we discovered the thrush,—­the animal being warranted sound.  I sent to reclaim the contract and the money.  The lieutenant desired to speak with me in person.  I consented.  He came.  It was his own particular request.  He began a story.  I asked him if he would return the money.  He said no—­but he would exchange.  He asked an exorbitant price for his other horses.  I told him that he was a thief.  He said he was an officer and a man of honour, and pulled out a Parmesan passport signed by General Count Neifperg.  I answered, that as he was an officer, I would treat him as such; and that as to his being a gentleman, he might prove it by returning the money:  as for his Parmesan passport, I should have valued it more if it had been a Parmesan cheese.  He answered in high terms, and said that if it were the morning (it was about eight o’clock in the evening) he would have satisfaction.  I then lost my temper:  ‘As for THAT,’ I replied, ’you shall have it directly,—­it will be mutual satisfaction, I can assure you.  You are a thief, and, as you say, an officer; my pistols are in the next room loaded; take one of the candles, examine, and make your choice of weapons.’  He replied, that pistols were English weapons; he always fought with the sword.  I told him that I was able to accommodate him, having three regimental swords in a drawer near us:  and he might take the longest and put himself on guard.

“All this passed in presence of a third person.  He then said No; but to-morrow morning he would give me the meeting at any time or place.  I answered that it was not usual to appoint meetings in the presence of witnesses, and that we had best speak man to man, and appoint time and instruments.  But as the man present was leaving the room, the Lieutenant * *, before he could shut the door after him, ran out roaring ‘Help and murder’ most lustily, and fell into a sort of hysteric in the arms of about fifty people, who all saw that I had no weapon of any sort or kind about me, and followed him, asking him what the devil was the matter with him.  Nothing would do:  he ran away without his hat, and went to bed, ill of the fright.  He then tried his complaint at the police, which dismissed it as frivolous.  He is, I believe, gone away, or going.

“The horse was warranted, but, I believe, so worded that the villain will not be obliged to refund, according to law.  He endeavoured to raise up an indictment of assault and battery, but as it was in a public inn, in a frequented street, there were too many witnesses to the contrary; and, as a military man, he has not cut a martial figure, even in the opinion of the priests.  He ran off in such a hurry that he left his hat, and never missed it till he got to his hostel or inn.  The facts are as I tell you, I can assure you.  He began by ‘coming Captain Grand over me,’ or I should never have thought of