Thither
Margaret escaped with her husband, and thence she wrote the following
letter:
Dearest Mother,--I received your letter a few hours before leaving
Rome. Like all of yours, it refreshed me, and gave me as much
satisfaction as anything could, at that sad time. Its spirit is
of eternity, and befits an epoch when wickedness and perfidy so
impudently triumph, and the best blood of the generous and honorable
is poured out like water, seemingly in vain.
I cannot tell you what I suffered to abandon the wounded to the care
of their mean foes; to see the young men, that were faithful to their
vows, hunted from their homes,--hunted like wild beasts; denied a
refuge in every civilized land. Many of those I loved are sunk to the
bottom of the sea, by Austrian cannon, or will be shot. Others are in
penury, grief, and exile. May God give due recompense for all that has
been endured!
My mind still agitated, and my spirits worn out, I have not felt like
writing to any one. Yet the magnificent summer does not smile quite
in vain for me. Much exercise in the open air, living much on milk
and fruit, have recruited my health, and I am regaining the habit of
sleep, which a month of nightly cannonade in Rome had destroyed.
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