“8. Have not the Swiss and Walloon Guards, in Spain, now joined Buonaparte? “9. I must have, from good authority, the particulars of the contract made with the German Legion, about not being sent out of Europe. “It will be time enough to set about any part of this, after you have been here; but you will turn your mind to the several points in the meanwhile. “Be particular in attending, now, to any publication whatever, wherein mention is made of this prosecution, and especially if it has for its object the prejudicing of the public against me. When I get hold of such a thing, I shall begin my operations. “Do as you please about mentioning my intention to defend myself, to Hansard, or any of them; but be sure to tell them from me, that I hold the thing in contempt; that I am no more afraid of the rascals than I could be of so many mice. And, really, if we have an _honest jury_, it will be a famous thing altogether. “I thank you very kindly for your news about my wife. I am a great deal more anxious about her than about the prosecution.” He continues to remind his correspondent that it will answer no purpose to soothe his anxiety by flattering him with hopes of escape. At the end of the year, there is, however, still no prospect of the trial coming on. The following is dated 31st December:-- “What I want information about, relative to the approaching trial, is, in the first place, a reference to all the debates which you know anything of, against foreign troops.… You said that Mr. Bosville had a list of instances of those countries who had fallen under a defence by foreign troops. Can you get it from him? It would do for a mere enumeration in a speech. Arguments against a mercenary army apply equally well to foreign troops. I shall think of other matter in my next. I will prepare everything here against the 23rd, and, as soon as we find that the cause _is_ to come on, I will set off for London, and continue there till the cause be over. In the meanwhile, I will arrange a defence in my own way. If we have an honest, I mean an _impartial_ jury, I am no more afraid of Vicary than I am of a fly.” On the 8th January, he writes:-- “… I have read the trial of Tooke all through, and also his other trial, in the case of Fox’s action against him.… What villains he had to deal with! His life is a history of the hypocritical tyrannies of this jubilee[2] reign. I shall profit a good deal from this reading; but mine must be a defence of a different sort; less of law knowledge, and more of a plain story, and an appeal to the _good sense_ and _justice_ of my hearers. “I do not know that I mentioned the following things to you before:-- “1. That number of the _Courier_ which contained the article that I took for a motto to the flogging article.