212

NELSON'S VIOLATION OF THE TRUCE. CH. XXX

rejection of the treaty. The conference lasted for several hours, during which Nelson and the Hamiltons in vain endeavoured to convince the Cardinal that the King might refuse to ratify articles of capitulation which had not yet been carried into execution. In this interview the argument urged by the Court party implied no more than a disapproval of the discretion which the Cardinal had exercised; if his powers were denied, it would not have been necessary to protract the discussion for hours. Five minutes would have sufficed. But the Cardinal had never heard it questioned, until it was denied by a British officer and a British ambassador, that a general at the head of his army was not competent to conclude a purely military convention without the sanction of his Government. The Cardinal retired with an unavailing protest; and Lord Nelson, instigated by two bad women, proceeded to violate a sacred engagement,* to which one of his own captains representing the British flag had been a party, and to which the representatives of Russia and the Porte had set their hands. The garrisons of Uovo and Nuovo, unable to offer any resistance, surrendered at discretion. The French, who had been promised a free transport to Toulon, under convoy, were treated as prisoners of war. The Neapolitans, who called themselves patriots, and of whom many deserved the name, were delivered up to the vengeance of the cruel and cowardly Government unworthily restored to power.

Prince

But the whole of this sad story has not yet been told. Among the numerous persons who Caraccioli. quitted the castles of Uovo and Nuovo, before the capitulation, was Prince Caraccioli, a Neapolitan of high rank, and an admiral in the service of His Sicilian Majesty. This man had ac

* Captain Foote's own words.-Nelson Despatches, vol. iii. p. 486.

799.

HIS INEXCUSABLE CONDUCT.

Caraccioli.

213

companied the King's flight to Palermo, but had been permitted to return to Naples to save his large estates from the confiscation which had been decreed by the French against the property of absentees. Caraccioli, however, soon found, as might have been foreseen, that he was a person of too much importance to be suffered to remain in retirement and neutrality. He was in a manner compelled Seizure of to accept a commission under the new Republic; and, in fact, he commanded some gunboats, which fired into the Minerva frigate. After the re-establishment of the King's authority at Naples, Caraccioli wrote to the Duke of Calviranno for protection; but, not receiving a satisfactory answer, fled to the mountains. He was soon after taken in the disguise of a peasant, and brought on board Lord Nelson's ship, the Foudroyant.' It was only a few weeks since the prince had been received on board the same ship, with the honour due to his rank, and welcomed by Nelson as his friend and companion in arms. The old man-he was seventy years of age was now hurried on board, in squalid attire, scared, bound, and manacled. Captain Hardy, when informed of the quality of the prisoner, personally interposed to rescue him from the insults and threatened violence of the Neapolitan rabble who loitered in the ship. His fetters were removed, and he was placed in a cabin with two sentries at the door. Stern duty would, perhaps, have justified the British Admiral in transferring Caraccioli to the Sicilian authorities, although such a proceeding would have consigned the prisoner to certain death. But Nelson, by an exercise of authority, as unnecessary as it was illegal, condescended to anticipate the cruelty of the vile Court of which he had constituted himself the servant and the tool. He immediately issued an order to Count Thurn, the senior officer in the Sicilian fleet, to hold a court-martial on Carac

214

COURT-MARTIAL ON CARACCIOLI. CH. XXXIX.

cioli, on board the British flag-ship, and to report to him the finding of the court. There was not a shadow of authority for such a proceeding. The British Admiral held no commission in the service of His Sicilian Majesty, nor was he empowered by his own Government to accept such a commission, if it had been offered. Lord Nelson merely commanded a squadron under the orders of Lord Keith, the Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. He had power to try and punish breaches in the articles of war in the ships under his immediate orders, but he had no power, and he knew that he had no power, to interfere in the internal discipline of the auxiliary fleets which served under him for the common purposes of the war. If he could order a court-martial on an officer of His Sicilian Majesty, he could try an officer in the Russian, in the Portuguese, in the Turkish fleet.*

