Florence: [about June 1859.]

My dearest Sarianna,--There is a breath of air giving one strength to
hold one's pen at this moment. How people can use swords in such
weather it's difficult to imagine. We have been melting to nothing, like
the lump of sugar in one's tea, or rather in one's lemonade, for tea
grows to be an abomination before the sun. The heat, which lingered
unusually, has come in on us with a rush of flame for some days past,
suggesting, however, the degree beyond itself, which is coming. We stay
on at Florence because we can't bear to go where the bulletin twice a
day from the war comes less directly; and certainly we shall stay till
we can't breathe here any more. On which contingency our talk is to go
somewhere for two months. Meanwhile we stay.

You can't conceive of the intense interest which is reigning here, you
can't realise it, scarcely. In Paris there is vivid interest, of course,
but that is from less immediate motives, except with persons who have
relations in the army. Here it is as if each one had a personal enemy in
the street below struggling to get up to him. When we are anxious we are
pale; when we are glad we have tears in our eyes. This 'unnecessary' and
'inexcusable' war (as it has been called in England) represents the only
hope of a nation agonising between death and life. You _talk_ about our
living or dying, but _we live or die_. That's the difference between you
and us.

We shall live, however. The hope is rising into triumph. Nobody any more
will say that the Italians fight ill. Remember that Garibaldi has with
him simply the _volunteers_ from all parts of Italy, not the trained
troops. He and they are heroic (as with such conviction and faith they
were sure to be), and the trained troops not less so. 'Worthy of
fighting side by side with the French,' says the Emperor; while the
French are worthy of their fame. 'The great military power' crumbles
before them, because souls are stronger than bodies always. There is no
such page of glory in the whole history of France. Great motives and
great deeds. The feeling of profound gratitude to Napoleon III., among
this people here, is sublime from its unanimity and depth....

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.