Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/256

238 and, the gates being opened, Madame Ossoli, accompanied by the Marquis, immediately proceeded to Rieti, a village lying at the base of the Abruzzi Mountains, where she had left her child in the charge of a confidential nurse, formerly in the service of the Ossoli family. She remained, as you are no doubt aware, some months at Rieti, whence she removed to Florence, where she resided until her ill-fated departure for the United States. During this period I received several letters from her, all of which, though reluctant to part with them, I inclose to your address, in compliance with your request.

“I am, Madam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ”

The circumstances under which Margaret Fuller and her husband first met have been several times described; and every account of them must mainly rest upon the important narrative by Mrs. William W. Story, the greater part of which was published long since in the “Memoirs.” In this letter she not only describes the occasion when Madame Ossoli confided the secret of the marriage and placed the evidences of it in Mrs. Story’s hands; but she gives from immediate authority a narrative of the first interviews between those who were thus strangely brought together. If I vary somewhat from this account, as heretofore printed, it is because Mrs. Story’s original letter lies before me; and I have attached