him with irons, but they allowed him the privilege of walking about the castle for several hours daily. They found in our apartment, neither papers nor other evidence of a nature to compromise myself or others, but this did not prevent our despotic Government from proceeding against us. I was taken before the Counsellor De Giorgi, and underwent a very short examination, for I denied every thing except my journey into Calabria, the sole motive of which I affirmed to have been my desire to see my family again.

Meanwhile, I was in a most miserable condition, cruelly galled by the chains on my wrists and ankles, which were only loosened for a few minutes daily. But my chief affliction arose from the assurance I felt, that I had brought my poor brother Giovanni Batista into danger, and from my certainty of the misery this would occasion my father. I was not aware at that time of all that I had made the good old man suffer, or of the persecutions of which my other brothers were the victims, with many families of Calabria, who must have cursed my very name.

The order for my arrest had been accompanied by another to search every house which I had called at during my visit to Calabria, with the houses of such as were suspected to be in correspondance with X. My father's house was visited at day-break by three hundred Albanian soldiers; but as it chanced to have several exits unknown to the assailants, my brothers, Ferdinand and Florestano, who were fortunately dressed to go out shooting, succeeded in escaping. remained nearly a year concealed in the house of a worthy priest of Staletti. But for the high regard in which my family was held in that province, my brothers

They

would never have been able to remain so long undiscovered.

This excellent priest was a wealthy landholder of the parish of Staletti, whom I shall call N. More than once it happened that officers, sent to capture my brothers, slept under his roof, partaking the same shelter with those of whom they were in search, without having the remotest suspicion that such was the case. At length my brothers found themselves obliged to embark secretly for Malta. From thence, after repairing to France, they passed into Spain under a false name. And I was the fatal cause of such misery!

After being confined upwards of forty days in a cell of the Castel de Carmine, the Commandant came to announce to me, that I was about to be conveyed to a place where I should find myself better cared for. This was a cruel deception, heightened by the barbarity of refusing me a parting interview with my brother. I was sent to the Darsena, the same Darsena where I had been confined three years previously on quitting the Vicaria, and whence I had embarked for France. But how widely different did it now appear! Three years before, I had been associated with hundreds of companions in misfortune, surrounded by friends, and exulting in the prospect of speedily inhaling the air of liberty in France. Now I was all alone, and with no other prospect than that of ending my days in the Fossa del Maritimo. I was condemned to a penalty far worse than death, at the arbitrary will of the King, without trial, without opportunity of defence, without even the mockery of a sentence.

On beholding such an act of cruel tyranny exercised against a youth of nineteen, who would not feel disposed to excuse, or rather to justify, the numerous attempts

to overthrow the Government which could be guilty of it? I passed the night in a worse prison than that of the Carmine, which amongst other filth, was full of chalk. Here, however, I had no chains, and was not in total solitude. My companion was Nicola Ricciardi di Foggia, a person about thirty-six years of age, and a: brother of Francesco Ricciardi, a learned advocate, who afterwards became Chief Justice under Murat.

On the following morning, linked together by an immense chain, we were put on board a small vessel belonging to the Royal Navy, which was to convey us to our destination. Like myself, Ricciardi had been condemned at the royal pleasure, and without any form of justice to be imprisoned for life in the Fossa del Maritimo. This place was a horrible den, unequalled by any other prison in Europe for the barbarous cruelties inflicted in it.

CHAPTER XI.

I am landed at Palermo, where I meet X-Thence I am taken to the Fossa del Maritimo-From that place I am removed to the Fossa di S. Caterina, in the Island of Favignana-The life I led in that prison-The condemned criminals whom I find thereI cause the Castle of St. Catherine to be taken-My liberty—I land in Calabria, then occupied by the French-After seeing my family I again meet my brothers in Naples.

As we were about to be put on board, several naval officers, accompanied by their friends, came to look at us. Ricciardi was ashamed of his chains, and concealed his face with his hands or covered it with his hand. kerchief. For my own part, far from feeling dishonoured, I looked upon my condition as a noble sacrifice to liberty, and although I was deeply affected by the situation in which I was placed, I was determined to preserve a calm demeanour. Ricciardi was desirous of learning all about me; from what he related touching himself, I knew not what judgment to form of him. He told me that after the French had again entered Apulia, one of their Generals, to curry favour with the King, had denounced him as guilty of conspiring against the Government. To this account he added something

about his having been in correspondence with Queen Caroline.

Meanwhile we came in sight of Cape Orlando, in Sicily. The Captain of our vessel had neglected to hoist the Royal Standard, and the red caps worn by the Macedonian soldiers caused our ship to be mistaken for an Algerine corsair. On this supposition they fired three cannon shots at us from the Fort of Cape Orlando; one of which passed directly across our poop. At length we reached Palermo, and were conducted to a prison abutting upon the sea. Here I met X., who, with several other young men, was detained for State reasons. All these had chains to their ancles, one end of which was fastened to the wall; we were soon manacled in a similar manner. I received from X. a minute account of all the sufferings endured by my family, my brothers, and by our associates, many of whom were languishing in the prisons of Calabria. From Palermo we sailed for the Castle of Trapani, and thence again for that of Favignana. The soldiers comprising the garrisons of these places talked to us of the republicans of 1799, who had preceded us there; they spoke of Abbamonte, of Pocrio, of the Duke of Riario, of the Prince Torella, and of others. Ricciardi, X., and myself were embarked for the island of the Maritimo, which is a Sicilian anagram of Morte-mia, a name quite characteristic of the horror of the place.

The island of the Maritimo, of that vast and dreary rock on which nothing vegetates, is situated opposite the city of Trapano, and about thirty miles from it. Upon a point of the island formed by an isolated rock stands a small castle which had been built for the purpose of giving notice of the approach of the Barbary corsairs, who during many centuries infested