Besides the British Minister with his standing grievance, which he advertised by never bringing Mrs. Merry to the President’s House after the fateful dinner, we read of two other foreign envoys who used to appear there spouseless. One was Sidi Mellanelli, who, Dr. Samuel Mitchill tells us, “came from Tunis to settle some differences between that regency and our Government. He is to all appearance upward of fifty years old; wears his beard and shaves his head after the manner of his country, and wears a turban instead of a hat. His dress consists simply of a short jacket, large, loose drawers, stockings, and slippers. When he goes abroad he throws a large hooded cloak over these garments; it is of a peculiar cut and is called a bernous. The colors of his drawers and bernous are commonly red. He seldom walks, but almost always appears on horseback. He is a rigid Mohammedan; he fasts, prays, and observes the precepts of the Koran. He talks much with the ladies, says he often thinks about his consort in Africa, and wonders how Congressmen can live a whole session without their wives.” The other unaccompanied diplomat was the French Minister, General Turreau, a man of humble birth who had risen to some eminence during the recent revolution in his country. Having once been imprisoned, he improved the opportunity to make love to his jailer’s daughter and marry her; but he appears to have tired of his bargain, and it was no secret that they led a most inharmonious life. According to Sir Augustus Foster, he was in the habit of horsewhipping her to the accompaniment of a violoncello played by his secretary to drown her cries, and the scandalized neighbors had finally to interfere. Doctor Mitchill’s version of the affair is that the Minister tried to send his wife back to France, and that, when she refused to leave and raised an outcry, a mob gathered at their house and enabled her to escape and go to live in peaceful poverty in Georgetown. The Doctor has little to say of Turreau’s ability, but dwells impressively on “the uncommon size and extent of his whiskers, which cover the greater part of his cheeks,” and on the profusion of lace with which his full-dress coat was decorated.