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I jumped out of the cab and seized hold of the fellow’smusket; in the scuffle we both fell, whilst a comrade aimingat me a thrust with his bayonet, ran it clean through thearm of his companion without injuring me. Luckily atthis instant an officer and more men came up, and listeningto the vociferations of my driver I was liberated from myantagonist. Upon telling my story to the officer, he verycoolly remarked that his soldiers were not to be struckwith a whip, leaving quite out of the question the stoppage,blow, and bayonet-thrust I had previously endured. Itold this officer my mind in very plain language, and indeedI was quite mad with regret at having left my doublebarrelled gun and ball cartridges behind me at Patria.Never before or ever after did I travel without it, and Iassured the officer that had I not been so totally unarmed,a brace, at least, of his ruffians should have passed the Styx.Insolent in his attitude of power, this blackguard declinedpunishing my assailants; so mounting my calesse I pro-ceeded on to Naples. In due legal form I caused a recitalof the affair to be drawn up by the lawyer of my friendValentine, a most clever fellow named Camillo Cacace.This I presented to the Minister of War, but I never couldlearn that the soldiers had been punished; however, Idiscovered the officer who had treated me with such contempton the occasion, and demanding, I obtained, satisfactionfrom him. We fought with swords in the garden of atavern called the Carciofalo (the Artichoke ), near thePonte della Maddalena; he was a very cautious fighter,and well for him he was so. He tired out my patience byconstantly jumping backwards at every move,—a dozentimes did I drive him to the verge of the ditch, from oneside of the garden to the other. My second was too con-ceding, for had he not at each of those times allowed myadversary’s second to interpose his sword and stop “ the