The government of Rome, at this time, was in the hands of a triumvirate, whose names--Armellini, Mazzini, and Saffi--are appended to the official communications made in answer to the letters of the French Envoy, M. de Lesseps, and of the Commander-in-Chief, General Oudinot. The French side of this correspondence presented but a series of tergiversations, the truth being simply that the opportunity of reinstating the Roman Pontiff in his temporal domain was too valuable to be allowed to pass, by the adventurer who then, under the name of President, already ruled France by military despotism. In the great game of hazard which he played, the prospective adhesion of the Pope's spiritual subjects was the highest card he could hold. The people who had been ignorant enough to elect Louis Napoleon, were easily led to justify his outrageous expedition to Rome. In Margaret's manifold disappointments, Mazzini always remained her ideal of a patriot, and, as she says, of a prince. To her, he stands alone in Italy, "on a sunny height, far above the stature of other men." He came to her lodgings in Rome, and was in appearance "more divine than ever, after all his new, strange sufferings." He had then just been made a Roman citizen, and would in all probability have been made President, had the Republic continued to exist. He talked long with Margaret, and, she says, was not sanguine as to the outcome of the difficulties of the moment. The city once invested, military hospitals became a necessity. The Princess Belgiojoso, a Milanese by birth, and in her day a social and political notability, undertook to organize these establishments, and obtained, by personal solicitation, the funds necessary to begin her work. On the 30th of April, 1849, she wrote the following letter to Margaret:-- "DEAR MISS FULLER,--You are named Superintendent of the Hospital of the _Fate Bene Fratelli_. Go there at twelve, if the alarm-bell has not rung before. When you arrive there, you will receive all the women coming for the wounded, and give them your directions, so that you are sure to have a number of them, night and day. "May God help us! "CHRISTINE TRIVULZE, OF BELGIOJOSO." CHAPTER XV. SIEGE OF ROME.--MARGARET'S CARE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.--ANXIETY ABOUT HER HUSBAND AND CHILD.--BATTLE BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ITALIAN TROOPS.--THE SURRENDER.--GARIBALDI'S DEPARTURE.--MARGARET JOINS HER HUSBAND AT HIS POST.--ANGELO'S ILLNESS.--LETTERS FROM FRIENDS IN AMERICA.--PERUGIA.--WINTER IN FLORENCE.--MARGARET'S DOMESTIC LIFE.--ASPECT OF HER FUTURE.--HER COURAGE AND INDUSTRY.--OSSOLI'S AFFECTION FOR HER.--WILLIAM HENRY HURLBUT'S REMINISCENCES OF THEM BOTH.--LAST DAYS IN FLORENCE.--FAREWELL VISIT TO THE DUOMO.--MARGARET'S EVENINGS AT HOME.--HORACE SUMNER.--MARGARET AS A FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE.