"I had him partly stripped--made the surgeon examine him, and examined him myself. He had been shot by cut balls, or slugs. I felt one of the slugs, which had gone through him, all but the skin. Every body conjectures why he was killed, but no one knows how. The gun was found close by him--an old gun, half filed down.
"He only said, 'O Dio!' and 'Gesu!' two or three times, and appeared to have suffered little. Poor fellow! he was a brave officer, but had made himself much disliked by the people. I knew him personally, and had met him often at conversazioni and elsewhere. My house is full of soldiers, dragoons, doctors, priests, and all kinds of persons,--though I have now cleared it, and clapt sentinels at the doors. To-morrow the body is to be moved. The town is in the greatest confusion, as you may suppose.
"You are to know that, if I had not had the body moved, they would have left him there till morning in the street, for fear of consequences. I would not choose to let even a dog die in such a manner, without succour--and, as for consequences, I care for none in a duty. Yours, &c.
"P.S. The lieutenant on duty by the body is smoking his pipe with great composure.--A queer people this."
"You will or ought to have received the packet and letters which I remitted to your address a fortnight ago (or it may be more days), and I shall be glad of an answer, as, in these times and places, packets per post are in some risk of not reaching their destination.
"I have been thinking of a project for you and me, in case we both get to London again, which (if a Neapolitan war don't suscitate) may be calculated as possible for one of us about the spring of 1821. I presume that you, too, will be back by that time, or never; but on that you will give me some index. The project, then, is for you and me to set up jointly a _newspaper_--nothing more nor less--weekly, or so, with some improvement or modifications upon the plan of the present scoundrels, who degrade that department,--but a _newspaper_, which we will edite in due form, and, nevertheless, with some attention.
"There must always be in it a piece of poesy from one or other of us _two_, leaving room, however, for such dilettanti rhymers as may be deemed worthy of appearing in the same column; but _this_ must be a _sine quâ non_; and also as much prose as we can compass. We will take an _office_--our names _not_ announced, but suspected--and, by the blessing of Providence, give the age some new lights upon policy, poesy, biography, criticism, morality, theology, and all other _ism_, _ality_, and _ology_ whatsoever.