A Great Lady [pp. 454-465]

A GREA T LADY.4
procure and enshrine the dust of Madame Gozzadini's illustrious
ancestor; but an alarm spread that they were stealing the re mains, and a frantic mob pursued them to their hotel and were
only appeased by the appearance of the officials on a balcony,
who told the story and declared the poet's bones unharmed.
The dust, obtained with so much peril, rested in its shrine
among other memorials of the past, a very small bit, I believe,
having been sent to Longfellow. A splendidly illuminated and
bound "Dante Memorial Volume" was shown us, which had
been prepared by the city of Bologna as a wedding gift to the
fair daughter of the house, the last of the Alighieris.
I fain would linger over personal recollections of Madame
Gozzadini, whose remarkable life closed suddenly after that
bright October. Her whole time was devoted to the museum
for the next year, and it was to be opened with all the pomp and
bravery of an official occasion, and formally presented to the
city which the descendant of Dante loved as passionately as he
had loved Florence. Deputations from Florence, Ravenna, Pisa,
Turin, etc., flocked into the old town, the day was declared a
legal holiday, and Madame Gozzadini, having spent a fatiguing
five or six hours in the new museum on the eve of the presentation, retired to her "Hermitage" to rest, as she said, and be
bright on the long-looked-for morning. Her husband had some
final papers to prepare and she bade him good-night early, going
to her room cheerful and exhilarated by the feeling that the toil
ot years was to have its crown of success on the morrow. She
dismissed her maid with an injunction to be sure and call her in
full time for a careful toilette and quiet breakfast with her
husband. No hint of weakness was in voice or manner, and the
dread messenger must have come on swift and noiseless feet, for
they found her in an attitude of peaceful repose when the eventful day awoke, lying with her cheek resting on her hand, but the
stillness not to be broken ever upon earth! Afar off, the city of
Bologna was awakening to do its beloved patroness and friend
the very highest civic honor. The processions were forming;
speeches were being rehearsed, and crowds in gay "festa" dress
thronging the public squares and streets, but the great lady for
whom this earthly crown was waiting had received a visitor
whose treasures were those no human hand could bestow.
Lucy C. LILLIE.
VOL. XLV.-30
I 887.]
465