Soon after the entrance of the French, she wrote thus, to the resident Envoy of the United States:
My dear Mr. Cass, — I beg you to come and see me,
and give me your counsel, and, if need be, your aid, to
get away from Rome. From what I hear this morning,
I fear we may be once more shut up here; and I shall
die, to be again separated from what I hold most dear.
There are, as yet, no horses on the way we want to go,
or we should post immediately.
You may feel, like me, sad, in these last moments, to leave this injured Rome. So many noble hearts I abandon here, whose woes I have known! I feel, if I could not aid, I might soothe. But for my child, I would not go, till some men, now sick, know whether they shall live or die.
Her child! Where was he? In Rieti, — at the foot
of the Umbrian Apennines, — a day’s journey to the
north-east of Rome. Thither Margaret escaped with
her husband, and thence she wrote the following letter:
Dearest Mother, — I received your letter a few hours
before leaving Rome. Like all of yours, it refreshed me,
and gave me as much satisfaction as anything could, at
that sad time. Its spirit is of eternity, and befits an
epoch when wickedness and perfidy so impudently
triumph, and the best blood of the generous and honorable
is poured out like water, seemingly in vain.
I cannot tell you what I suffered to abandon the wounded to the care of their mean foes; to see the young men, that were faithful to their vows, hunted from their homes, — hunted like wild beasts; denied a refuge in
