The last I heard of Professor Schiff was that his enemies had prevailed, and that he had returned to Berne, welcomed by his own people.
In the November of this year, I revised “Ecce Homo,” and composed the “Double Soul,” both of which are in “New Symbols.” I also wrote “Lucilla, the First Saved,” at that time, a favourite of the good and gifted Christina Rossetti.
It was at this period that I was engaged on “The Sculptor” (M. Angelo). I sat in the Hall of Niobe for the manner, and stood in the Chapel of the Medici for the matter, of this little poem. I sent it as aforesaid, to Rossetti, who was at Kelmscott.
“Pythagoras,” too, was of this period.
In February, 1874, I wrote an article on some of Professor Schiff’s work, and sent it to Dr. Anstey, to be inserted in The Practitioner, in which it shortly appeared, giving much satisfaction to Schiff himself.
During this visit to “Florence my Fair,” I was in constant correspondence with D. G. Rossetti, Theodore Watts, and other friends; and I left behind me many there whom I had reason to esteem. Colonel and Mrs. Gillum showed me many kindly attentions, not the least of which was that of asking me to meet Madame Mazzini at their table. He, in common with that lady, took a deep interest in a recently deceased friend, Miss Blagden, who, through Mr. Watts, had appointed to meet me at Florence. She was an authoress of promise. But, before I reached Italy, she was lying in the English cemetery at Florence, where, with her friends, I visited her grave.
It was, however, as a social centre that she took her high position in Florence. She was the intimate friend of Mr. and Mrs. Browning, and she is the heroine of Madame Villari’s novel, “In Change Unchanged.”
LXIII.
I left Florence for Venice on the 2nd of March, 1874.