Gentlemen: When I authorized Messrs. Demeré and Roberts, by my letter of yesterday, to inform you that orders were given for a cessation of arms on our side, we certainly expected you would consider it as implied that those gentlemen, together with Mr. Rice, should be immediately released; for surely it must appear to every man that the detention of our fellow-citizens is, to all intents and purposes, a continuation of hostilities on your side. I am now directed to acquaint you that the people have waited with the utmost anxiety for the arrival of those gentlemen all this day; and I am induced to think, from your professions of a friendly disposition, that you will see how absolutely necessary it is to make this step the groundwork of a further negotiation. I shall wait with impatience for your answer, and hope our friends will be the messengers themselves, by ten o'clock, to-morrow morning. I am, &c.,