A court-martial composed of Neapolitan officers was not long in trying a man against whom any evidence of disloyalty could be found. It was proved that Caraccioli had held a command in the rebel fleet, and that he had fired on the Sicilian flag. His defence was that he had acted under duress, and that he had been compelled to serve as a common soldier before he accepted a command. He asked for time to produce his witnesses; but he was allowed no time. He might possibly have found it difficult to satisfy a court, before which the proceedings were

* In expressing his disapprobation of the conduct of Commodore Campbell for hastily destroying the Sicilian ships in the bay of Naples, to prevent their falling into the hands of the French, Nelson writes thus:-'I feel that His Sicilian Majesty has great cause for displeasure; and was Commodore Campbell an English officer, I should instantly

order him to be tried by a courtmartial, for the positive breach of my orders to the Marquis de Niza [the Portuguese Admiral]. I am sorry it cannot be done by me to any auxiliary squadron.' To Sir John Acton, the Neapolitan minister, January 15, 1799. -Nelson Despatches, vol. iii. p.

233.

1799.

HIS SHAMEFUL EXECUTION.

215

regularly and fairly conducted, that any people would be so rash as to force a command upon an officer who was friendly to their foe; but the improbability of the defence was no ground for refusing to hear the witnesses. The court-martial—if court-martial it could be called-under the presidency of the very officer into whose ship the prisoner was charged with having fired, had no difficulty in finding the prisoner guilty, and sentencing him to death. This finding was reported to the British Admiral, two hours after he had signed the order for the trial. Nelson directed that the sentence should be carried into execution at the yard-arm of the Minerva, at five o'clock.

Caraccioli sent a message to the Admiral, through Lieutenant Parkinson, the officer who had charge of his person, requesting a new trial, on several grounds; among others, on the fact that Count Thurn, the president of the court-martial by which he had been condemned, was his personal enemy. But Nelson replied that his trial had been fair, and that he must abide the result. The prince then prayed that, in consideration of his age, rank, and former services, he might be shot. But even this mercy was refused; and the venerable nobleman, who had faithfully served his sovereign for forty years, was hanged at the yard-arm of a ship which had once been under his command. Lady Hamilton, who refused to see Caraccioli before his death, was present at his execution. A horrible incident to this painful tale is usually narrated, but is only worthy of notice as displaying a trait of sycophantic baseness on the part of the husband of the woman, whose baleful influence had tarnished Nelson's name, which in a man of English birth, is hardly to be paralleled. The body of Caraccioli had, by Nelson's orders, been taken out to sea and sunk. About three weeks after the execution, a fisherman hailed the flag-ship, and announced that the prince had arisen from the bottom

216 of the sea, and was swimming to Naples. This strange tale reached the ears of the King, and, to gratify his curiosity, the ship was steered in the direction indicated by the fisherman. They had not proceeded far, before the ghastly apparition was visible, moving towards the ship. The corpse, owing to chemical changes which take place in drowned bodies, had risen to the surface, notwithstanding a great weight of shot which had been attached to it. It was considered necessary that any disagreeable impressions which this incident might suggest to the royal mind should be averted, and Sir William Hamilton undertook the delicate task. He told the King that Caraccioli could not rest until he had come and implored pardon of His Majesty himself for his crimes against him.* Such was the loathsome adulation ministered, not by a slave to an eastern despot, but by the representative of the British Crown to a Christian king.

OUTRAGES ON THE NEAPOLITAN RABBLE. CH. XXXIX.

The restoration of the royal authority at Naples was celebrated by the license of the rabble, who have ever been the most loyal subjects of the Bourbon dynasty. After the populace had been satiated with indiscriminate massacre, violence and rapine, justice was executed on the rebels, or rather the vengeance of the Court was let loose on its political opponents, among whom were included almost all the virtue and intelligence in the city. The fort of St. Elmo surrendered to Captain Trowbridge, after a siege of eight days, and the garrison marched out with the honours of war. Capua and Gaeta shortly afterwards capitulated on the same terms.

The kingdom of Naples being now freed from the

* Clarke and M'Arthur's Life of Lord Nelson, vol. ii. p. 187. These writers, though dull and incapable of exercising an independent judgment on the conduct

of their hero and his friends, are nevertheless honest and painstaking. They greatly admire Sir William's tact and address on this occasion.