74

Latter Revolutions.

secured; and Rome was declared an annexation to the Empire of France.

In 1811 it may be remembered that, regardless of the complaints, and the oppressions, of his Sicilian subjects, Ferdinand heeded not their repeated supplications for redress; and that these abuses in the government of Sicily were severely commented upon in the English House of Commons when the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the renewal of the annual subsidy of £400,000.

In 1814 the coalition of the Potentates of Europe against Napoleon shook his power to the very centre; in April Paris was captured, and Bonaparte abdicated.

To avoid the threatening storm, and a similar fate, Murat had entered into a treaty with the Emperor of Austria against Napoleon; and Francis, in return, promised his mediation with the other powers for Joachim to retain his crown.

In 1815 once again Napoleon was all-triumphant, and Murat seemed vacillating which cause to espouse: So much, indeed, was he an object of suspicion, that in the dispatches of an English diplomatist, Lord William Bentinck, he is characterised as one "who must be always on the side of the conqueror. "-Murat again attested his fidelity to the cause of the allies; and in March 1815 led his forces to the aid of Napoleon, attacking his own friends and supporters, the Imperialists.

Defeat, and disgrace, pursued him by the superior powers of the Austrian General, Bianchi; and once again, but in vain, he would have negociated to save himself.

Captain Campbell, of the Tremendous, with a small naval force, sailed by command of England for the Bay of Naples; the Neapolitan flotilla surrendered, and Joachim was forced to abdicate. He fled to Ischia, and his ex-queen to her children at Gaieta: he had been offered an honourable asylum by the Emperor of Germany, to live as a private individual, either in Bohemia, Moravia, or Upper Austria; but this generosity was shackled with the conditions that he was to change his name, and never to quit the Austrian states without permission. He declined such offers, and is said to have exclaimed, De la prison à la tombe il n'y a qu'un pas." After flying to Toulon, and thence to Corsica, where he succeeded in exciting some tumults, he sailed with the command of seven small vessels, containing only 250 men, and effected a landing at Pizzo, in Ulterior Calabria. Here, for some little time, he fought for his revolutionary cause; but in vain: being surrounded, taken, and tried by a military commission, he was condemned to the forfeiture of life, and was accordingly shot on the 15th of October, 1815.

On the 23d of May the Bay of Naples was in possession of the English, and Sicilian, troops,

under the command of General Macfarlane; and on the 17th of June King Ferdinand, by the powerful aid, and perseverance, of his magnanimous, and undaunted, ally, Old England, returned for the third time to his capital, and to the restoration of his regal dignities.

Naples.

77

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SKETCH OF NAPLES GENERALLY-AMUSEMENTS, NATURAL BEAUTIES, &c.-PAUSYLIPAN GROTTO-LAGO D'AGNANO— GROTTA DEL CANE-STUFE DI SAN GERMANO-TEATRO DEL FONDO, AND VIOLIN-THE BACCIAMANO, AND OPERA AT ST. CARLO-APARTMENTS ON THE CHIAJA-CONVENT OF LA CERTOSA, AND PICTURES, &c.-SAN SEVERO, AND SCULPTURES-ST. JANUARIUS' MIRACLE, AND CATHEDRAL-BALL AT THE EMBASSADOR'S.

NAPLES. So embarrassed is a new comer by the multiplied attractions of this city; so oft impeded in his progress through it by the amusements, and diversions, that court him, at the same moment, on every side; so enchanted with its luxuriant natural beauties; so struck with its awful volcanic terrors; and so soothed with its classical recollections and associations, that I can hardly attempt a summary even of its exterior, and general appearance; but, however-Imagine a city rising from the shores of the Mediterranean, its circling beach sweeping in graceful curves, and forming the boundary of the acknowledged unrivalled Bay of Naples. Viewed from the ocean are seen lines of palaces, stately spires, towers, and terraced roofs, houses, and villas, o'ertopping each other, but they mingle amid luxuriant gardens, olive groves, grapes festooned to all the trees, hill and dale illumined by the brightest sun, teeming

78

Streets of Naples.

with boundless produce, rendered delicious by the softest clime, and by the perfume of the orange, and the lemon, blooming in the open air, with all the luscious fruits unknown in our northern sphere.

Then for the interior of the town.-It were easier to find a man in the crowd of Cheapside than sometimes in the Via Toledo of Naples. The population is immense, and the distraction, hurry, and fun, of London, or Paris, is a joke to this place. The people seem always as animated, and eager, as our countrymen are occasionally in popular excitements. Here are all sorts of trades carried on in the streets, not in the shops; all sorts of eatables, hot, or cold, ready-cooked, or raw; fruits, natural, preserved, roasted, or boiled; fish frying at every corner, and chesnuts too; macaroni gobbled down in strings an ell long; stalls with their lemonade, orgeat, iced water, and liqueurs, perpetually inviting you; every thing gilt; the shops are gilt, the ornaments are gilt, the carriages are gilt; the apothecary's pill that you swallow, and the butcher's beef that you roast, are gilt; nay, even the donkies are gilt! Every trade, tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, smiths, money-changers, provision-mongers, all working away in the open air; each party extolling their own commodities, and bawling, running about, and ringing bells in your ears without mercy. Every body shoving, and shoved in turn by his neighbour, whirled about, and almost pushed out