We return to the
life she led in Rome during the attack of the French, and her
charge of the hospitals, where she spent daily some seven or
eight hours, and, often, the entire night. Her feeble frame
was a good deal shaken by so uncommon a demand upon her
strength, while, at the same time, the anxiety of her mind was
intense. I well remember how exhausted and weary she was;
how pale and agitated she returned to us after her day's and
night's watching; how eagerly she asked for news of Ossoli,
and how seldom we had any to give her, for he was unable to
send her a word for two or three days at a time. Letters
from the country there were few or none, as the communication
between Rieti and Rome was cut off.
"After one such day, she called me to her bedside, and said
that I must consent, for her sake, to keep the SECRET she was
about to confide. Then she told me of her marriage; where her
child was, and where he was born; and gave me certain papers
and parchment documents which I was to keep; and, in the event
of her and her husband's death, I was to take the boy to her
mother in America, and confide him to her care, and that of
her friend, Mrs.
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