w of his almost certain death, had determined to
pass the coming night at his post with him, and to share his fate,
whatever it might be. He had promised to come for her at the Ave Maria,
and Mr. Cass, departing, met him at the porter's lodge, and shortly
afterward beheld them walking in the direction of his command. It turned
out that the threatened danger did not visit them. The cannonading from
this point was not renewed, and on the morrow military operations were
at an end.

Among our few pictures of Margaret and her husband, how characteristic
is this one, of the pair walking side by side into the very jaws of
death, with the glory of faith and courage bright about them!

The gates once open, Margaret's first thought was of Rieti, and her boy
there. Thither she sped without delay, arriving just in time to save the
life of the neglected and forsaken child, whose wicked nurse, uncertain
of further payment, had indeed abandoned him. His mother found him "worn
to a skeleton, too weak to smile, or lift his little wasted hand." Four
weeks of incessant care and nursing brought, still in wan feebleness,
his first returning smile.

All that Margaret had already endured seemed to her light in comparison
with this. In the Papal States, woman had clearly fallen behind even the
standard of the she-wolf.

After these painful excitements came a season of blessed quietness for
Margaret and her dear ones. Angelo regained his infant graces, and
became full of life and of baby glee. Margaret's marriage was suitably
acknowledged, and the pain and trouble of such a concealment were at
end. The disclosure of the relation naturally excited much comment in
Italy and in America. In both countries there were some, no doubt, who
chose to interpret this unexpected action on the part of Margaret in a
manner utterly at variance with the whole tenor and spirit of her life.
The general feeling was, however, quite otherwise; and it is gratifying
to find that, while no one could have considered Margaret's marriage an
act of worldly wisdom, it was very generally accepted by her friends as
only another instance of the romantic disinterestedness which had always
been a leading trait in her character.

Writing to an intimate friend in America, she remarks: "What you say of
the meddling curiosity of people repels me; it is so different here.
When I made my appearance with a husband, and a child of a year old,
nobody did the least act to annoy me. A