y,
and the love of my family, especially of my mother, to cheer him, and
quiet communings with nature give him pleasure so simple and profound,
that I hope he will make a new life for himself, in our unknown
country, till changes favor our return to his own. I trust, that we
shall find the means to come together, and to remain together."

Considerations of economy determined them, spite of many misgivings,
to take passage in a merchantman from Leghorn. "I am suffering," she
writes, "as never before, from the horrors of indecision. Happy
the fowls of the air, who do not have to think so much about their
arrangements! The barque _Elizabeth_ will take us, and is said to be
an uncommonly good vessel, nearly new, and well kept. We may be two
months at sea, but to go by way of France would more than double the
expense. Yet, now that I am on the point of deciding to come in her,
people daily dissuade me, saying that I have no conception of what
a voyage of sixty or seventy days will be in point of fatigue
and suffering; that the insecurity, compared with packet-ships or
steamers, is great; that the cabin, being on deck, will be terribly
exposed, in case of a gale, &c., &c. I am well aware of the proneness
of volunteer counsellors to frighten and excite one, and have
generally disregarded them. But this time I feel a trembling
solicitude on account of my child, and am doubtful, harassed, almost
ill." And again, under date of April 21, she says: "I had intended,
if I went by way of France, to take the packet-ship _'Argo_,' from
Havre; and I had requested Mrs. ---- to procure and forward to me some
of my effects left at Paris, in charge of Miss F----, when, taking
up _Galignani_, my eye fell on these words: 'Died, 4th of April, Miss
F----; 'and, turning the page, I read, 'The wreck of the _Argo_,'--a
somewhat singular combination! There were notices, also, of the loss
of the fine English steamer _Adelaide_, and of the American packet
_John Skiddy._ Safety is not to be secured, then, by the wisest
foresight. I shall embark more composedly in our merchant-ship,
praying fervently, indeed, that it may not be my lot to lose my boy
at sea, either by unsolaced illness, or amid the howling waves; or, if
so, that Ossoli, Angelo, and I may go together, and that the anguish
may be brief."

Their state-rooms were taken, their trunks packed, their preparations
finished, they were just leaving Florence, when letters came, which,
had they re