The waiter came, and I went in with him.  I found my lovely Frenchwoman wearing a blue frock-coat, with her hair badly arranged like a man’s, but very charming even in that strange costume.  I longed to see her up.  She ate her breakfast without once interrupting the officer speaking to me, but to whom I was not listening, or listening with very little attention, for I was in a sort of ecstatic trance.

Immediately after breakfast, I called on the general, and related the affair to him, enlarging upon it in such a manner as to pique his martial pride.  I told him that, unless he settled the matter himself, the Hungarian captain was determined to send an express to the cardinal immediately.  But my eloquence was unnecessary, for the general liked to see priests attend to the business of Heaven, but he could not bear them to meddle in temporal affairs.

“I shall,” he said, “immediately put a stop to this ridiculous comedy, and treat it in a very serious manner.”

“Go at once to the inn,” he said to his aide-de-camp, “invite that officer and his companion to dine with me to-day, and repair afterwards to the bishop’s palace.  Give him notice that the officer who has been so grossly insulted by his ‘sbirri’ shall not leave the city before he has received a complete apology, and whatever sum of money he may claim as damages.  Tell him that the notice comes from me, and that all the expenses incurred by the officer shall be paid by him.”

What pleasure it was for me to listen to these words!  In my vanity, I fancied I had almost prompted them to the general.  I accompanied the aide-de-camp, and introduced him to the captain who received him with the joy of a soldier meeting a comrade.  The adjutant gave him the general’s invitation for him and his companion, and asked him to write down what satisfaction he wanted, as well as the amount of damages he claimed.  At the sight of the general’s adjutant, the ‘sbirri’ had quickly vanished.  I handed to the captain pen, paper and ink, and he wrote his claim in pretty good Latin for a native of Hungary.  The excellent fellow absolutely refused to ask for more than thirty sequins, in spite of all I said to make him claim one hundred.  He was likewise a great deal too easy as to the satisfaction he demanded, for all he asked was to see the landlord and the ‘sbirri’ beg his pardon on their knees in the presence of the general’s adjutant.  He threatened the bishop to send an express to Rome to Cardinal Alexander, unless his demands were complied with within two hours, and to remain in Cesena at the rate of ten sequins a day at the bishop’s expense.

The officer left us, and a moment afterwards the landlord came in respectfully, to inform the captain that he was free, but the captain having begged me to tell the scoundrel that he owed him a sound thrashing, he lost no time in gaining the door.