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'In this state of affairs I next morning went to visit General Asarta, having previously called at the ducal palace to see his wife and children. I got access to them, but found her carefully guarded, and, in fact, a hostage in the hands of the mob for the conduct of her husband.
On the following morning the British Consul came on board to me and begged me in the name of General Asarta and the Intendente Generale, or Civil Governor of the Dukedom of Genoa, to come at once to the ducal palace to consult with them on the state of affairs.
'After the defeat of the King of Novara by the Austrians and the conclusion of an armistice, the articles of a Treaty became known which the Genoese thought disgraceful. General Asarta appears throughout the whole of this affair to have conducted himself with great weakness.
He answered that he was ready and would do his duty, he was then dressed en bourgeois. After leaving the dockyard I went to visit General Asarta at the military arsenal. I found him with 2000 men in and about the building, and two howitzers mounted on a terrace which overlooks the street leading to the dockyard.
'That very afternoon General Asarta fled from the ducal palace to the military arsenal, and withdrew his troops from the outposts and concentrated his fire in and around the arsenal, leaving his wife and three daughters in the hands of the Municipality. I expressed a hope that he had made all necessary arrangements for defence of the dockyard, and that he was prepared to defend it to the last.
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