“I have determined to go to Ireland in the beginning of the year, and seek out in a part of Donegal not known to me nor, I believe, many others, the locale of a new story. I want to do something with a strong local colour, and feel that I must freshen myself up for the effort. My poor wife gains very slowly, but I hope and trust she may be well enough to let me leave her by February.
“If you saw my surroundings here—my Jews and Greeks and Armenians, and, worse than these, my Christian friends!—you would really credit me with resources that I honestly own I never believed in. How I do anything amongst them puzzles me.
“It is a good thought about the Election addresses. I’ll think over it.
“Who wrote ‘Aurelia,’ and how long will it run?”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, Oct. 17, 1868.
“Of course I only spoke of O’Dowding Trollope in jest. I never had the slightest idea of attacking a friend, and a good fellow to boot. I thought, and shall think it great presumption for him to stand in any rivalry with Lord Stanley, who, though immensely over-rated, is still far and away above we poor devils in action, though we can caper and kick like the devil.
“I have just this moment arrived at home from a short tour in Dalmatia, where I amused myself much, and would have liked to have stayed longer and seen more. I send you the proofs at once, but, as usual, begging you will have them closely looked to by an ‘older and a better soldier.’
“I suppose I must set to work now at my yearly consular return, for up to this the Government have never seen my handwriting save in an appeal for my pay!
“I hope I may live to shake hands with you all in spring.”