All this excitement has made Florence quite unlike its quiet self, in spite of the flight of many residents and nearly all travellers.  Even we have been stirred up to wander about more than our custom here.  There’s something that forbids us to sit at home; we run in and out after the bulletins, and to hear and give opinions; and then, in the rebound, we have been caught and sent several times to the theatre (so unusual for us) to see the great actor, Salvini, who is about to leave Florence.  We saw him in ‘Othello’ and in ‘Hamlet,’ and he was very great in both, Robert thought, as well as I. Only his houses pine, because, as he says, the ‘true tragedies spoil the false,’ and the Italians have given up the theatres for the cafes at this moment of crisis....

In best love,
BA.

* * * * *

After Villafranca the immediate anxiety for news from the seat of war naturally came to an end, and the Brownings were able to escape from the heat of Florence to Siena, where they remained about three months.

* * * * *

To Miss Browning

Siena:  [July-August 1859].

Dearest Sarianna,—­This to certify that I am alive after all; yes, and getting stronger, and intending to be strong before long, though the sense left to me is of a peculiar frailty of being; no very marked opinion upon my hold of life.  But life will last as long as God finds it useful for myself and others—­which is enough, both for them and me.

So well I was with all the advantages of Rome in me looking so well, that I was tired of hearing people say so.  But, though it may sound absurd to you, it was the blow on the heart about the peace after all that excitement and exultation, that walking on the clouds for weeks and months, and then the sudden stroke and fall, and the impotent rage against all the nations of the earth—­selfish, inhuman, wicked—­who forced the hand of Napoleon, and truncated his great intentions.  Many young men of Florence were confined to their beds by the emotion of the news.  As for me, I was struck, couldn’t sleep, talked too much, and (the intense heat rendering one more susceptible, perhaps) at last this bad attack came on.  Robert has been perfect to me.  For more than a fortnight he gave up all his nights’ rest to me, and even now he teaches Pen.  They are well, I thank God.  We stay till the end of September.  Our Italians have behaved magnificently, steadfast, confident, never forgetting (except in the case of individuals, of course) their gratitude to France nor their own sense of dignity.  Things must end well with such a people.  Few would have expected it of the Italians.  I hear the French ambassador was present at the opening of the Chambers the other day at Florence, which was highly significant.

I suppose you are by the sea, and I hope you and the dearest nonno are receiving as much good from air and water as you desired.  May God bless you both.