It is recorded that both dreaded the voyage, as d'Ossoli had been told by a fortune-teller to avoid the sea, and Margaret had a strong presentiment of disaster.
They sailed May 5, 1850, and from the first the voyage was a bad one. The captain died of small-pox and had to be buried at sea. Then wind-storms delayed them; and when little Angelo was taken ill with small-pox, the agony of the parents may be imagined. The child recovered, but on July 19, during a terrific gale, the vessel was wrecked off Fire Island, and Margaret, her husband, and her child were lost.
A trunk containing papers and manuscripts belonging to Margaret was picked up, and in this way her relatives and friends came to know the true history of her life abroad.
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
(1811-1896)
"Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her at the gates."
—Solomon