sake of saving the capital, signed an armistice, by which the greater
part of the kingdom was given up to the enemy: a cession that

necessarily led to the loss of the whole. This was on the 10th of
January. The French advanced towards Naples. Mack, under pretext of

taking shelter from the fury of the lazzaroni, fled to the French
General Championet, who sent him under an escort to Milan; but as France

hoped for further services from this wretchedtraitor, it was thought
prudent to treat him apparently as a prisoner of war. The Neapolitan

army disappeared in a few days: of the men, some, following their
officers, deserted to the enemy; the greater part took the opportunity

of disbanding themselves. The lazzaroni proved true to their country;
they attacked the enemy's advanced posts, drove them in, and were not

dispirited by the murderous defeat which they suffered from the main
body. Flying into the city, they continued to defend it, even after the

French had planted their artillery in the principal streets. Had there
been a man of genius to have directed their enthusiasm, or had there

been any correspondent feelings in the higher ranks, Naples might have
set a glorious example to Europe, and have proved the grave of every

Frenchman who entered it. But the vices of the government had
extinguished all other patriotism than that of the rabble, who had no

other than that sort of loyalty which was like the fidelity of a dog to
its master. This fidelity the French and their adherents counteracted by

another kind of devotion: the priests affirmed that St. Januarius had
declared in favour of the revolution. The miracle of his blood was

performed with the usual success, and more than usual effect, on the
very evening when, after two days of desperate fighting, the French

obtained possession of Naples. A French guard of honour was stationed at
his church. Championet gave, "Respect for St. Januarius!" as the word

for the army; and the next day TE DEUM was sung by the bishop" target="_blank" title="n.大主教">archbishop in the
cathedral; and the inhabitants were invited to attend the ceremony, and

join in thanksgiving for the glorious entry of the French; who, it was
said, being under the peculiarprotection of Providence, had

regenerated the Neapolitans, and were come to establish and consolidate
their happiness.

It seems to have been Nelson's opinion that the Austrian cabinet
regarded the conquest of Naples with complacency, and that its measures

were directed so as designedly not to prevent the French from
overrunning it. That cabinet was assuredlycapable of any folly, and of

any baseness; and it is not probable" target="_blank" title="a.未必有的">improbable that at this time, calculating
upon the success of the new coalition, it indulged a dream of adding

extensively to its former Italian possessions; and, therefore, left the
few remaining powers of Italy to be overthrown, as a means which would

facilitate its own ambitious views. The King of Sardinia, finding it
impossible longer to endure the exactions of France and the insults of

the French commissary, went to Leghorn, embarked on board a Danish
frigate, and sailed, under British protection, to Sardinia--that part of

his dominions which the maritimesupremacy of England rendered a secure
asylum. On his arrival he published a protest against the conduct of

France, declaring, upon the faith and word of a king, that he had never
infringed, even in the slightest degree, the treaties which he had made

with the French republic. Tuscany was soon occupied by French troops--a
fate which bolder policy might, perhaps, have failed to avert, but which

its weak and timid neutrality rendered inevitable. Nelson began to fear
even for Sicily. "Oh, my dear sir," said he, writing to Commodore

Duckworth, "one thousand English troops would save Messina; and I fear
General Stuart cannot give me men to save this most important island!"

But his representations were not lost upon Sir Charles Stuart. This
officer hastened immediately from Minorca with 1000 men, assisted in the

measures of defence which were taken, and did not return before he had
satisfied himself that, if the Neapolitans were excluded from the

management of affairs, and the spirit of the peasantry properly
directed, Sicily was safe. Before his coming, Nelson had offered the

king, if no resources should arrive, to defend Messina with the ship's
company of an English man-of-war.

