lingering rays.
Beyond the Porta Romana, not far from Casa Guidi, was the road to the Val
d'Emo, where the Certosa crowns an eminence. The stroll along the Arno at
sunset was a favorite one with the poets, and in late afternoons they
often climbed the slope to the Boboli Gardens for the view over Florence
and the Val d'Arno. Nor did they ever tire of lingering in the Piazza
della Signoria, before the marvelous palace with its medieval tower, and
standing before the colossal fountain of Neptune, just behind the spot
that is commemorated by a tablet in the pavement marking the martyrdom of
Savonarola. The great equestrian statue of Cosimo I always engaged their
attention in this historic piazza, which for four centuries had been the
center of the political life of the Florentines. All these places, the
churches, monuments, palaces, and the art of Florence, were fairly
mirrored in the minds of the wedded poets, impressing their imagination
with the fidelity of an image falling on a sensitized plate. To them, as
to all who love and enter into the ineffable beauty of the City of Lilies,
it was an atmosphere of enchantment.

CHAPTER VII

1850-1855

"I heard last night a little child go singing
'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church,
_O bella liberta, O bella!..._"

"But Easter-Day breaks! But
Christ rises! Mercy every way
Is infinite,--and who can say?"

"CASA GUIDI WINDOWS"--SOCIETY IN FLORENCE--MARCHESA D'OSSOLI--BROWNING'S
POETIC CREED--VILLEGGIATURA IN SIENA--VENICE--BRILLIANT LIFE IN
LONDON--PARIS AND MILSAND--BROWNING ON SHELLEY--IN FLORENCE--IDYLLIC
DAYS IN BAGNI DI LUCCA--MRS. BROWNING'S SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK--DELIGHTFUL
WINTER IN ROME--A POETIC PILGRIMAGE--HARRIET HOSMER--CHARACTERISTICS
OF MRS. BROWNING.

The Brownings were never for a moment caught up in the wave of popular
enthusiasm for Pio Nono that swept over Italy. Yet Mrs. Browning confessed
herself as having been fairly "taken in" by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Had
_Blackwood's Magazine_ published Part I of her "Casa Guidi Windows" at the
time that she sent it to this periodical, the poem would have been its own
proof of her distrust of the Pope, but it would also have offered the same
proof of her ill-founded trust in the Grand Duke; so that, on the whole,
she was well content to fail in having achieved the distinction of a
prophet regarding Pio Nono, as no Cassandra can afford to be convicted of
de