To expatiate on the happiness I enjoyed at Scylla would be too common-place; and I have a great press of other matter to relate. Rumours of Massena's advance from Cassano, and the retreat and dispersion of the chiefs of the Masse, spread dismay through all the Lower Province, and roused us from our short dream of pleasure. All families of rank again returned to Palermo; but a few spirited cavaliers retired to the savage fastnesses of the hills, where the brave Paesani and wild banditti made common cause against the invader. The arrival of a detachment of the Royal Artillery, brought from Messina by the Delight, and a despatch from Major-General Sherbrooke, directing me to "defend Scylla while one stone stood upon another," caused me to make the most strenuous preparations for a vigorous resistance; being anxious to render myself worthy of the important trust reposed in me—the defence of the key of the Italian Peninsula.
The presence of Bianca was the only damper to my ardour; for I anticipated with dread the dangers to which she would be exposed when the coming strife closed around us: but to my earnest entreaties that she would join her aunt and the young viscontessa, who had retired to Carolina's court at Palermo, she answered only by her tears and entreaties that I would not send her away, but permit her to share all the perils to which I might be exposed. Poor girl! little knew she of war and the manifold horrors of a protracted siege, or a fortress carried by assault: but to resist her charming entreaties was impossible; and my anxiety increased as the distance between us and the enemy lessened. How marriage spoils the esprit du corps! Every officer and private of the 62nd looked forward with ardour and hope; and I felt the old reckless spirit rising, notwithstanding the fears that oppressed me.
The daily arrival of couriers from the Masse, and from the armed cavalieri on the mountains, the telegraphing of despatches to and fro with Messina, the hourly training of soldiers at the batteries, the visiting of guards, which were doubled at night, and all the eternal hubbub created by the near approach of the foe, kept me fully occupied; and never, even when tenanted by the martial cardinal, had Scylla witnessed such military bustle and excitement.
Advices soon reached us that General Regnier had invested the castle of Crotona; which, after a bold defence by the Free Calabri, had been compelled to capitulate when the heavy battering train of the French opened on its decayed fortifications. All Naples was exasperated by the intelligence that the gallant Cavaliere del Castagno had been hanged as a traitor by orders of Regnier; whose forces, eager to revenge the triumph of Maida, marched rapidly by the shores of the Adriatic: they crossed the mountains at Francavilla, fighting every inch of the way with the Masse and the bold comrades of Francatripa, Fra Diavolo, Benincasa, and Mamone, and reached Monteleone, which the Italians abandoned; and once more the tricolor of the Buonapartists was triumphantly hoisted on its ramparts.
CHAPTER X.
WRECK OF THE DELIGHT.
Towards the end of December, the French had pushed forward as far as Seminara; and, by the concentration of troops and a train of heavy ordnance at that place, I had no doubt that preparations were making to besiege the castle of Scylla. Every exertion was made by the loyalists to prevent the carriage of cannon into that corner of Calabria: working parties of soldiers and armed peasants were continually employed in trenching and barricading the roads, and rendering the passes of the Solano impracticable; thus making every approach down from the hills of Milia as difficult as possible.
Along these heights and passes, I stationed strong bodies of armed Calabrese, entrusting the defence of the Solano to the Cavaliere di Casteluccio; who, since his escape, had distinguished himself on a thousand occasions: so miraculous were his adventures, that the superstitious provincials believed he had been rendered bullet-proof by the witches of Amato. But so overwhelming was the force of Regnier, that all attempts to bar the passage of his train proved, ultimately, unavailing.
On the last day of that eventful year, the glitter of arms and the pale white smoke of musketry were seen spreading over the Milia Hills; between the peaks of which the morning sun poured down his strong and ruddy light on the scene of contest. The drums beat, and we got under arms. Our Calabrian out-picquets and fatigue-parties were driven down from the mountains by three battalions of French infantry, led by General Milette, and were pursued by four squadrons of hussars until close under cover of our twenty-four-pounders.
Regnier was now in complete possession of those important heights; and his working parties were daily and nightly employed in repairing or forming roads for the conveyance of their battering train from Seminara. Their operations were retarded and rendered perilous by the incessant attacks of the followers of Casteluccio and Francatripa; but a damper was given to our zeal by the surrender of a numerous garrison at Reggio, where an Italian force, under the Prince of St. Agata, capitulated after a brief resistance. The castle of St. Amanthea, a property of the Prince di Bisignano, was captured by assault, after a desperate defence by the gay Captain Piozzi: he was slain by a cannon-ball, and thus the fair and fickle Despina was once more left a widow. On—on pressed the foe. The banner of Ferdinand IV. had sunk from every rampart in Calabria, save the solitary stronghold of Scylla. We found ourselves alone, and could hope for little from resistance; as all the forces of Massena were pouring southward, with orders to capture it at every risk of life and expense of blood.