'I won't try to paint with my poor pen the scene, but I was highly amused and in such imperturbable good humour, that even the captain of the _Tonnerre_, calling me a party man and attacking me as if I had fired at his nasty flag, did not make me call him what I might with truth have done, a Red. He would not eat, or drink, or do anything but fume. At last I coolly said "_Eh bien, Monsieur, c'est votre faute_." "Why, how, what you mean, Monsieur?" "That you have set the example of _Tricolor_, and desire all the world to adopt it, and are now angry because blue and green are so much alike, that after the sun has set one colour cannot be known from the other"; on which the Captain of the packet said _Bon!_ and laughed heartily; he was a good little man and made light of the whole affair. The French have insisted on the extreme of satisfaction in this case. 'The next morning I was with the municipal body at 5 A.M. I found them in the lowest possible state of despondency and terror, although there was a change for the better in the appearance of the National Guard. They with anxious looks led me to their chair, shut the doors and then revealed to me in low tones that the state of affairs was worse. Of this I felt sure that it would either end in a pillage and a massacre, or cease from that moment. 'They placed before me a letter of Avezzana's addressed to the municipal body, threatening them with energetic measures if they did not advance the revolt by more activity. I found he and Albertini had instituted a tribunal, Albertini as president, with power of life and death with instant execution. Guillotines were built; these poor devils were waiting their doom. I sent for him, by a civil message, of course, I taxed him roundly with his intentions and bad faith. He, cowed, answered in a subdued tone. In short, the game was up, he that day tried to put an insult on me through the flag, failed again, got aboard an American ship and fled that night. 'I can't go on with this story any longer, I have written it to its positive finish to amuse you, my dearest wife. I have told it very ill, it may form, when we meet, a subject for an evening's conversation, when I can fill up gaps, explain incongruities, but not read my own handwriting. 'If you show it to anyone, take care it is only to a mutual friend or sister; it is not fit to meet the eye of a critic or indeed of anyone, but it is a note of the time from which a statement might with some further details be made. 'I have not said a word of loss of life. The King of Sardinia has about 100 killed, 15 officers and 300 wounded. What the loss on the side of the revolt is, no one can tell. My surgeons attended the wounded, sent by me; all the time the hospitals were full, but they said more were carried home than went there. They must have buried their slain in the night, for I have seen many women who have never seen their sons or husbands since the day the firing began.