“The prisoner, I am told, objected that Count Thurn, the senior Sicilian officer, who presided over the trial, was his personal enemy; which Count Thurn, as Commander of the Sicilian Navy, could not fail to be to a rebel. And as Commander of the Sicilian Navy it was impossible for him not to preside at the Court Martial. None of my officers who could speak Italian considered that Thurn showed the slightest unfairness; they were all agreed that Caracciolo bore himself well from the point of courage, but that his answers were vague, and supported by no evidence whatever—the last efforts of a man striving to save his life.
“He claimed that he had been forced into the Republican service, had been compelled to perform the duty of a common soldier for a considerable time, when he was offered the command of the Republican Neapolitan Navy, which necessity alone had at length compelled him to accept. But it was clearly demonstrated that he had enjoyed opportunities of escaping, and on frequently being asked why he had not embraced these opportunities, no satisfactory reply was made. His silence on the point when his life was at stake can only be attributed to his conviction that he had no right whatever to claim protection from the capitulation. In all circumstances men are likely to be competent judges of what may best conduce to their own safety; and it is perfectly incredible that, if Caracciolo thought himself entitled to the benefit of the capitulation, he would not have referred to it.
“The prisoner was charged with rebellion against his lawful Sovereign, and for firing at his colours, hoisted on board his frigate The Minerva. He stood further guilty of killing and wounding the subjects, both of his own Sovereign and His Britannic Majesty. When the court was cleared and sentence of death passed on the prisoner, it was duly transmitted to me by the President. I issued the order for its being carried into execution on the same evening at five, at which time he was removed from the Foudroyant and hanged at the fore yard-arm of the Neapolitan frigate La Minerva.
“I was shocked for Caracciolo, not sorry, for he was a traitor, and, as such, died the death. But that any man, after living for seventy years and serving his country faithfully (which here means only until temptation arises) for forty of them, should from fear of death, or as he confessed, from fear of the loss of property, turn traitor, seems to me so terrible that I own that his being hanged for it is less shocking to me than his offence.”
One more brief extract I must give from the Journal—the last, I think, which will enter into this narrative from these remarkable volumes. I give it because it was written on the same night as the foregoing, and therefore goes to prove that the Admiral regarded the execution of Caracciolo as a plain ordinary duty upon which his mind was perfectly made up. Which being over, he turned for relief to her he loved best in the world, whose gracious sympathy had so often been his haven of refuge when he was overwrought.
“June 29th.—Since I wrote the above I have been walking the deck under the beautiful Neapolitan night with dear Emma. It makes one sad to think what these nights—as beautiful as anything under Heaven—have seen. To-night I would not think: I gave myself up to the soothingness of her light hand within my arm; I have no doubts now of the innocence and beneficence of this friendship. Innocence does not signify abstinence, but the absence of that which is bad for one. And how could such a friendship be bad? The affection and sympathy of a good woman are the best gifts that God bestows upon man. To man it is appointed to go forth into the vineyard to work, and to fight if need be, and woman is given to him to make him a home. For a home lies not in the four walls of a palace, or a cottage, but in the woman’s heart who makes of mere wood and stone an abode of rest and happiness.”
Chapter XXVI.—Of the strange Plight in which Will found Katherine.
WILL had the good fortune to be among the seamen and marine forces landed under Captain Troubridge to reduce the strong Citadel of St. Elmo, which dominates all the city of Naples, and which, though it had only five hundred French within it, rendered the occupation of the said city, and the return of the King, impracticable until it should be reduced.
The day after the execution of that long-time traitor Caracciolo, we began operations in good earnest by mounting the two heavy pieces on the landward side of the Castle of Uovo, for the reduction of a battery and small fort which stood on the summit of the highest rock on the sea face of Naples, known as the Pizzofalcone—that being necessary both for the safe occupation of the Castle of Uovo, and because it was the best point for playing on the Citadel. This was our first advance, and from that we won our way a few yards at a time up the tremendous hill on which the Castle of St. Elmo stands, as it were, right on the top of the monastery of S. Martino.