Sunday passed without communication with the fleet. Monday brought a letter from the flag-officer under which was veiled a threat. Reciting all the city's misdoings, Farragut admonished the mayor that ‘the fire of the fleet might be drawn upon the city at any moment.. The election is with you, but it becomes my duty to notify you to remove the women and children within forty-eight hours, if I have rightly understood your determination.’
Brave Mayor Monroe showed coolness, along with the dignity worthy of the chief magistrate of a city threatened. To Commander Henry H. Bell, the bearer of the letter, Mayor Monroe remarked: ‘As I consider this a threat to bombard the city, and as this is a matter about which the notice should be clear and specific, I desire to know when the forty-eight hours begin to run.’ ‘It begins from the time you receive this notice,’ replied the captain. ‘Then,’ said the mayor, taking out his watch, and showing it to the captain, ‘you see it is fifteen minutes past twelve o'clock.’ The mayor's reply to the flag-officer's letter was also drafted by Mr. Soule. In it the mayor simply re-asserted his refusal to lower the flag of Louisiana. ‘This satisfaction you cannot obtain at our hands. We will stand your bombardment, unarmed and undefended, as we are.’ Accompanied by Mr. Soule, Baker took this reply to the Hartford early on the morning of April 29th. On the ship Mr. Soule favored the flag-officer with a learned discussion of international law. That same evening, General Lovell had come down to
