] Ferocious and grasping as these peasants
were, she was able to overcome for the time their savage instincts, and
to turn the tide of their ungoverned passions.

In this place, two brothers were one day saved from the guilt of
fratricide by her calm and firm intervention. Both of the men were
furiously angry, and blood had already been drawn by the knife of one,
when she stepped between them, and so reasoned and insisted, that the
weapons were presently flung away, and the feud healed by a fraternal
embrace. After this occurrence, the American lady was recognized as a
peace-maker, and differences of various sorts were referred to her for
settlement, much as domestic and personal difficulties had been
submitted to her in her own New England.

Among the troubles brought under her notice at Rieti were the constant
annoyances caused by the lawless behavior of a number of Spanish troops
who happened to be quartered upon the town. Between these and the
villagers she succeeded in keeping the peace by means of good counsel
and enforced patience. In Florence she seems to have been equally
beloved and respected. A quarrel here took place between her maid, from
Rieti, and a fellow-lodger, in which her earnest effort prevented
bloodshed, and effectually healed the breach between the two women. The
porter of the house in which she dwelt while in Florence was slowly
dying of consumption; Margaret's kindness so attached him to her that he
always spoke of her as _la cara signora_.

The unruly Garibaldi Legion overtook Margaret one day between Rome and
Rieti. She had been to visit her child at the latter place, and was
returning to Rome alone in a vettura. While she was resting for an hour
at a wayside inn, the master of the house entered in great alarm,
crying: "We are lost! Here is the Legion Garibaldi! These men always
pillage, and, if we do not give all up to them without pay, they will
kill us." Looking out upon the road, Margaret saw that the men so much
dreaded were indeed close at hand. For a moment she felt some alarm,
thinking that they might insist upon taking the horses from her
carriage, and thus render it impossible for her to proceed on her
journey. Another moment, and she had found a device to touch their
better nature. As the troop entered, noisy and disorderly, Margaret rose
and said to the innkeeper: "Give these good men bread and wine at my
expense, for after their ride they must need refreshment." The men at
onc