as many courts.
The gentleman has a good library, in which I have established myself;
and he seems, poor man, very anxious to accommodate us, though his
appearance is not that of a man entirely at his ease. As I was
starting this morning I got a second letter from the new
Plenipotentiaries, rather more defiant in its tone, and saying that
there are troops at our next station, with whom we shall come into
collision, if we advance with an army. Parkes is gone on with an
escort, and we shall soon know from him what the state of the case
really is.

[Sidenote: Ho-see-woo.]
[Sidenote: Monastery.]

_Ho-see-woo.--September 14th._--We had a charming march to this place
yesterday morning. The country much more beautiful than before, and
hills in the distance. All around us the most luxuriant crops, and
hamlets embosomed in clumps of willows. The temperature was delicious;
almost too cold at starting, but, later, a fresh breeze in our faces
gave the requisite coolness and no more. Our march was about twelve
miles, and on reaching its close I was conducted to a temple where I
now am. It is a monastery, with very nice apartments, and quantities
of stabling, grain, agricultural implements, &c., all indicative of a
very prosperous community. I have seen no _bonzerie_ on anything like
so comfortable a scale. I had a second letter from my Commissioners in
the evening of the last day on which I wrote a page of this journal,
more humble in its tone then the preceding one, and as my General was
getting uneasy about his supplies, &c., I thought it necessary to make
a kind of proposition for an arrangement. ... Our soldiers do so
little for themselves, and their necessities are so great, that we
move but slowly. Our present party consists of about 1,500 fighting
men; but we count about 4,000 mouths, and all must have abundantly of
the best. The French (I admit that they take more out of the country,
and sometimes perhaps by rougher methods) carry on their backs several
days' provisions. They work in all sorts of ways for the army. The
contrast is, I must say, very striking. ... I therefore thought it
better to send Wade and Parkes to the new Imperial Commissioners, to
see whether they intended to resist or not, and to make a proposal to
test this. They set out last night, and I have just heard from them,