very word spoken by them, even if it applaud us, goes
against the cause! Whoever has a conscience among them, let him consider
this and be still....

* * * * *

_To Miss E.F. Haworth_

Casa Guidi: November 2 [1859].

My dearest Fanny,--I this moment receive your letter, and hasten to
answer it lest I should be too late for you in Paris. Dear Fanny, you
seem in a chronic transitional state; it's always _crisis_ with you. I
can't _advise_; but I do rather _wonder_ that you don't go at once to
England and see your friends till you can do your business.... You can
get at pictures in England and at artistic society also if you please;
and making a _slancio_ into Germany or to Paris would not be impossible
to you occasionally.

Does this advice sound _too_ disinterested on my part? Never think so.
We only stand ourselves on one foot in Florence--forced to go away in
the summer; forced to go away in the winter. Robert was so persuaded
even last winter (before my illness) of my being better at Rome that he
would have taken an apartment there and furnished it, except that I
prevented him. Then we have calls from the north, and on most summers we
must be in England and Paris. To stay on through the summer in Florence
is impossible to us at least. Think of thermometers being a hundred and
two in the shade this year! So I consider your case dispassionately, and
conclude _we_ are not worth your consideration in reference to prospects
connected with any place. We are rolling stones gathering no moss.
There's no use for anyone to run after us; but we may roll anyone's way.
I say this, penetrated by your affectionate feeling for us. May God
bless you and keep you, my dear friend.

As for me, I have been nearly as ill as possible--that's the
truth--suffering so much that the idea of the evil's recurrence makes me
feel nervous. All the Italians who came near me gave me up as a lost
life; but God would not have it so this time, and my old vitality proved
itself strong still. At present I am remarkably well; I had a return of
threatening symptoms a fortnight ago, but they passed. I think I had
been talking too much. Now I feel quite as free and well as usual about
the chest, and 'buoyant' as to general spirits. Affairs in Italy seem
going well, and Napoleon does not forget us, whatever his townsfolk of a
certain class may do. The French newspapers remember us well, I am happy
to see, also. But, my de