44 PAOLI IN MORATO [JET. 32

different villages through which we passed received us with volleys of musketry," Viva Paoli, la patria e la Nazione Inglese." "We were entertained at Pietra Alba at the house of one of the principal inhabitants. The whole village poured in, and the people remained in the room till we had supped and retired to bed. This was the case wherever we stopped, and it seemed to be the custom of the country to enter familiarly into one another's houses without invitation. Leonati apologised for the rudeness of his countrymen. Sir Gilbert and I had but one bed between us. We rose early, and after a breakfast of dressed meat we mounted our mules and arrived at Murato about one o'clock. We found General Paoli lodged in a convent of Eecollets which had been abandoned since the revolution. The convent was surrounded with armed peasantry who, as we were afterwards informed, come voluntarily from different parts of the Island, with a few days' provisions upon their backs, and without pay serve as a guard to his person. They are obliged to return home when their provisions are expended, but they are succeeded by others. This strong proof of attachment these poor people give to General Paoli from a sense of gratitude for his services against the French and Genoese in support of their liberty and independence.

We were received by the old General in one of the cells of the convent. After the first compliments I was surprised to find that, though Sir Gilbert delivered him a letter from Lord Hood explaining the nature of our mission, instead of speaking to him he addressed himself to Major Kochler and me, and began a discussion upon the nature of the country and the style of attack we should adopt. Seeing no end to this I thought it necessary to mention to him that I had been sent with Major Kochler to concert with him the military operations, but that we were under Sir G. Elliot, who was one of the King's Commissioners in the Mediterranean, and until he (General Paoli) had had some previous conversation with Sir G. Elliot, Major Kochler and f could not enter upon the subject of our mission. He made some odd answer to the effect that he was tired of