Here, matters might have gone badly
with him, but for the accident that he had upon his person a business
letter directed to himself as the Marchese Ossoli. A certain abbe, the
regimental chaplain, having once spent some time in Rome, recognized
the name as that of an officer in the Pope's Guardia Nobile,[C]
whereupon, the Neapolitan officers not only ordered him to be
released, but sent him back, with many apologies, in a carriage, and
under an armed escort, to the Roman territory. When he reached this
part of his story, and came to his meeting with Madame Ossoli,
the remembrance of her terrible distress during the period of his
detention so overcame him, that he was quite unable to go on.
Towards their child he manifested an overflowing tenderness, and most
affectionate care.
Notwithstanding the intense contempt and hatred which Signore Ossoli,
in common with all the Italian liberals, cherished towards the
ecclesiastical body, he seemed to be a very devout Catholic. He used
to attend regularly the vesper service, in some of the older and
quieter churches of Florence; and, though I presume Madame Ossoli
never accepted in any degree the Roman Catholic forms of faith, she
frequently accompanied him on these occasions.
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