[14] Jane’s mother.
[15] In The Last Man.
[16] The heroine of Valperga.
[17] Things have changed at the British Museum, not a little, since these words were written.
[18] In a letter of Clare’s, before this time, referring to the marriage of one of the Miss Robinsons, she remarks, “I am quite glad to think that for the future you may only have Percy and yourself to maintain.”
[19] The Miss Robinsons.
[20] Lodore.
[21] Such as the following, taken from the Preface: We have lately been accustomed to look on Italy as a discontented province of Austria, forgetful that her supremacy dates only from the downfall of Napoleon. From the invasion of Charles VIII till 1815 Italy has been a battlefield, where the Spaniard, the French, and the German have fought for mastery; and we are blind indeed if we do not see that such will occur again, at least among the two last. Supposing a war to arise between them, one of the first acts of aggression on the part of France would be to try to drive the Germans from Italy. Even if peace continue, it is felt that the papal power is tottering to its fall,—it is only supported because the French will not allow Austria to extend her dominions, and the Austrian is eager to prevent any change that may afford pretence for the French to interfere. Did the present Pope act with any degree of prudence, his power, thus propped, might last some time longer; but as it is, who can say how soon, for the sake of peace in the rest of Italy, it may not be necessary to curtail his territories.
The French feel this, and begin to dream of dominion across the Alps; the occupation of Ancona was a feeler put out; it gained no positive object except to check Austria; for the rest its best effect was to reiterate the lesson they have often taught, that no faith should be given to their promises of liberation.
[22] She had published her last novel, Falkner, in 1837.