But let me tell you of my thin slice of a wicked book. Yes, I shall expect you to read it, and I send you an order for it to Chapman, therefore. Everybody will hate me for it, and so _you must_ try hard to love me the more to make up for that. Say it's mad, and bad, and sad; but _add_ that somebody did it who meant it, thought it, felt it, throbbed it out with heart and brain, and that she holds it for truth in conscience and not in partisanship. I want to tell you (oh, I can't help telling you) that when the ode was read before Peni, at the part relating to Italy his eyes overflowed, and down he threw himself on the sofa, hiding his face. The child has been very earnest about Italian politics. The heroine of that poem called 'The Dance'[74] was Madame di Laiatico. The 'Court Lady' is an individualisation of a general fashion, the ladies at Milan having gone to the hospitals in full dress and in open carriages. Macmahon taking up the child[75] is also historical. I believe the facts to be in the book: 'He has done it all,'[76] were Cavour's words. When you see an advertisement and have an opportunity to apply at Chapman's, do so 'by this sign' enclosed. I read of you in the papers, stirring up the women. Write and say how you are, and where you are. [_Part of this letter is missing._] Your ever very affectionate BA. I hope you liked the article on the immorality of luncheon-rooms in your high-minded 'Saturday Review.' FOOTNOTES: [62] Prime Minister of Piedmont from 1849-52, and one of the most honourable and patriotic of Italian statesmen. [63] Subsequently English ambassador at Berlin, and one of the plenipotentiaries at the Berlin Congress of 1878. Created Lord Ampthill in 1881, and died in 1884. [64] Now in the possession of Mr. R. Barrett Browning. [65] The conferences for the arrangement of the final treaty of peace were held at Zurich. [66] Of Tuscany with Piedmont, which was voted by Tuscany in August. Modena, Parma, and Romagna did the same, and so made the critical step towards the creation of a united Italy. [67] It was supposed that Napoleon contemplated constituting Central Italy, or at least Tuscany, into a kingdom for his brother Jerome, and that it was for this reason that the latter had been sent to Florence with a French corps at the beginning of the war. [68] Napoleon being opposed to the idea of a united Italy, Victor Emmanuel did not consider it wise to accept the proffered crown of Central Italy while a French army was still in the country and the terms of peace were not finally settled. [69] The new Duke of Tuscany. He had succeeded to this now very shadowy throne on July 21 of this year. [70] Not on account of bad riding, be it observed, but of daring and venturesome riding. [71] Mr. Chorley had dedicated his last novel, _Roccabella_, to Mrs. Browning. [72] 'Do you see this ring? 'Tis Rome-work, made to match (By _Castellani's_ imitative craft) Etrurian circlets,' etc.