He had loved her with a rare degree of passion; the sudden reaction from the happiness of his wife's safety and his son's birth was terrible; it almost seemed a wrong to his grief to admit into his consciousness the new gladness of the time.

In this conflict of emotions his spirits and to some extent his health gave way.

He could not think of returning to his father's home without extreme pain--"It would break his heart," he said, "to see his mother's roses over the wall, and the place where she used to lay her scissors and gloves." He longed that his father and sister should quit the home of sorrow, and hasten to Florence; but this was not to be.

As for England, it could not be thought of as much on his wife's account as his own.

Her father held no communication with her; supplicating letters remained unnoticed; her brothers were temporarily estranged.