Escaped
Title
Escaped
Alt Text Description
Grayscale illustration of a cloaked woman leaning against a tree, behind her lays the city of Florence.
Description
Having fled Florence after leaving Tito, Romola pauses beneath a tree dressed as a penitent nun, deliberately turning her back on the city that betrayed and confined her. As she waits anxiously for the passing monks, the scene captures the immediate result of her escape: a hard-won freedom shadowed by isolation and uncertainty.
“She turned her back on Florence, not meaning to look at it till the monks were quite out of sight; and raising the edge of her cowl again when she had seated herself, she discerned Maso and the mules at a distance where it was not hopeless for her to overtake them, as the old man would propably linger in expectation of her. Meanwhile she might pause a little. She was free and alone" ("The Tabernacle Unlocked", Chapter 37 ).
“She turned her back on Florence, not meaning to look at it till the monks were quite out of sight; and raising the edge of her cowl again when she had seated herself, she discerned Maso and the mules at a distance where it was not hopeless for her to overtake them, as the old man would propably linger in expectation of her. Meanwhile she might pause a little. She was free and alone" ("The Tabernacle Unlocked", Chapter 37 ).
Illustrator
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896)
Contributor
Swain, Joseph (1820-1909), engraver
Publisher
George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org
Date
1863, 1880
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Work Illustrated
Romola
Citation
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896), Escaped, George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83589
Illustration
