TO LORD CARLISLE.~{1}
I expected, until the present moment, my lord, to have only affairs to settle with your generals, and I hoped to see them at the head only of the armies which are respectively confided to us; your letter to the Congress of the United States, the insulting phrase to my country, which you yourself have signed, could alone bring me into direct communication with you. I do not, my lord, deign to refute your assertion, but I do wish to punish it. It is to you, as chief of the commission, that I now appeal, to give me a reparation as public as has been the offence, and as shall be the denial which arises from it; nor would that denial have been so long delayed if the letters had reached me sooner. As I am obliged to absent myself for some days, I hope to find your answer on my return. M. de Gimat, a French officer, will make all the arrangements for me which may be agreeable to you; I doubt not but that General Clinton, for the honour of his countryman, will consent to the measure I propose. As to myself, my lord, I shall consider all measures good, if, to the glory of being a Frenchman, I can add that of proving to one of your nation that my nation can never be attacked with impunity.