“And what am I to tell Captain Foote, my Lord? He has to communicate with the Cardinal.”
“Tell him that the British Admiral proposes to the Cardinal to send, in their joint names, to the French and rebels, that the arrival of the British fleet has completely destroyed the compact, as would that of the French if they had had the power (which, thank God, they have not!) to come to Naples.”
“And what measures is Captain Foote to take, my Lord?—or I should say, What proclamation is he to deliver in pursuance of your Lordship’s orders?”
“Tell him to send to the French in the citadel that they shall give possession of the same citadel or Castle of St. Elmo to His Sicilian Majesty’s faithful subjects, and the troops of his allies; on which condition alone they shall be sent to France without the stipulation of their being prisoners of war. That as to rebels and traitors, no power on earth has a right to stand between their gracious King and them; they must instantly throw themselves on the clemency of their Sovereign, for no other terms will be allowed them; nor will the French be allowed even to name them in any capitulation. If these terms are not complied with, in the time above mentioned—namely, two hours for the French, and instant submission on the part of the rebels—such very favourable conditions will never again be offered.”
That evening word came back that these orders had been read and explained at great length to the Cardinal, and had been rejected by him. Accordingly, the next morning we ran right into the Bay, and anchored in close line-of-battle before the city, at the same time calling up the two-and-twenty gun-and-mortar vessels from the Islands to rest on our flanks. After which the Admiral sent two summonses to the Cardinal, to be by him delivered to the French in the citadel and the rebels in the castles. From the first, who had not treated in any way yet, he demanded an unconditional surrender. His summons to the rebels ran:—
“His Britannic Majesty’s Ship Foudroyant,
“Naples Bay, 25th June, 1799.“Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B., Commander of His Britannic Majesty’s Fleet in the Bay of Naples, acquaints the rebellious subjects of His Sicilian Majesty in the Castles of Uovo and Nuovo, that he will not permit them to embark or quit those places. They must surrender themselves to His Majesty’s royal mercy.”
These summonses the Cardinal refused flat out to deliver. “If,” he said, “the Admiral chose to break the armistice between the signing and fulfilment of the capitulation, he must do it by himself. The Calabrian army would assist neither with guns nor with men. For himself, the Cardinal was sick of the whole matter, and he should be pleased for the Admiral to do what he liked.”
There never was any doubt of the Admiral’s doing what he liked; for, unless he provided transports, there was no means of evacuating the castles. To leave them on the land side, when the lazzaroni had the countenance of the English fleet, would mean being torn to pieces. As for transports, no one could provide them but with the Admiral’s leave; and even then they would be under the guns of the fleet.
The motives of the Cardinal have never been quite fathomed. He had done the King good service by clearing the rebels out of the places south of Naples, and out of Naples itself save the castles, and up to this he had acted like a straightforward, honest man; but what was his thought now? “Did he,” as the Admiral said so bitterly, “think one house in Naples more to be prized than his Sovereign’s honour? Was he now engaged in the act of collusion or treachery, to which every native subject of the King seemed to come sooner or later? Or was he now remembering his office in the Church, and anxious, even to the manifest detriment of the Kingdom, to avert the cruelties which the exasperated Loyalists of Naples would be sure to wreak upon their beaten foes?”
It was difficult not to feel sorry for these scoundrels. The worst of them were, like the Prince Caracciolo, of the principal nobility, and they had had to put up with treatment from the French as bad as if they had been their enemies, and not their friends. Men of the highest rank were ordered to the long hours and exposure of the work of common sentries, to save private soldiers in the army of the French. They had also been stripped of their property to keep the French going till they should have time to capture the property of the Loyalists.