1798.

DEFEAT OF THE NEAPOLITANS.

207

dence could be placed in operations removed from their influence. The King had accompanied his army to Rome. The right wing, consisting of nineteen thousand men, under General St. Philip, encountered three thousand French troops, near Fermi. After a little distant firing, which resulted in the loss of forty men, St. Philip went over to the enemy. Michaux, the second in command, ran away; his officers followed his example; all the infantry dispersed, and would have been cut to pieces, but for the good conduct of two regiments of cavalry, which made a stand. But all the artillery, the tents, baggage, and military chest, were abandoned to the enemy. Within a week after this infamous affair, Mack reported that he had no hope of stopping the progress of the French, and advised the royal family to abandon Naples without delay. The King, who had loudly vaunted his determination to conquer or die, quitted the army, on the first check it received, and returned to Naples. On the night of the 21st of December, the King and Queen, with their family, were conveyed on board the 'Vanguard.' Treasure, to the value of two millions and a half, had already been secretly removed to the British ships, as it was feared that the lazzaroni, who alone had displayed any public spirit or fidelity, would resist the King's departure from his capital. They did in fact raise a riot; several lives were lost, and it was with difficulty that His Majesty made his escape from his too loyal subjects. The British Ambassador and Lady Hamilton accompanied the Court. Their destination was Palermo; the island of Sicily offering a secure retreat while the English fleet had the command of the Mediterranean; and the loyalty of the Sicilians leaving no ground for apprehension of an internal revolt.

The city of Naples, thus abandoned by the King and the army, and betrayed by the sycophantic

208 FRENCH DEFEATED AT CASTEL NUOVO. CH. XXXIX.

cowardice of the nobles, was defended by the rabble with so much gallantry, that it was not until after several days' hard fighting, the invaders effected an entry. The French General, Championet, immediately decreed the abolition of royalty, and proclaimed the Parthenopian republic.

Movements of

Meanwhile military preparations on the most extensive scale had been made by Austria. Austria. Early in the spring, two great armies took the field. The Archduke Charles, at the head of seventy-six thousand men, advanced to attack the French, who had crossed the Rhine, seized the fortress of Mannheim, and laid siege to Philipsburg. After several obstinate engagements, the French were compelled to retreat across the river. But the expulsion of the French from Italy was the great object of the Imperial army; and the forces of the Czar were ordered to co-operate with the Austrian army of Italy. Before the Russians came up, the French General Schérer attacked the Imperial troops, and being defeated at Castel Nuovo and Magnano, was forced to retreat upon a defensive position on the Adda, and on the great fortresses of Mantua and Pizzighitone, At this juncture, fifty thousand Russians under Suwarrow pressed upon the French retreat; and the movements of the Russian General, skilful, prompt, and vigorous, inspired confidence throughout the subjugated states of Italy. Schérer, finding, as so many of his predecessors had found, that the Republic would not be served by an unsuccessful General, resigned his command to Moreau. The new General, urged by the Directory, was forced to risk a premature action, under unfavourable conditions. The result was, that he suffered a defeat, with the loss of seven thousand men and a hundred pieces of cannon. Moreau succeeded, however, in effecting a retreat on Genoa. Macdonald next attempted to arrest the victorious progress of the Russian General; and a

1799.

CARDINAL RUFFO'S MARCH UPON NAPLES. 209

great battle, which lasted two days, was fought on the banks of the Trebbia. The final result was that the French were driven through the passes of the Apennines, and, after a campaign of four months, Genoa alone, of all the conquests of Bonaparte in Italy, acknowledged the authority of the French Republic.

