“But oh! how I longed to go there! All my love of the historic, the romantic, the picturesque was engaged in that longing!
“On our landing at Naples I proposed to go.
“But he told me that at this season of the year the roads were so very bad as to render the journey impracticable.
“He took me to the ‘Vittoria,’ where we rested for a few days.
“Here again I wrote to my father, telling him of my first letter, which I feared had never reached him, and repeating at length the story of my marriage, and the plea for his pardon.
“I waited weeks for an answer before I gave up hope.
“Naples did not offer many sources of amusement, but we availed ourselves of all that was to be obtained.
“It was during our sojourn in this city that I gradually learned—what I was very unwilling to believe and very deeply distressed to know—namely, the nature of those resources of which Luigi had spoken to me; they were the gaming tables, at which he was almost always a successful player. My hero, and martyr, and patriot was a gambler!
“It was a great grief, and I never really recovered from it.
“He won large sums of money, and lavished gifts upon me which gave me no pleasure.