the forty horses hitherto stabled in the _bergerie_ among the poor villagers, who already have more than is good for them. The Duke of Wellington’s ideas of discipline, &c., are rigid--his mode of administering it summary; but he is frequently led into acts of the grossest injustice. A notorious instance of this I am now suffering under, and one that makes the _bergerie_ business a mere flea-bite. Only a few days ago, whilst sitting after dinner at our little mess, an officer of the mounted staff corps (_gendarmerie Anglaise_) was announced. He regretted being the bearer of disagreeable orders, &c. &c., but Colonel Scovell, commandant of the mounted staff corps, had directed him to show me the paper, which he produced, and to inform me that his Grace had ordered it should be immediately complied with. Further, that the Duke was excessively angry, and had expressed himself very harshly on the subject; therefore Colonel Scovell recommended me to make no remonstrance, as he could not foresee what might be the consequence. The paper was a petition from a certain M. Fauigny (an Italian), setting forth, I think, that he is proprietor of the Grand chateau which has been miserably plundered; but more particularly that the English troops now quartered in the village have stripped the lead off the roofs, from the baths, water-pipes, &c. &c., and sold it. This is, as nearly as I remember, the petition. A note written with a pencil by the Duke himself on the margin was too brief and pithy not to be remembered, and here it is, _verbatim_: “Colonel Scovell will find out whose troop this is, and they shall pay.--W.” I was thunderstruck at the complaint and the decision--the one so unfounded, the other so cruelly unjust. I signed an acknowledgment of having seen the order; and the officer took his leave, recommending me to try and compromise with M. Fauigny, who stated the damage at about 7000 or 8000 francs. Upon inquiry of M. Bonnemain, he asserts that this M. Fauigny is the agent of Jerome Buonaparte, to whom the chateau actually belongs, as we were told by the Prussians who plundered it.