The Admiral: A Romance of Nelson in the Year of the Nile

by Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen

Now, if one of the men had gone first instead of Will, it might have gone ill with our enterprise from the beginning; for the odds are that he would have made a furious assault with his cutlass, if he had not rushed out with a maniac’s shriek.

Will’s doubts were set at rest at once, for one of the figures whispered to him to bring in his men quickly and quietly, and Will passed the word. Once in there, every man was provided with a long black robe from the neck to the heels, a short black mantle and a black hood, with piercings for the eyes and mouth like the two who had met Will on the threshold. On the backs of the mantles there was certain colouring, which we could not distinguish in the dim light. These were, Will was informed, the dresses of one of the burial guilds common in Naples; and the Church of S. Ferdinando, to which we were going, was a favourite one for such processions to stop at while prayers were read over the corpse. The men were ordered to draw their cutlasses and carry them closely concealed under the short cloaks or mantles, and to hold themselves at Will’s command. He would get the signal from the taller of the two who met us.

Each man was given a long unlit taper to carry in his right hand, the cutlass being held in the left ready to grasp. Our two leaders carried crosses.

Arrived at the portico of S. Ferdinando, we halted. Another figure in black was standing just inside the door, with the heavy leather curtain drawn back a chink to watch. He came out bearing a huge silver cross studded with purple jewels, and, placing himself at our head, marched us across to the Palace, which we entered.

There a strange scene awaited us, for in front of a side door was a large coffin with a pall spread over it, surrounded by six bearers carrying tapers like ourselves, but lighted. But the strange thing was that the rest of the courtyard was quite full of wine carters with enormously long two-wheeled carts drawn each by three beasts, in the selection of which there was the strangest medley. I cannot remember that any one of them had all its three beasts of burden of the same sort: there were a great many bulls; and a bull and a horse and an ass, or a bull, a horse, and a mule, made perhaps the favourite combination. The horses had scarlet tassels and nets on their heads, and a great deal of scarlet about their reins, and huge collars surmounted by a brass erection sometimes two or three feet high, hung with charms against the evil eye. I do not think the bulls were decorated. It was a wonderful sight, all these great tumbrils piled high with wine casks, and the scarlet of their trappings and the brass of the horse collars glittering in the brilliantly lit courtyard.

They were all ready and awaiting the signal to depart. The King, it appeared, was sending a large present of wine—an entire vintage, which he thought well of, or had confiscated—to the Ambassador’s wife, whose hospitalities were famous; and in the midst of it lay the body of some poor fellow in the King’s household, as likely as not killed in faithful service.

He was to be buried at Pausilippo, and nothing was more in keeping with the practice of the vitiated Neapolitan of that day than that the processions should start side by side.

“The French faction are growing very daring,” said the priest to the officer of the household who was going to superintend the transportation of the wine to the Ambassador’s palace; for, though drink was plentiful in Naples, nothing was too trifling for a Neapolitan to steal. “We shall be blest by your company, my father,” replied the officer; and the priest raising his cross and beginning to intone, the bearers took up the coffin, and Will and I and our thirty, having lighted our tapers, fell in, two and two, behind. We then marched out and waited for the carters to start; and a mighty lot of shouting and beating of bulls, horses and asses with billets of wood almost as thick as fire-logs took place to put the tumbrils into motion,—which at last, with a tinkling of brass and a nodding of scarlet plumes, and much jingling of harness-bells, was effected. We passed down Santa Lucia with watchful eyes; for the alleys leading off this had an evil repute, as containing some of the most desperate of the population, and I must say that there was a very uneasy stir, and a great many more cloaked gentlemen half concealed than I should have cared about if I had been alone. But we passed along Santa Lucia without adventure, and round the foot of the great rock of Pizzofalcone, and so up past the end of the Thuilleries towards the British Embassy, intending to part company at the corner of the road which leads to the Grotta and Pausilippo. But when we came into a line with the Grotta we could see in the distance a flare hung from a certain house, and our leader at once became very uneasy.

“That is my preconcerted signal,” he said, “of a French marauding party. If you will let us, we will accompany you to the Ambassador’s house, and my party shall remain there while I go forward and reconnoitre.”

This was agreed, and presently we found ourselves safely in the courtyard of the Ambassador’s great palace, when the household officer having sent up the letter which announced the King’s present, My Lady presently came down, and with great sweetness thanked him, and then turned round to the priest to inquire respectfully of the reason of the funeral pageant having entered.