“It is not now I need tell you what a miserable hand I am at correcting a proof. The man who has never been able, after fifty odd years’ experience of his own nature, to correct one of his own faults, can scarcely have much success in dealing with his printers’. Look, therefore, to this for me, and let me come decently before the public. I have added a bit to Garibaldi’s which is certainly _true_, whatever men may think of it in England. “I am afraid I am not equal to a notice (a worthy notice) of Aytoun. I never knew [him] personally, and I suspect it should be one who did should now recall his fine traits of heart as well as of intellect. All I know of him I liked sincerely. “I abhor Cockneydom as much as you do! Without being a Fenian, I have an Irishman’s hate of the Londoner. “Only think of what a lucky dog I am! All our clothes, &c, coming from Florence have been shipwrecked in the Adriatic. They were sent from Ravenna, and the craft was wrecked off Pola. I must make an O’D. of it!” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Consulate, Trieste, _Nov_. 16,1867. “Thanks for your note and its enclosure. “You are mistaken if you think I invented the Nobility Association, or that it is a hoax. It is _bona fide_, every bit of it; and I have added a note which you can insert if you suspect that your own incredulity may be felt by others. “I have added a page also to ‘Garibaldi.’ It is, to my mind, so essential to a right reading of the present position of Italy to place briefly the whole incident before the reader, that I think it now will display events as they have been, as they might have been, and as they are. “To comply with your wish to return proof by post, I have, I fear, corrected laxly; but you will, I know, look to my ‘shortcomings.’ “I suspect Serjeant Brownlow’s reminiscences would make an amusing review. If you think so, send it to me, and I’ll try. “My wife is again very ill, a relapsed [ ] of the lung, and I am dreary--dreary.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Trieste, _Dec_. 2. “I send you for your New Year No. the best magazine story I think I ever wrote. “I only hope you may agree with me,--at all events you will tell me what you think of it, and let me have early proof.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “British Consulate, Trieste, _Dec_ 6, 1867. “I return you ‘Bob Considine,’ hurriedly, but I hope effectually, corrected. I sincerely hope it may appear New Year’s Day: I have a superstition of a good start on that day. “Your note contained no cheque, and I suppose you may have found it on your table since, but you can annex it to ‘Bob’ when you write. “We are going to have a mournful spectacle here--the funeral reception of the poor Mexican Emperor’s remains. It will be, they say, very solemn and imposing. “I find I could not improve the wind-up, and left it unchanged. As to how mad Bob turned out afterwards is nothing to either of us, though I own I think the case hazardous.