This is what Americans would call a "Hail Mary" but...
From my notes on (then) Lieutenant or Rittmeister Anton Gundakar, Graf von Starhemberg of the Kavanagh Kuirassier regiment..
"during the siege and fall of Mantua, during the advance into the Riviera, during the occupation of the Papal States and Tuscany... probably served as an adc to his corps commander, the FML Baron Michael Fröhlich, on missions to the British Commodore Thomas Troubridge".
Troubridge was from very humble origins. Would he speak any foreign languages? I assume Starhemberg, an Austrian of Moravian descent, probably educated privately (no mention of his attendance at th Maria Theresa college) but maybe at a military school would speak German and as a gentleman French too, Italian also but at this point in history maybe not English? Troubridge went into the navy at an early age and would not probably have been exposed to much language tuition. How would they communicate? Perhaps a Neapolitan interpreter?
I am assuming the communication would be in code and require multiple interpreters.
K.
Many thanks David. Troubridge and he probably got by on a bit of franglais as well as ready interpreters :) I wonder why there are only the ranks unter and ober-lieutenant? Why no lieutenant? I think he left the army because his father died and the eldest son had been killed. Interestingly, I think in 1809, he intruduced a pension scheme for military volunteers from his estates.