Year: 1862

guides, until, after many months exercise Of
their dangerous profession, the suspicious Of
their Austrian authorities fell on them and
they too were forced to fly with their only
child, little girl Of tender age, and take ref
uge at Modena.


Garibaldis noble forlorn hope was just then
setting forth for Sicily. Marinello quilted his
temporary refuge and hurried to join it, and
his wife, refused to be separated from him,
left him her little one to the care of a near
friend who promised to adopt her as his own,
and went to Genoa, where finding that the
expedition had already started, they set sail
in the 6rst fshing-boat that left the port for
Marsala.


Once there, Marinelo joined the Sacchi
brigade Of volunteers but though both he
ard his wife were well known for bravery
and good conduct to Col Farracini who COM
manded it, the stringent orders issued from
headquarters against the admission of women
into the ranks, rendered it matter of no
small difficulty for Tonina to remain at her
husbands side. She did, however, at length
prevail with the colonel and her name was
entered on the rolls as that of Antonio Ma
rimeIo, the boy-brother of her husband; nor
did any individual in the corps in which she
served during the whole campaign guess her
sex, which was known only to Coils. Farracina
and Bossi Her sight from the youthful sp-
pearance tailed well with that of a number
of the striplings who fought in the ranks be-
side her; she wore the common Garibaldi
uniform, and endured fatigue and hardship to
the full as well as her comrades-and the
hardships and fatigues Of that campaign were
neither slight nor few.


Her commanding officers give high testi-
mony to the valor, the discipline and the un-
tagging spirit of this unassuming little Vene-
tian heroine, who was decorated by the gener-
als own hand on the field of battle. They
say she was ever the first to volunteer for
some dangerous duty, and the last to quit her
post while that duty was unfulflled; and all
agree thai she gained the affection, respect and
admiration of her fellow soldiers, by her bra
very in the field, and her good humored help.


Tonina fought trough the campaign un-
scathed, though her husband received several
but not severe wounds When Capus was
taken, and the volunteer-corps were disband-
ed, husband and wife turned their steps again
towards Modena, and finding the friend dead
who had given a home to their child, brought
her on with them to Florence, and there liv-
cd poorly on from day to day, partly on their
own small earnings, and partly on the assist
ance given to them by the committee for the
Venetian emigration. 1t was not before the
wife was far gone in wasting disease of the
lungs that the extreme distress of the poor
household was fully known to those who had
means to relieve it. Succor was Immediately
and generously given; the dying mother was
placed under the best medical cure, and the
delicate little girl sent to the sea side and ad-
mitted into the>admiration Ospisy Maytni, or
hospital for sickly children, at Via Reggia.
But the help so much needed came too late
for poor Tonina, though the same care two or
three months earlier might have saved her
life. She died as meelly as she had lived, in
the home where she had struggled through
her last suffering year Of existence. The arms
she had borne in battle and her faded red
Garibaldi shirt were laid among the garlands
on her coffin; and simple gravestone viii

be placed above her at San liniato, where
the beautiful church terrace looks out over the
towers and domes of Florence to the sunlit
hills.