We were redeemed! Some time ago, my cousin gave him a hundred guilders to help us out; he had looked for us in all the inns of Como in vain and was therefore glad to receive my letter. He left me four Napoleons to foot the bill, wrote down the place where we would meet in Como, and then took his leave with his constable. How soon we were saddled and packed! We said goodbye to the beautiful Italian and rode towards the border with triumphant expressions. But then the old misery seemed to want to light up again. The inspector said that the general gave us permission to pass, but not the horses!
I tried to make him understand that this was self-evident, since we only wanted to cross the border because of the horses, which could not plot against the Austrian imperial state. It was only after I had argued to him for two hours that he realized he was wrong. By now it was getting dark. So, we wanted to get going in a hurry; however, we were barely fifty paces away when we were recalled. The border guards also wanted to see the luggage. Since this was strapped to one of the horses, we had to lose more than half an hour until we were finally loose and free.
So, we arrived in Como quite late in the evening. But Lieutenant Baro, instead of waiting for us, went to the theatre. We housed the horses at Albergo della Corona (Inn at the Crown) as he had instructed us. That same evening, I wrote another letter to Lodi, told my cousin that I had made the journey from Mainz myself, and asked him to meet me in Milan, where I wanted to meet him in the small barracks of the Reuss hussars.