She had the air of a person who fears an evil not yet arrived.

"In taking leave of her," says Petrarch, "I sought in her looks for a consolation of my own sufferings.

Her eyes had an expression which I had never seen in them before.

What I saw in her face seemed to predict the sorrows that threatened me." This was the last meeting that Petrarch and Laura ever had.
Petrarch set out for Italy, towards the close of 1347, having determined to make that country his residence for the rest of his life.
Upon his arrival at Genoa he wrote to Rienzo, reproaching him for his follies, and exhorting him to return to his former manly conduct.

This advice, it is scarcely necessary to say, was like dew and sunshine bestowed upon barren sands.
From Genoa he proceeded to Parma, where he received the first information of the catastrophe of the Colonna family, six of whom had fallen in battle with Rienzo's forces.