Madame was at home, or not; and he always
tempered the official uniformity of the question with some word
of tenderness. Indeed, he rarely pronounced her name; sufficiently
indicating to the child whom it was that I was seeking, by the
affectionate epithet he used, "_Lita! e la cara Signora in casa_?"

The composure and force of Madame Ossoli's character would, indeed,
have given her a strong influence for good over any person with whom
she was brought into contact; but this influence must have been even
extraordinary over the impulsive and ill-disciplined children of
passion and of sorrow, among whom she was thrown in Italy.

Her husband related to me once, with a most reverent enthusiasm, some
stories of the good she had done in Rieti, during her residence there.
The Spanish troops were quartered in that town, and the dissipated
habits of the officers, as well as the excesses of the soldiery, kept
the place in a constant irritation. Though overwhelmed with cares and
anxieties, Madame Ossoli found time and collectedness of mind enough
to interest herself in the distresses of the towns-people, and to pour
the soothing oil of a wise sympathy upon their wounded and indignant
feelings. On one occasion, as the Marchese told me, she undoubtedly
saved the lives of a family in Rieti, by inducing them to pass over
in silence an insult offered to one of them by an intoxicated Spanish
soldier,--and, on another, she interfered between two brothers,
maddened by passion, and threatening to stain the family hearth with
the guilt of fratricide.[B]

Such incidents, and the calm tenor of Madame Ossoli's confident
hopes.--the assured faith and unshaken bravery, with which she met and
turned aside the complicated troubles, rising sometimes into absolute
perils, of their last year in Italy,--seemed to have inspired her
husband with a feeling of respect for her, amounting to reverence.
This feeling, modifying the manifest tenderness with which he hung
upon her every word and look, and sought to anticipate her simplest
wishes, was luminously visible in the air and manner of his
affectionate devotion to her.

The frank and simple recognition of his wife's singular nobleness,
which he always displayed, was the best evidence that his own nature
was of a fine and noble strain. And those who knew him best, are, I
believe, unanimous in testifying that his character did in no respect
belie the evidence borne by his manly and truthful countenan