w if yet that woman smiles
With the calm smile; some little farm
She lives in there, no doubt: what harm 150
If I sat on the door-side bench,
And, while her spindle made a trench
Fantastically in the dust,
Inquired of all her fortunes--just
Her children's ages and their names,
And what may be the husband's aims
For each of them. I'd talk this out,
And sit there, for an hour about,
Then kiss her hand once more, and lay
Mine on her head, and go my way. 160

So much for idle wishing--how
It steals the time! To business now.

NOTES:
"The Italian in England." An Italian patriot who has taken
part in an unsuccessful revolt against Austrian dominance,
reflects upon the incidents of his escape and flight from
Italy to the end that if he ever should have a thought
beyond the welfare of Italy, he would wish first for the
discomfiture of his enemies and then to go and see once
more the noble woman who at the risk of her own life
helped him to escape. Though there is no exact historical
incident upon which this poem is founded, it has a
historical background. The Charles referred to (lines 8,
11, 20, 116, 125) is Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, of
the younger branch of the house of Savoy. His having
played with the patriot in his youth, as the poem says, is
quite possible, for Charles was brought up as a simple
citizen in a public school, and one of his chief friends was
Alberta Nota, a writer of liberal principles, whom he
made his secretary. As indicated in the poem, Charles
at first declared himself in sympathy, though in a somewhat
lukewarm manner, with the rising led by Santa Rosa against
Austrian domination in 1823, and upon the abdication of
Victor Emanuel he became regent of Turin. But when
the king Charles Felix issued a denunciation against the
new government, Charles Albert succumbed to the king's
threats and left his friends in the lurch. Later the Austrians
marched into the country, Santa Rosa was forced
to retreat from Turin, and, with his friends, he who might
well have been the very patriot of the poem was obliged
to fly from Italy.

19. Metternich: the distinguished Austrian diplomatist
and determined enemy of Italian independence.

76. Tenebrae: darkness. "The office of matins and
lauds, fo