February 2 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon was “attacked” by the Countess Masiglia’s donkey [Feb. 8 to Duneka], if it was hers. Hill writes:
Then the countess’s donkey—or at any rate a donkey which Clemens said was hers, although she denied the ownership—joined the battle. It was Miss Lyon who suffered, by her own account,
A shock to my nervous system; for the Countess’s donkey, a creature that has killed his 2 men, suddenly appeared before me [on February 2, 1904]. … I knew that if he could get at me he would kill me….Like one in a nightmare I fled up the long winding hill, but before I reached the top my heart began to fail me….For 5 days I lay like one in a dream, but soon I pulled myself together enough to go unsatisfactorily about my work [73].
Note: Trombley gives a somewhat fuller quotation from Isabel’s diary, noting the event “abruptly ended” Sam’s autobiographical dictation sessions recently initiated [MTOW 34]. On Feb. 8 Sam would write Duneka that the donkey attack brought his magazine work “to a sudden standstill.”
Sam’s notebook: “Wedding anniversary 1870 – 1904. 34 years / Miss Lyon frightened by the crazy donkey this morning” [NB 47 TS 5].
Sam met Mrs. Laing Gordon at the Villa Bel Riposo [Feb. 3 from Dr. Laing Gordon].
February 2, after – Clara Clemens wrote a sort note to her father: “Father dear don’t say anything to Mother about this till I see how she feels Katie [says] she is very miserable.” Sam wrote on the note, “As to whether I am to advise Miss Lyon to bring suit against the countess. Miss Lyon’s scare” [MTP: DV 245]. Note: stemming from the donkey-scare incident on Feb. 2.