After the death of an old friend, G. B. Hunter, and then of her father, Barrett Browning's health started to deteriorate. The Brownings moved from Florence to Siena, residing at the "Villa Alberti". Engrossed in Italian politics, she issued a small volume of political poems titled "Poems before Congress" (1860) "most of which were written to express her sympathy with the Italian cause after the outbreak of fighting in 1859". They caused a furore in England, and the conservative magazines "Blackwood's" and the "Saturday Review" labelled her a fanatic. She dedicated this book to her husband. Her last work was "A Musical Instrument", published posthumously.