person immediately pronounced me the warmest patriot in the kingdom, and began to relate wonders of me. All this so reassured the Captain, that he told me he rejoiced at my arrival amongst them, but that his duty nevertheless compelled him to take me before General Regnier. I replied that not only did I desire him to do so, but that it was very necessary that I should have an interview with the General as soon as possible. It was not long before I was taken before him at Reggio. He was lodging in the house of that very Plutino who had suffered so much from a visit of mine, when I was about to organize the conspiracy. The General himself had been to my father's house, had witnessed his affliction on my account, and had often spoken with the good old man about me. After briefly explaining to him how I had obtained my liberty, I informed him of the hostile preparations then making against us in Sicily, and I promised to furnish him with a written and minute detail of my verbal statement. On the following day, I saw at once that General Regnier was totally in the dark upon this subject, having been unable to send any spies into Sicily, the shores of which were jealously guarded by British and Bourbon vessels.

explain to the latter all I

As I had informed the General of my intention. of proceeding to Naples as soon as I had paid a flying visit to my family, he gave me a letter to the Minister of War, Dumas. At the same time, he recommended me not only to knew respecting the state of Sicily, but to request an audience of King Joseph, and to acquaint him that the English meditated landing their troops in Calabria, accompanied by the chiefs of 1799 and their followers. Plutino, Arcovito and other patriots of Reggio, urged me warmly to lay before the Government the perilous

condition of their province, the landholders of which would be infallibly massacred if the chances of war obliged General Regnier to retire.

I began to perceive at Reggio that the country was divided into two factions. One was composed of the patriots and landholders, who made common cause together, as much from a hatred of the fallen dynasty as from fear of the excesses which would result from popular anarchy. The other was formed of priests, of the populace, and of a very small number of the followers of the Court, so small, indeed, as to count for nothing. The French committed a great error, both under the Republic and the Empire, in omitting to take the necessary means to secure the safety of the countries they had conquered. It is scarcely credible that during the three months they had occupied the kingdom, openly supported as they were by the wealthy and influential, they should have taken no measures to organize these into a militia, no matter under what

name.

When at length I reached Squillace, I beheld one of my sisters and my sister-in-law in the balcony. I saluted them by signs, of which, however, they took no notice, thinking I was a stranger; and even when I had entered the house, my family had some difficulty in recognising me. They informed me that King Joseph had lodged in our house, and that he had promised my mother that on the very first exchange of prisoners, he would demand me of the Court of Sicily. I was told likewise that my brothers Ferdinand and Florestano had arrived in Naples. My good father, overjoyed to find that his son was no longer an outcast and a prisoner, supplied my purse with his usual liberality. I took leave of my family, and hastened to rejoin my brother and friends at Naples.

CHAPTER XII.

1806.

Public spirit in the capital-I am presented to the Minister of War, Dumas, and then to King Joseph-The King makes me Lieutenant-Colonel of the Militia - I depart for Calabria - The English land at St. Eufemia-Whilst I am in the city of Scigliano, the people revolt-My resistance-I am again taken prisoner by King Ferdinand-The extreme kindness of three young ladies-One of his chiefs, named Gualtieri, orders me to be shot-Various events-General Stewart at my father's house -His offers-I join the French army, which had re-entered Calabria.

I FOUND the city of Naples very different from what I had left it. Three years of uninterrupted study and adversity-which teaches more than books, added to the events brought about by the French, not one of which had escaped my memory-had tended to impel my boundless enthusiasm into a worthier channel. Without having in any way renounced my former convictions, I began to see that the eventual triumph of patriotic principles must not be put in peril, when there is no rational chance of effecting it. What had happened in France was now observable with us, that is to say, the very term "Republic" had become a word of derision.

There existed, however, a difference in the change which had been brought about in both countries. In France, associated with republicans of the purest sentiments of patriotism and the highest virtues, were men stained with every vice and with every crime. It was not so with us. Republicanism was a sentiment which had originated with the highest classes, and was confined to the enlightened and the wealthy, whilst all the evils which surrounded us were instigated and committed by the clergy, the lower orders, or the sovereign. Every individual patriot gloried in his proved republicanism as having been free from evil deeds or evil intentions. King Joseph did not dare to repeat in Naples, a saying uttered by Napoleon in the Council of State at Paris: "It is possible to find some honest men amongst the republicans." This speech was repeated to me at Brussels, in 1825, by Berlier, and Thibeaudeau the historian, Counsellors of State under the Empire, who were both present at the council when the Emperor uttered the sarcasm.

In the meanwhile, although the partisans of freedom in Naples were obliged to renounce a liberal government and national independence, they nevertheless established a great number of those institutions which pave the way to liberty. No conqueror ever possessed a better opportunity of settling his power on a solid basis than Joseph Buonaparte in Naples. The upper classes of society, the aristocracy, the learned, the rich were all devoted to him. Such a concord of feeling was both extraordinary and unique; but neither Joseph himself, nor France knew how to avail themselves of it as the sequel will show.

I was presented to the Minister of War, Dumas, by General Caracciolo, my former Major in the Italian

Legion. From my extreme anxiety to produce the well or ill digested theories I had imbibed in prison, I was very loquacious, and urged so strongly to the minister the danger threatened to Calabria by the impending landing (which I affirmed to be certain) not only of the British, but of all Cardinal Ruffo's banditti levies who had acquired consequence in 1799, that he ordered a militia to be raised throughout the country. He next presented me to King Joseph. Although this newmade King was courteous and affable, and by no means deficient in information, these qualities alone were not sufficient to establish him firmly on the throne to which he had been elevated. Impelled by the vanity of rivalling the former dynasty, he displayed the most excessive and injudicious luxury. The sumptuousness of his table was talked of throughout the kingdom. Having left his wife in France, he led a very free life, inviting the young ladies of the Court to accompany him to the chase, under the appellation of cacciatrici. The king. dom at that period was overrun by a horde of Frenchmen who had followed the King to Naples. These were mostly men who had been unable to find any occupation in their own country. They were, however, all employed either in the military or civil departments of the administration, and holding the most lucrative situations, were regarded, and justly, as greedy bloodsuckers draining the impoverished treasury, already too much exhausted to satisfy their cravings, or to support the expenses of so luxurious a Court. The result was, that before long, the French, whom we had so ardently desired, were looked upon and tolerated as an unavoidable evil, from which we longed to be released. If there were a great number of vagabonds amongst the French in Naples, there were some men likewise of