us, in a street parallel
to ours, when we were startled by a loud explosion. An attempt had been
made to throw a shell into the ball-room, which had happily failed. The
streets were immediately lined with soldiers, and the ball, which was
given by the Ministers, as far as I recollect, took place.

When the war broke out, a large body of French troops, commanded by
Prince Jerome Napoleon, came to Florence, and were bivouacked in the
Cascine. The people in the streets welcomed them as deliverers from the
Austrians, whose occupation of Tuscany, when first we came to reside in
Florence, was such a bitter mortification to them, and one of the causes
of the unpopularity of the Grand Duke, whom they never forgave for
calling in the Austrian troops after 1848. The French camp was a very
pretty sight; some of the soldiers playing at games, some mending their
clothes, or else cooking. They were not very particular as to what they
ate, for one of my daughters saw a soldier skin a rat and put it into
his soup-kettle.

We were invited by the Marchesa Lajatico, with whom we were very
intimate, to go and see the entry of Victor Emmanuel into Florence from
the balcony of the Casa Corsini in the Piazza del Prato, where she
resides. The King was received with acclamation: never was anything like
the enthusiasm. Flowers were showered down from every window, and the
streets were decorated with a taste peculiar to the Italians.

[I think the following extracts from letters written by my mother
during the year 1859 and the following, ever memorable in Italian
history, may not be unwelcome to the reader. My mother took the
keenest interest in all that occurred. Owing to the liberal opinions
she had held from her youth, and to which she was ever constant, all
her sympathies were with the Italian cause, and she rejoiced at
every step which tended to unite all Italy in one kingdom. She lived
to see this great revolution accomplished by the entry of Victor
Emmanuel into Rome as King of Italy; a consummation believed by most
politicians to be a wild dream of poets and hot-headed patriots, but
now realised and accepted as a matter of course. My mother had
always firm faith in this result, and it was with inexpressible
pleasure she watched its completion. Our intimacy with the leading
politicians both in Tuscany and Piedmont naturally added to our
interest. Ricasoli, Menabrea, Peruzzi, M