st been with me, having been sent by * * to
tell me that I must depart from Ravenna before next Tuesday, as my
husband has had recourse to Rome, for the purpose of either forcing me
to return to him, or else putting me in a convent; and the answer from
thence is expected in a few days. I must not speak of this to any
one,--I roust escape by night; for, if my project should be discovered,
it will be impeded, and my passport (which the goodness of Heaven has
permitted me, I know not how, to obtain) will be taken from me. Byron! I
am in despair!--If I must leave you here without knowing when I shall
see you again, if it is your will that I should suffer so cruelly, I am
resolved to remain. They may put me in a convent; I shall die,--but--but
then you cannot aid me, and I cannot reproach you. I know not what they
tell me, for my agitation overwhelms me;--and why? Not because I fear my
present danger, but solely, I call Heaven to witness, solely because I
must leave you."

Towards the latter end of July, the writer of this tender and truly
feminine letter found herself forced to leave Ravenna,--the home of her
youth, as it was, now, of her heart,--uncertain whither to go, or where
she should again meet Lord Byron. After lingering for a short time at
Bologna, under a faint expectation that the Court of Rome might yet,
through some friendly mediation [41], be induced to rescind its order
against her relatives, she at length gave up all hope, and joined her
father and brother at Florence.

It has been already seen, from Lord Byron's letters, that he had himself
become an object of strong suspicion to the Government, and it was,
indeed, chiefly in their desire to rid themselves of his presence, that
the steps taken against the Gamba family had originated;--the constant
benevolence which he exercised towards the poor of Ravenna being likely,
it was feared, to render him dangerously popular among a people unused
to charity on so enlarged a scale. "One of the principal causes," says
Madame Guiccioli, "of the exile of my relatives, was in reality the idea
that Lord Byron would share the banishment of his friends. Already the
Government were averse to Lord Byron's residence at Ravenna; knowing his
opinions, fearing his influence, and also exaggerating the extent of his
means for giving effect to them. They fancied that he provided money for
the purchase of arms, &c. and that he contributed pecuniarily to the
wants of the Society. Th