Letter to Mr. Greig. 817 



matter of course. My mother had always firm faith 

 in this result, and it was with inexpressible pleasure 

 she watched its completion. Our intimacy with the lead- 

 ing politicians both in Tuscany and Piedmont naturally 

 added to our interest. Kicasoli, Menabrea, Peruzzi, 

 Minghetti. &c., we knew intimately, as well as Camillo 

 Cavour, the greatest statesman Italy ever produced. No 

 one who did not witness it can imagine the grief and con- 

 sternation his death occasioned, and of which my mother 

 writes in a letter dated June 19th, 1861. 



FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ. 



FLORENCE, May 5th, 1859. 

 MY DEAREST W., 



Your letter of the 28th would have made me 

 laugh heartily were we not annoyed that you should 

 have suffered such uneasiness on our account ; the panic 

 in England is ridiculous and most unfounded. The 

 whole affair has been conducted with perfect unanimity 

 and tranquillity, so that there has been no one to fight 

 with. The Austrians are concentrated in Lombardy, 

 and not in Tuscany, nor is there any one thing to 

 disturb the perfect peace and quietness which prevail 

 over the whole country; not a soul thinks of leaving 

 Florence. You do the greatest injustice to the Tuscans. 

 From first to last not a person has been insulted, not a 

 cry raised against anyone ; even the obnoxious ministers 

 were allowed to go to their country houses without a 

 word of insult, and troops were sent with the Grand 

 Duke to escort him and his family to the frontier. 

 Martha and Mary went all through the town the morning 

 of the revolution, which was exactly like a common festa, 



