age of another friend, 'the prevalent
impression at Rome, among all who knew her, was, that she was
a mild saint and a ministering angel.'

"I have, in order to bring in these instances of her influence
on those about her, deviated from my track. We return to the
life she led in Rome during the attack of the French, and her
charge of the hospitals, where she spent daily some seven or
eight hours, and, often, the entire night. Her feeble frame
was a good deal shaken by so uncommon a demand upon her
strength, while, at the same time, the anxiety of her mind was
intense. I well remember how exhausted and weary she was;
how pale and agitated she returned to us after her day's and
night's watching; how eagerly she asked for news of Ossoli,
and how seldom we had any to give her, for he was unable to
send her a word for two or three days at a time. Letters
from the country there were few or none, as the communication
between Rieti and Rome was cut off.

"After one such day, she called me to her bedside, and said
that I must consent, for her sake, to keep the SECRET she was
about to confide. Then she told me of her marriage; where her
child was, and where he was born; and gave me certain papers
and parchment documents which I was to keep; and, in the event
of her and her husband's death, I was to take the boy to her
mother in America, and confide him to her care, and that of
her friend, Mrs. ----.

"The papers thus given me, I had perfect liberty to read; but
after she had told me her story, I desired no confirmation of
this fact, beyond what her words had given. One or two of the
papers she opened, and we together read them. One was written
on parchment, in Latin, and was a certificate, given by the
priest who married them, saying that Angelo Eugene Ossoli was
the legal heir of whatever title and fortune should come to
his father. To this was affixed his seal, with those of the
other witnesses, and the Ossoli crest was drawn in full
upon the paper. There was also a book, in which Margaret had
written the history of her acquaintance and marriage with
Ossoli, and of the birth of her child. In giving that to
me, she said, 'If I do not survive to tell this myself to my
family, this book will be to them invaluable. Therefore keep
it for them. If I live, it will be of no use