“After one such day, she called me to her bedside, and said that I must consent, for her sake, to keep the SECRET she was about to confide.  Then she told me of her marriage; where her child was, and where he was born; and gave me certain papers and parchment documents which I was to keep; and, in the event of her and her husband’s death, I was to take the boy to her mother in America, and confide him to her care, and that of her friend, Mrs. ——.

“The papers thus given me, I had perfect liberty to read; but after she had told me her story, I desired no confirmation of this fact, beyond what her words had given.  One or two of the papers she opened, and we together read them.  One was written on parchment, in Latin, and was a certificate, given by the priest who married them, saying that Angelo Eugene Ossoli was the legal heir of whatever title and fortune should come to his father.  To this was affixed his seal, with those of the other witnesses, and the Ossoli crest was drawn in full upon the paper.  There was also a book, in which Margaret had written the history of her acquaintance and marriage with Ossoli, and of the birth of her child.  In giving that to me, she said, ’If I do not survive to tell this myself to my family, this book will be to them invaluable.  Therefore keep it for them.  If I live, it will be of no use, for my word will be all that they will ask.’  I took the papers, and locked them up.  Never feeling any desire to look into them, I never did; and as she gave them to me, I returned them to her, when I left Rome for Switzerland.

“After this, she often spoke to me of the necessity there had been, and still existed, for her keeping her marriage a secret.  At the time, I argued in favor of her making it public, but subsequent events have shown me the wisdom of her decision.  The explanation she gave me of the secret marriage was this: 

“They were married in December, soon after,—­as I think, though I am not positive,—­the death of the old Marquis Ossoli.  The estate he had left was undivided, and the two brothers, attached to the Papal household, were to be the executors.  This patrimony was not large, but, when fairly divided, would bring to each a little property,—­an income sufficient, with economy, for life in Rome.  Everyone knows, that law is subject to ecclesiastical influence in Rome, and that marriage with a Protestant would be destructive to all prospects of favorable administration.  And beside being of another religious faith, there was, in this case, the additional crime of having married a liberal,—­one who had publicly interested herself in radical views.  Taking the two facts together, there was good reason to suppose, that, if the marriage were known, Ossoli must be a beggar, and a banished man, under the then existing government; while, by waiting a little, there was a chance,—­a fair one, too,—­of an honorable post under