316 Mary Somerville. 



whom they never forgave for calling in the Austrian 

 troops after 1848. The French camp was a very 

 pretty sight ; some of the soldiers playing at games, 

 some mending their clothes, or else cooking. They 

 were not very particular as to what they ate, for one 

 of my daughters saw a soldier skin a rat and put it 

 into his soup-kettle. 



"We were invited by the Marchesa Lajatico, with 

 whom we were very intimate, to go and see the 

 entry of Victor Emmanuel into Florence from the 

 balcony of the Casa Corsini in the Piazza del Prato, 

 where she resides. The King was received with 

 acclamation : never was anything like the enthu- 

 siasm. Flowers were showered down from eveiy 

 window, and the streets were decorated with a taste 

 peculiar to the Italians. 



[I think the following extracts from letters written by 

 my mother during the year 1859 and the following, ever 

 memorable in Italian history, may not be unwelcome to 

 the reader. My mother took the keenest interest in all 

 that occurred. Owing to the liberal opinions she had 

 held from her youth, and to which she was ever constant, 

 all her sympathies were with the Italian cause, and she 

 rejoiced at every step which tended to unite all Italy in 

 one kingdom. She lived to see this great revolution 

 accomplished by the entry of Victor Emmanuel into 

 Rome as King of Italy; a consummation believed by 

 most politicians to be a wild dream of poets and hot- 

 headed patriots, but now realised and accepted as a 



