d his Spanish
commission, and believed him to have been a member of the "Hunter's
Association,"--a band of horse-thieves in Canada,--and signifying, in
language not to be misunderstood, that the family had given up all hope
of him.
The next information we had was that the General had turned up at Havre,
and was about being married to the daughter of a wealthy banker, and
carried a commission as Major-General from the Governor of Maine! And
then, after a lapse of two years, that he had been travelling with a
British nobleman, whose baggage he had run away with,--that he was
arrested for the offence, and tried in Malta, I do not know with what
result; but I have now before me a supplement of the Malta Times of
October 9, 1844, in Italian, Spanish, and English, wherein he refers to
the testimonials of my friend, Albert Smith, Ex-M. C, and Levi Cutter,
Mayor of Portland; complains bitterly of the late Mr. Carr, Minister of
the United States at Constantinople; and says, among other things, what
of itself were enough to show that he had claimed to be a General of the
State of Maine, and thereby settling the question most conclusively and
forever. His language is: "To one charge of Mr. Everett, I plead guilty;
to wit, to have usurped, or succeeded to gain the good opinion of
respectable people in the United States, and here I am glad, at the same
time, to put Mr. Everett's mind at rest; _he thinks it possible that I
may be a General of the State of Maine_, but he admits _only_ the
possibility, and expresses the hope that it may not be so,--this, after
the pretension to know my birthplace, life, death, and miracles, and an
assertion on his part to have had, or seen, a correspondence with the
Executive of Maine, in my regard, is very diplomatic--_very!_--but his
Excellency may be easy on this head. I do not share _now_ the military
glory and honor of fellowship with that very numerous body of generals
of the United States Militia; and if evidence may be produced that I was
attended by a staff, I assure his Excellency, that it was only to have
my boots cleaned by a captain, to be shaved by a major, to be helped by
a colonel, and to get my meals at the private personal head-quarters of
a _Gineral_ at one dollar per day."
And here I stop. From that day to this, nothing has been heard of
General Bratish; but I should not be surprised to have him reappear, as
if he had risen from the dead, in some new character, and so managing as
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