The evening of August 7, 1784

My dearest Capitane,

It is only my worry that you will learn of Sorrentinas difficulties from some careless gossip or the pages of the Gazette de Leyde and the Courrier dAvignon that leads me to disturb your peace with news my own.

I remain in Sorrentina, subject as are my traveling companions to the quarantine necessitated by the arrival of a ship carrying the Yellow Fever among its crew.

Do not be concerned, for I am well, having taken precautions.

As the Magistrates of Sorrentina told us of the outbreak of Fever, my mind presented me with images of you soon after your return from the American War of Independence. It was early-spring and we sat in vineyards, surrounded by newly pruned vines covered with unfurling leaves under the hard light of the Haut-Medoc, the sun warming your face cradled in my lap, your legs outstretched and your eyes drowsy with the effects of new wine. As you passed into sleep you described meetings between the Marquis de Lafayette and the American military leaders where you presented your calculation of the British losses during the 1780 summer campaigns against Revolutionary forces in Georgia, Florida and Carolina and concluded that Sir Henry Clintons siege of Charleston during the sickly months would ultimately prove the Britishs undoing.

Soon after your return from Yorktown, the Marquis conveyed an accounting of his debt to you for your analysis, confirming that Lord Cornwallis confessed that saving his army from another Carolina fever season led him to move north to Virginia as you predicted he wouldand there meet defeat in Yorktown where the American troops waited to engage him.

But enough of my proof to you of my attention to your battle tales! I also remembered the counsel Fr. Camara imparted to you as you prepared to depart for the Americas. Do you remember the pages he copied from a faded manuscript in the Societys possession and gave to you to carry to America? The author was known to Jesuits in Mexico and New Spain many years prior to the Suppression, a Jos de Patricio de los Ros who believed the Fever originated in tiny insects coming from lagoons.

Thanks be to God for godfathers scholarship, for like you, I heeded the wisdom of de los Rios and covered my skin and used my hand fan to keep air circulating about my person whenever I was about in Sorrentina. My wrists grew tired, but the mosquitos near the fountain in the plaza found no landing spot on my person.

Of the 500 souls of Sorrentina there have been few taken with the Fever, and I have no doubt that is due to the efficiency of the Magistrates and the cooperation of the citizens. Two doctors and nursing sisters from the mainland have cared for the sick and the well, exposing themselves to the disease with the confidence of those who know they do Gods work and trust in his protection. They have been spared.

One young womana traveler from Romawas less fortunate. As I write you late in the evening from the cool of my borrowed apartment, she remains in the Lazaretto, fighting for her own life and that of her child that is coming.

She has no husband. She is estranged from her family. I am moved by her plight and the similarity to that of my own mother. I pray you will understand that it is this young woman who keeps me in Sorrentina. I will not leave until her child is born and settled with a family who will give it a name and the security of a home other than that of an orphanage. I have written to the young woman offering to provide the necessary funds to sponsor the child, provide for its financial support and stand as its godmother.

Pray that the child and mother live and that my offer is accepted, and know that I do not sleep without thoughts of our reunion to comfort me.

Your Lorsagne