Paris November 15, 1859.
My dearest Frances,
I left Turin on Sunday evening by rail road
and came Westward to Susa at the foot of the
Alps, a very ancient but now decayed town. On
Monday morning I with an English Gentleman and lady
set out in a vetturino to cross the mountains. The vettur-
ino is a close carriage which is drawn up the
mountains by five horses, and down the declinity
by three. The day was very fine, and the going
exhilarating. We rose from the plain of Italy by rapid
ascent about 4000 feet, into the region of snow and
ice, Our descent was longer, We slept at night
in the mountains, and on the next day reached
Chambery at the foot of the mountain at a reasonable
hour. Chambery is the capitol of the ancient province of
Savoy, Savoy is practically in all respects like
Switzerland in its scenery and its population, altogether
politically it is a part of the state of the good King
Victor Emmanuel. Leaving Chambery at 6 on Wednesday
morning by rail road I reached Paris at 4 on
Thursday morning. Here I have spent two days in
reading your letters Fannys, some of friends and
the New York newspapers. I had heard nothing from

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in almost three months. How thankful I am
to learn now that all are well, and that no ruin
has fallen on my house and family.
I will not comment on the sad affair of Browns
death. You Know how sincerely I ^must^ deplore it and
lament it. If the New York Tribune were only a
little sincere it would be the most enlightened
journal of the world. I am not sure that it is not
now. But it is very stupid in it to suppose
that at this stage of the great question, the
sacrifice of a new victim by slavery can strengthen
it with the American People.
I have met here also details of the mad
invasion of Virginia by Brown. They have filled me
with sadness, How little the case is in its progress
to the case of Freemen – I have wondered at the
stoical firmness of the monomaniac – and our care but
sympathies with him in his fate. He rises morally
above his persecutors, so much that you almost forget
his criminality – I do not fear that this affair
will do political harm to our good cause, although
the adversary so shamelessly answer their hopes for it –
I do grieve over the loss of life and of impulsiveness
of the victims of the murders and taken for their
infatuations. But I almost fear to write any thing