Correspondence

3557.  EBB & RB to Sarianna Browning

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 175–176.

[Postmark: 12 June 1855]

—Ba will tell you how it all went off: I have only to add that I much fear this will not arrive before ourselves. We start at 5. tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday)—Thursday mg Bastia, Friday, Marseilles—& thence to Paris by express train 18 hours only: we may rest there (at M.) first—or go on to Avignon for the night—still we ought to arrive at some time on Monday—with a night on the road—& this cannot reach you many hours before. God bless us all, & give us a happy meeting. RB.

[Continued by EBB]

My dearest Sarianna, we are coming– That’s the best we can say. I dare say you have set us down as unnatural creatures, both you & the dear nonno, for lingering so long–

As it is, I hope you will coax the elements that it may’nt snow the day we arrive, as it did in England (at Bexley) on the second of June–

We have just been marrying dear Wilson. It’s only a preparatory ceremony to what must take place instantly at Paris– Penini was loth to consent (“it made him tuite sick” to hear the marriage talked of) but he was finally pacified by the sight of the wedding-ring which “it was so velly tind of that dear Ferdinando to buy for Lily.” He was a witness, & gave his signature to the admiration of the clergyman—& now its agreed that Lily is to make Ferdinando “do evellysing I lite”– I conscientiously believe that she will be a happy woman.

You see the marriage ceremony between a catholic & protestant is not legal in Tuscany without a dispensation, which this present too amiable pope will not give just now. In France there’s no difficulty– Poor Tuscany, & Italy generally, is over-ridden by the “black hoof.” [1]

You may suppose in what confusion we are. My hand shakes so I can scarcely write what you will find readable–

May God bless you both. Penini consoles himself for leaving his rabbits with the idea of his nonno & Napoleon. As to England .. he wants to stay in Paris, he says.

I shall throw myself at Mrs Corkran’s feet & get pardoned. Oh– I have been so busy—& am not ready yet. But Robert is, which is a comfort——

Your ever affectionate

Ba–

I am afraid Mrs Shaw must have gone–

Address, in RB’s hand: À Mademoiselle / Mademoiselle Browning / Avenue Champs Elysées, 138. / Paris.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Lilly Library.

1. Although this expression is clearly intended as a derogatory reference to the Roman Catholic Church, EBB may be alluding to a mysterious occurrence in Devonshire that was reported by The Times of 16 February 1855 (p. 8): “It appears that, on Thursday night last [9 February], there was a very heavy fall of snow in the neighbourhood of Exeter and the south of Devon. On the following morning the inhabitants … were surprised at discovering the footmarks of some strange and mysterious animal, endowed with the power of ubiquity.” The report went on to describe footprints in the shape of hoofs, sometimes cloven, that were “seen in all kinds of unaccountable places—on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and courtyards, enclosed by high walls and palings, as well as in open fields.” There were those who believed that the footprints were “the marks of Satan himself.”

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