Russia had now entered into the war. Corfu, surrendered to a Russian
and Turkish fleet, acting now, for the first time, in strange

confederacy yet against a power which was certainly the common and worst
enemy of both. Troubridge having given up the blockade of Alexandria to

Sir Sidney Smith, joined Nelson, bringing with him a considerable
addition of strength; and in himself what Nelson valued more, a man,

upon whose sagacity, indefatigable zeal, and inexhaustible resources, he
could place full reliance. Troubridge was intrusted to commence the

operations against the French in the bay of Naples. Meantime Cardinal
Ruffo, a man of questionablecharacter, but of a temper fitted for such

times, having landed in Calabria, raised what he called a Christian
army, composed of the best and the vilest materials--loyal peasants,

enthusiastic priests and friars, galley slaves, the emptying of the
jails, and banditti. The islands in the bay of Naples were joyfully

delivered up by the inhabitants, who were in a state of famine already,
from the effect of this baleful revolution. Troubridge distributed among

them all his flour, and Nelson pressed the Sicilian court incessantly
for supplies; telling them that L10,000 given away in provisions would,

at this time, purchase a kingdom. Money, he was told, they had not to
give; and the wisdom and integrity which might have supplied its wants

were not to be found. "There is nothing," said he, "which I propose, that
is not, so far as orders go, implicitly complied with; but the execution

is dreadful, and almost makes me mad. My desire to serve their majesties
faithfully, as is my duty, has been such that I am almost blind and worn

out; and cannot in my present state hold out much longer."
Before any government can be overthrown by the consent of the people,

the government must be intolerably oppressive, or the people thoroughly
corrupted. Bad as the misrule at Naples had been, its consequences had

been felt far less there than in Sicily; and the peasantry had that
attachment to the soil which gives birth to so many of the noblest as

well as of the happiest feelings. In all the islands the people were
perfectlyfrantic with joy when they saw the Neapolitan colours hoisted.

At Procida, Troubridge could not procure even a rag of the tri-coloured
flag to lay at the king's feet: it was rent into ten thousand pieces by

the inhabitants, and entirely destroyed. "The horridtreatment of the
French," he said, "had made them mad." It exasperated the ferocity of a

character which neither the laws nor the religion under which they lived
tended to mitigate. Their hatred was especially directed against the

Neapolitan revolutionists; and the fishermen, in concert among
themselves, chose each his own victim, whom he would stiletto when the

day of vengeance should arrive. The head of one was sent off one morning
to Troubridge, with his basket of grapes for breakfast; and a note from

the Italian who had, what he called, the glory of presenting it, saying,
he had killed the man as he was running away, and begging his

excellency to accept the head, and consider it as a proof of the
writer's attachment to the crown. With the first successes of the court

the work of punishment began. The judge at Ischia said it was necessary
to have a bishop to degrade the traitorous priests before he could

execute them; upon which Troubridge advised him to hang them first, and
send them to him afterwards, if he did not think that degradation

sufficient. This was said with the straightforward feeling of a sailor,
who cared as little for canon-law as he knew about it; but when he

discovered that the judge's orders were to go through the business in a
summary manner, under his sanction, he told him at once that could not

be, for the prisoners were not British subjects; and he declined having
anything to do with it. There were manifestly persons about the court,

who, while they thirsted for the pleasure of vengeance, were devising
how to throw the odium of it upon the English. They wanted to employ an

English man-of-war to carry the priests to Palermo for degradation, and
then bring them back for execution; and they applied to Troubridge for

a hangman, which he indignantly refused. He, meantime, was almost heart-
broken by the situation in which he found himself. He had promised

relief to the islanders, relying upon the queen's promise to him. He had
distributed the whole of his private stock,--there was plenty of grain

at Palermo, and in its neighbourhood, and yet none was sent him: the
enemy, he complained, had more interest there than the king; and the

distress for bread which he witnessed was such, he said, that it would
move even a Frenchman to pity.

Nelson's heart, too, was at this time a-shore. "To tell you," he
says, writing to Lady Hamilton, "how dreary and uncomfortable the

VANGUARD appears, is only telling you what it is to go from the
pleasantest society to a solitary cell, or from the dearest friends to

no friends. I am now perfectly the GREAT MAN--not a creature near me.
>From my heart I wish myself the little man again. You and good Sir

William have spoiled me for any place but with you."
His mind was not in a happier state respecting public affairs. "As to