"Of course I was not in London, though I read I was, in a Scotch paper. I hope you and Mrs B. will not let May go over without a run to Paris and a peep at us here. It would be a great pleasure to see you.
"I am, as you may believe, very down in the mouth about my move. I feel as might a vicar leaving a snug parsonage to become bishop in the Cannibal Islands."
"I suspect my Trieste appointment is a bit of a white elephant. There will be a great deal to do, a large staff necessary, and the place is generally costly to live in. In fact, I believe it would have been fully as well for me to have retained my humble post at Spezzia, where, if I received little, I did less. But I was tired of being a country mouse, and began to fancy that I had a right to some more generous diet than hard peas.
"My poor wife has gone back sorely in health. I have many causes for uneasiness, but this is the worst of all."
"I enclose you the proof and a few pages to wind up 'The Adieu.'
"You will see ere long that I am right about L. Nap. He means to play us a slippery trick about the East. He bamboozled us into the Crimean War, and he is now going to juggle us out of its small benefits.
"My wife is at last a little better. I got to bed last night after twelve nights of half-sleep on the sofa. I am fairly knocked up, and for this and other reasons do look to the proof, and don't trust me.
"You have heard that Elliott has been appointed Ambassador to Constantinople. He is about the greatest ass in diplomacy,--a big word when one remembers Loftus at Berlin and Howard at Munich. Here is an epigram I made on his appointment:--
"F.O. is much puzzled, we all have heard recently, To find proper Envoys to send to each Court; And while Lyons at Paris may get along decently, We rejoice to hear Elliott _est mis à la Porte._"
"British Consulate, Trieste, _July_ 2,1867.
"Though my cry, like the starling's, is still 'I can't get out,' I exist in the hope that I am not to be left to die here.
"I send you a short bit on Miramar that I hope you may like. I'll follow it with something lighter, but I send this now to acknowledge your note and its eighteen-pounder (a shot in my locker that told with considerable effect). I see you will not pity me for being sentenced to this d------d place, but if you only saw the faces of the Shylocks you'd be more compassionate. If nothing else offer, I'll try and negotiate an exchange with Flynn. I'll be shot if there must not be something amongst the convicts more companionable than here."