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impossible to make her understand that we can do nothing, absolutely nothing to help her. The trial alone will decide whether or not he is to be freed. It would seem that he stands a good chance, for his attitude has been decidedly anti-Fascist since the King abdicated and what is more he has accepted no benefits from the new Republic. The Sfollata related to us that she knew through the wife of another incarcerated Professor, that her husband's gold wrist-watch presented to him by his pupils, had been taken from him by the British escort conveying him from one prison to another, and when he protested they prodded him in the ribs. This she related to us with even more tears. She lovs the Allies and has been awaiting their arrival with impatience.

August 21st For the first time since the destruction of the bridges we went down to Florence. The sight of the ruins completely benumbed us. A way had been made across the Ponte Vecchio through the debris of stone, bricks and plaster. Here where had stood buildings mossed by centuries, dense and compact, set with irregular and happy incidents, of balconies half seen, of statues smiling into space, of towers, loggias, arches, all teeming with their present use and their past history, now in their stead rise skeleton structures overlooking an area of white dust-shrouded mounds, hollow apparitions in a snow-covered cemetery. Through the thickly powdered pathway people were clambering up and down, stumbling over sharp