ife of either the sculptor or
the wedded poets could be presented that did not include these constant
amenities of familiar, affectionate intercourse.

Many English friends of the Brownings came and went that winter, and among
others was Lady Annabella Noel, a granddaughter of Lord Byron, and a great
admirer of Mr. Browning. A new acquaintance of the Brownings was Lady
Marion Alford, a daughter of the Earl of Northampton, "very eager about
literature, and art, and Robert," laughed Mrs. Browning, and Lady Marion
and "Hatty" (Miss Hosmer) were, it seems, mutually captivated.

[Illustration: THE PALAZZO BARBERINI, VIA QUATTRO FONTANE, ROME.

The home of William Wetmore Story and his family for nearly forty years.]

Some of the English artists came to Rome, Burne-Jones and Val Prinsep
among them, and they with Browning wandered about the classic byways of
the city and drove to see the Coliseum by moonlight.

In June the Brownings left Rome, by way of Orvieto and Chiusi. They
crossed that dead, mystic Campagna that flows, like a sea, all around
Rome--a sea of silence and mystery; with its splendid ruins of the old
aqueducts and tombs, its vast stretches of space that were all aglow, in
those June days, with scarlet poppies. They stopped one night at Viterbo,
the little city made famous since those days by Richard Bagot's tragic
novel, "Temptation," and where the convent is interesting from its
associations with Vittoria Colonna, who in 1541 made here a retreat for
meditation and prayer.

In Orvieto they rested for a day and night, and Mrs. Browning was able to
go with her husband into the marvelous cathedral, with its "jeweled and
golden facade" and its aerial Gothic construction. Mr. Browning, with his
little son, drove over to the wild, curious town of Bagnorgio, which,
though near Orvieto, is very little known. But this was the birthplace of
Giovanni da Fidenza, the "Seraphic Doctor," who was canonized as St.
Buonaventura, from the exclamation of San Francesco, who, on awakening
from a dream communion with Giovanni da Fidenza, exclaimed, "_O buona
ventura!_" Dante introduces this saint into the _Divina Commedia_, as
chanting the praises of San Domenico in Paradise:

"_Io san vita di Bonaventura_
_Du Bagnorgio, che ne grandi uffici,_
_Sempre posposi la sinistra cura._"

Bagnorgio is, indeed, the heart of poetic legend and sacred story, but it
is so inaccessible, perched on its high hill, with deep chasms,