ached her a week earlier, would probably have induced them
to remain in Italy. But Margaret had already by letter appointed a
rendezvous for the scattered members of her family in July; and she
would not break her engagements with the commander of the barque. It
was destined that they were to sail,--to sail in the _Elizabeth_, to
sail then. And, even in the hour of parting, clouds, whose tops were
golden in the sunshine, whose base was gloomy on the waters, beckoned
them onward. "Beware of the sea," had been a singular prophecy, given
to Ossoli when a boy, by a fortune-teller, and this was the first ship
he had ever set his foot on. More than ordinary apprehensions of risk,
too, hovered before Margaret. "I am absurdly fearful," she writes,
"and various omens have combined to give me a dark feeling. I am
become indeed a miserable coward, for the sake of Angelino. I fear
heat and cold, fear the voyage, fear biting poverty. I hope I shall
not be forced to be as brave for him, as I have been for myself, and
that, if I succeed to rear him, he will be neither a weak nor a bad
man. But I love him too much! In case of mishap, however, I shall
perish with my husband and my child, and we may be transferred to
some happier state." And again: "I feel perfectly willing to stay my
threescore years and ten, if it be thought I need so much tuition from
this planet; but it seems to me that my future upon earth will soon
close. It may be terribly trying, but it will not be so very long,
now. God will transplant the root, if he wills to rear it into
fruit-bearing." And, finally: "I have a vague expectation of some
crisis,--I know not what. But it has long seemed, that, in the year
1850, I should stand on a plateau in the ascent of life, where I
should be allowed to pause for a while, and take more clear and
commanding views than ever before. Yet my life proceeds as regularly
as the fates of a Greek tragedy, and I can but accept the pages as
they turn." * *

* * * * *

These were her parting words:--

"_Florence, May 14, 1850._--I will believe, I shall be welcome
with my treasures,--my husband and child. For me, I long so much
to see you! Should anything hinder our meeting upon earth, think
of your daughter, as one who always wished, at least, to do her
duty, and who always cherished you, according as her mind opened
to discover excellence.

"Give dear love, too, to my brother