FROM OSSOLI.
“Mia Cara, — My state is the most deplorable that can be; I have had an extraordinary struggle. If your condition were not such as it is, I could decide more easily, but in the present moment I cannot leave you; I cannot remove myself to a distance from you, my dear love; ah! how cruel is my destiny in this emergency. It is true that my friends would not advise me to go, hoping for me always a better fortune. But then must I always hope, and be always in the presence of my unkind brothers, at a moment when I might remove myself from their hateful sight. The heart, duty, cannot resolve it.
“In your dear last of the 7th, I understand well how much you would sacrifice yourself for me. I am deeply grateful to you for it, but I cannot yet decide.”
FROM MADAME OSSOLI.
“I feel, love, a profound sympathy with your torments, but I am not able to give you a perfectly wise counsel. Only it seems to me the worst possible moment to take up arms except in the cause of duty, of honor. The Pope being so cold, his minister undecided, nothing will be well or successfully done. As the intervention of France and England is hoped for, it is yet uncertain whether the war will continue. If not, you will leave Rome and the employment with your uncle for nothing.
“If it is possible to wait two or three weeks, the public state and mine also will be decided, and you can
