Clemens, more happy, had returned—after twenty years of monastic life at Vallombrosa, in Tuscany—to die in his own country, and had closed his weary eyes in his native village of Morosaglia; but Pasquale came back, a saddened and humiliated man, to England, dying in hopeless exile, after the gleam of hope had once more illumined his path. The bones of the last great patriot of Corsica lie in St. Pancras churchyard.
The British government was not successful. Sir Gilbert Elliot (afterwards Lord Minto) was ignorant of the country he had to deal with, and deficient in tact.
On one occasion, noticing the dirty condition of the streets leading to the citadel of Bastia, he ordered out a party of Corsican soldiery, to sweep them clean. When the men found out for what purpose they had been assembled, they were exceedingly indignant. Had the officer insisted, there would have been a mutiny. Throwing down the shovels and brushes, they dispersed angrily, remarking "that they had enlisted for soldiers, and not for scavengers."
On another occasion, when the viceroy was paying his first visit to Ajaccio, a ball was given in his honour by the inhabitants. A bust of Paoli adorned the hall; seeing which, the viceroy's aide-de-camp flung it down, exclaiming, "What business has this old charlatan here!" The bust was thrown into a closet and broken to pieces; and when complaint was made to Sir Gilbert, he refused to interfere, or to inflict any punishment on his aide-de-camp.
By 1796, Sir Gilbert had alienated all the Corsicans, and quarrelled with most of the English in Corsica. And in the month of November, Napoleon Buonaparte, just victorious in Italy, found the sympathies of his country all on his side when he despatched a force to the island under two of his generals.
The English, on their part, already half-tired of their bargain, relinquished the country after the faintest resistance; and once more Corsica found herself united to France, through the means of her own compatriot.
From that time to this the country has remained a province of France; and now by degrees the national peculiarities are fading away, and French words, French thought, and French manners are slowly superseding the strong national characteristics of the warlike and singular people living on this little island, which was for so long the hunting ground of richer and more powerful, but less noble nations.
THE END.
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BECCLES AND LONDON. J. S. & S.