April 25 Monday – In Rome Sam wrote to Joe Twichell, having received his letter (not extant). Sam wrote of an “adventure which was vouchsafed to two Englishmen in the Campagna yesterday.”
Two young Englishmen — one of them a friend of mine — were away out there yesterday, with a pleasant guide of the region who is a simple-hearted & very devout Roman Catholic. At one point the guide stopped, & said they were now approaching a spot where two especially ferocious dogs were accustomed to herd sheep; that it would be well to go cautiously & be prepared to retreat if they saw the dogs. So then they started on, but presently came suddenly upon the dogs. The immense brutes came straight for them, with death in their eyes. The guide said in a voice of horror, “Turn your backs, but for God’s sake don’t stir — I will pray — I will pray the Virgin to do us a miracle & save us; she will hear me, oh, my God she surely will.” And straightway he began to pray. The Englishmen stood quaking with fright, & wholly without faith in the man’s prayer. But all at once the furious snarling of the dogs ceased — at three steps distant — & there was dead silence. After a moment my friend, who could no longer endure the awful suspense, turned — & there was the miracle, sure enough: the gentleman dog had mounted the lady dog & both had forgotten their solemn duty in the ecstasy of a higher interest!
The strangers were saved, & they retired from that place with thankful hearts. The guide was in a frenzy of pious gratitude & exultation, & praised & glorified the Virgin without stint; & finally wound up with “But you — you are Protestants; she would not have done it for you; she did it for me — only me — praised be she forever more! & I will hang a picture of it in the church & it shall be another proof that her loving care is still with her children who humbly believe & adore.”
By the time the dogs got unattached the men were five miles from there [MTP].
Sam’s notebook:
Monday, call at Palazzo Borghese at 12.45 & go with Miss Page on that visit.
Monday from 2 to 3 p.m. sit for Miss Meadows, Via di Grecci 15.
Monday eve, Marriage of Figaro [NB 31 TS 37].
Fanny G. Howard wrote from Medford, Mass. to Sam; another reaction to and personal examples of the concepts from Sam’s article on “Mental Telegraphy” [MTP].
Charles Marseilles, who signed himself “Journalist” wrote from Exeter, N.H. asking Sam where he might buy “the very choicest” Mark Twain Scrap book to send abroad to a “Royal personage” [MTP].