Mrs. Browning died at Casa Guidi on June 29, 1861, soon after their return to Florence. She had had a return of the bronchial affection to which she was subject; and a new doctor who was called in discovered grave mischief at the lungs, which she herself had long believed to be existent or impending. But the attack was comparatively, indeed actually, slight; and an extract from her last letter to Miss Browning, dated June 7, confirms what her family and friends have since asserted, that it was the death of Cavour which gave her the final blow. '. . . We come home into a cloud here. I can scarcely command voice or hand to name 'Cavour'. That great soul which meditated and made Italy has gone to the diviner Country. If tears or blood could have saved him to us, he should have had mine. I feel yet as if I could scarcely comprehend the greatness of the vacancy. A hundred Garibaldis for such a man!' Her death was signalized by the appearance--this time, I am told, unexpected--of another brilliant comet, which passed so near the earth as to come into contact with it. Chapter 14 1861-1863 Miss Blagden--Letters from Mr. Browning to Miss Haworth and Mr. Leighton--His Feeling in regard to Funeral Ceremonies--Establishment in London--Plan of Life--Letter to Madame du Quaire--Miss Arabel Barrett--Biarritz--Letters to Miss Blagden--Conception of 'The Ring and the Book'--Biographical Indiscretion--New Edition of his Works--Mr. and Mrs. Procter. The friend who was nearest, at all events most helpful, to Mr. Browning in this great and sudden sorrow was Miss Blagden--Isa Blagden, as she was called by all her intimates. Only a passing allusion to her could hitherto find place in this fragmentary record of the Poet's life; but the friendship which had long subsisted between her and Mrs. Browning brings her now into closer and more frequent relation to it. She was for many years a centre of English society in Florence; for her genial, hospitable nature, as well as literary tastes (she wrote one or two novels, I believe not without merit), secured her the acquaintance of many interesting persons, some of whom occasionally made her house their home; and the evenings spent with her at her villa on Bellosguardo live pleasantly in the remembrance of those of our older generation who were permitted to share in them.