gth he convinced her of his love, and she
married him."

Then followed the wife's service in the hospitals while Ossoli was in
the army outside the city. After the birth of their child, Angelo, the
happy little family went to Florence.

The letters which passed between the young nobleman and the wife he
adored are still extant, having been with the body of her beautiful baby
the only things of Margaret Fuller's saved from the fatal wreck in which
she and her two loved ones were lost. One of these letters will be
enough to show the tenderness of the man:

"Rome, 21 October, 1848.

"MIA CARA:--I learn by yours of the 20th that you have received the ten
scudi, and it makes me more tranquil. I feel also Mogliani's indolence
in not coming to inoculate our child; but, my love, I pray you not to
disturb yourself so much, and not to be sad, hoping that our dear love
will be guarded by God, and will be free from all misfortunes. He will
keep the child for us and give us the means to sustain him."

* * * * *

In answer to this letter, or one like it, we find the woman whom
Hawthorne had deemed hard and cold writing:

"Saturday Evening,
28 October, 1848.

"... It rains very hard every day, but to-day I have been more quiet,
and our darling has been so good, I have taken so much pleasure in being
with him. When he smiles in his sleep, how it makes my heart beat! He
has grown fat and very fair, and begins to play and spring. You will
have much pleasure in seeing him again. He sends you many kisses. He
bends his head toward me when he asks a kiss."

* * * * *

Both Madame Ossoli and her husband were very fearful as they embarked on
the fated ship which was to take them to America. He had been cautioned
by one who had told his fortune when a boy to beware of the sea, and his
wife had long cherished a superstition that the year 1850 would be a
marked epoch in her life. It is remarkable that in writing to a friend
of her fear Madame Ossoli said: "I pray that if we are lost it may be
brief anguish, and Ossoli, the babe, and I go together."

They sailed none the less, May 17, 1850, on the _Elizabeth_, a new
merchant vessel, which set out from Leghorn. Misfortune soon began. The
captain sickened and died of malignant smallpox, and af