Mrs. Browning believed in him and trusted him. We did
neither. Hence the following interesting and curious letter, written
to my wife at Florence by Mrs. Browning, who was passing the summer at
Siena. Mrs. Browning felt very warmly upon this subject--so indeed did
my wife, differing from her _toto coelo_ upon it. But the difference
not only never caused the slightest suspension of cordial feeling
between them, but never caused either of them to doubt for a moment
that the other was with equal sincerity and equal ardour anxious for
the same end. The letter was written, as only the postmark shows, on
September 26th, 1859, and was as follows:--
* * * * *
"MY DEAR MRS. TROLLOPE,--I feel doubly ungrateful to you ... for the
music (one of the proofs of your multiform faculty) and for your kind
and welcome letter, which I have delayed to thank you for. My body
lags so behind my soul always, and especially of late, that you must
consider my disadvantages in whatever fault is committed by me trying
to forgive it.
"Certainly we differ in our estimate of the Italian situation, while
loving and desiring for Italy up to the same height and with the same
heart.
"For me I persist in looking to _facts_ rather than to words official
or unofficial, and in repeating that, 'whereas we were bound, now we
are free.'
"'I think, therefore, I am.' _Cogito, ergo sum_, was, you know, an old
formula.
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