La Foi des Traites'; it is from the hand of Louis Napoleon. So
that I was prepared for the amnesty and for what follows.

* * * * *

The following letters to Mr. Chorley relate to Mrs. Browning's poem 'A
Tale of Villafranca,' which was published in the 'Athenaeum' for
September 24, and subsequently included in the volume of 'Poems before
Congress' (_Poetical Works_, iv. 195).

* * * * *

_To Mr. Chorley_

Villa Alberti, Siena: September 12, [1859].

My dear Mr. Chorley,--This isn't a _letter_, as you will see at a
glance. I should have written to you long since, and have also sent this
poem (which solicits a place in the 'Athenaeum') if I had not been very
ill and been very slow in getting well. We wanted to answer your kind
letter, and shall. As for my poem, be so good as to see it put in, in
spite of its good and true politics, which you 'Athenaeum' people (being
English) will dissent from altogether. Say so, if you please, but let me
in. 'Strike, but hear me.' I have been living and dying for Italy
lately. You don't know how vivid these things are to us, which serve for
conversation at London dinner parties.

Ah--dear Mr. Chorley. The bad news about poor Lady Arnould will have
affected you as it did Robert a few days ago. I do pity so our unhappy
friend, Sir Joseph. Tell us, if you can and will, what you hear.

We came here from Florence five or six weeks since, when I was very
unfit for moving, but change of air and a cooler air and repose had
grown necessary. We are at a villa two miles from Siena, where we look
at scarlet sunsets, over purple hills, and have the wind nearly all day.
Mr. and Mrs. Story are half a mile off in another villa, and Mr. Landor
at a stone's cast. Otherwise the solitude is absolute. Mr. Russell spent
two days with us on his way to resume office at Rome. I should remember
that....

* * * * *

_To Mr. Chorley_

Siena: Sunday [September-October 1859].

Thank you, my dear Mr. Chorley, I submit gratefully to being snubbed for
my politics. In return I will send to your private ear an additional
stanza which sh