Macdonald had succeeded Championet in the government of Naples; and, by the rigour Macdonald at and rapacity of his administration, had Naples. exasperated the hatred of the people towards the French; when Macdonald, therefore, quitted the city to take the field against the Russians, secret preparations were made for a revolt. Cardinal Ruffo, who had recently been appointed Vicar-General, and was armed with full authority, organised a force which he called the Christian army in Calabria. About three hundred men were collected in the first instance; and the little band, having received accessions from all quarters, until it amounted to twenty-four thousand, the motley army marched to Naples. The city and the anchorage of the bay were commanded respectively by the forts of St. Elmo, Uovo, and Nuovo. It was manifestly impossible to advance, without securing at least one of these positions-the command of the sea-board or of the town. St. Elmo, which overawed the city, was garrisoned by the French; the other two forts were in the possession of native revolutionists, most of whom had taken up arms, not so much to welcome the French, as to take advantage of the only opportunity likely to happen of redressing the intolerable grievances of their Government. To these people, Ruffo addressed himself, and, knowing their quality, he proposed that they should surrender, on a guarantee for their protection in person and property. These were liberal terms; but the reduction of the forts, if it could have been accomplished by such a force as Ruffo's,

210

PROPOSAL TO CAPITULATE.

CH. XXXIX.

would have taken time; and the French fleet might arrive to relieve the place at any moment. The terms were approved by the Russian and English Commanders, and by Captain Foote of the 'Sea-horse," the only British man-of-war on the station. The forts were given up, and the capitulation was signed by the Cardinal, in the name of His Sicilian Majesty, and by the representatives of his allies. Nelson was at this time cruising with his squadron in search of the French fleet, which had eluded the blockade at Brest, and was returning to Naples with his fleet largely reinforced, when he was informed that an armistice had been agreed upon between Ruffo and the garrisons of Uovo and Nuovo. He arrived at Naples on the 24th of June. The capitulation had been signed on the previous day; but, as the arrangements for carrying it into effect were not yet completed, flags of truce were still flying on the Castle, and in the 'Sea-horse.' Nelson immediately signalled to terminate the truce; and, assuming that the flag merely covered a negotiation, either party had a right to take this step. But Nelson believed that he was annulling an armistice, which is definite in its terms, and binding like any other treaty. The only ground on which such an engagement can be set aside, is an excess of authority by the agent of the party desiring to repudiate it; and, even in such a case, a nation, jealous of its honour, would hesitate to disavow a treaty which had been concluded in good faith, and by which the position of the other contracting party had been altered for the worse. The justification of his conduct, which Nelson has himself recorded, unhappily disposes of every apology which has been or could have been urged in its extenuation. He assumed, that an armistice for twentyone days had been agreed to, on the condition that if the place was not relieved at the expiration of that time, it should be surrendered. But he argued,

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NELSON'S VIOLENT CONDUCT.

211

that such an armistice imported that if either party should be reinforced before the lapse of the stipulated period, the armistice was at an end. In other words, that the compact should be observed, unless it suited either party to break it. No such armistice had, in fact, taken place; nevertheless, yielding to the infatuation which had taken possession of him, Nelson was ready to tarnish his own hitherto unsullied honour, and the fame of the country for which he had often risked his life. In order to gratify the vengeance of the Neapolitan Court, Nelson was determined to trample upon treaty, truce, or armistice; and as there could no longer be any question as to the reduction of the three forts, with the ships of war at his command, he peremptorily set aside the capitulation, and summoned the forts to surrender at discretion. It has been alleged, in apology for Nelson, that Cardinal Ruffo exceeded his instructions; and Nelson himself asserts, in a letter to Lord Spencer, that on his arrival at Naples, he found an infamous treaty entered into with the rebels, in direct disobedience of His Sicilian Majesty's orders.'* The order which Ruffo is thus charged with having disobeyed, must have been an express order not to treat with the French, or with the rebels; and such an order would have been a definite limitation of the full powers conferred upon the Cardinal by his commission as Vicar-General of the kingdom. The production of this order would have settled the question; but Lord Nelson's papers, though containing many minute details with reference to the surrender of the Neapolitan forts, do not furnish a particle of evidence upon the only point which is material to the Admiral's justification. On the day after the arrival of the British squadron, Ruffo went off to the flag-ship, to remonstrate with Nelson against the

* July 13, 1799.-Nelson Despatches, vol. iii. p. 406.