to co-operate with the Russians in the Neapolitan
blockade. He does not seem to have been told by
Ruffo who had already received the second of several
warnings that since the insurgents had rejected
initial offers, no armistice whatever could be enter-
tained. In the event, Ruffo and the Russians over-
bore him.
Already, on June 13 and 14, Foote had been assist-
ing Ruffo and his generals in a series of battles on the 284 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
coast, all of which had proved decisive discomfitures
for the rebels. Throughout, Ruffo trembled not only
for the town, but lest the Franco-Hispanian fleet should be on them like a thief in the night. In disorder both
of troops and plans, amid Jacobin advisers, he tem-
porised, and pressed on Foote the need of terms. He
also dreaded the results of the mob-violence displayed
in those awful scenes on the Ponte Maddalena. " The duty," he informed Acton on June 21, just before the capitulations were signed, " of controlling a score of uneducated and subordinate chiefs, all intent on plunder, murder, and violence, is so terrible and compli-
cated, that it is absolutely beyond my powers. . . .
If the surrender of the two castles is obtained, I hope
to restore complete quiet." He may have used the
imminence of the French fleet as a bogey to. frighten
his coadjutors, and the imminence of his own attack
on St. Elmo as a lever for persuading the French com-
mandant into assent. Fear for the city, for the situa-
tion, possessed him. St. Elmo was his object, but he
dreaded the danger from its guns. He deemed his
unauthorised compact warranted. Two days before it
was in train Foote had offered asylum on board the
Seahorse to the Dell' Uovo garrison, then about to be
stormed. Its answer was an indignant repulse : " We want the indivisible Republic ; for the Republic we will die! Eloignez-vous, citoyen, vite, vite, vite!" The same day Ruffo himself told Foote that St. Elmo must
be assailed; it was useless now to think of capitulation.
He had previously hoped that both French and rebels
might surrender to the sailor, though they disdained
an ecclesiastic. And yet within the next few days he
was in close if unwilling league with Micheroux (the
King's minister attached to the Russian forces), whom
he feared to disoblige, and had sanctioned his arrange-
ment with the rebels, which was subject to Mej can's
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 285
approval. On June 21 he told Foote that the terms
were settled, yet he then wrote to Acton that he did
not know them. He kept the court in long ignorance
of his manoeuvres. The strain of difficulty told on
his nerves. Whatever his motives and they were
suspected his action, though far less than Miche-
roux's, was plainly equivocal, and while he mys-
tified Foote, he failed to give any clear lead to the
loyalists.
There is not much material to explain the tortuous
negotiations of this period. The clue to them may per-
haps be found in a desire to accord the patriots the
same honourable terms as would be due to the French.
If the rebels could secure these they would be more
than satisfied, while Mejean trusted to time and the
chance of the French squadron's arrival. Another
motive was supplied by the hostages (including
Micheroux's brother and cousin) and the refugees in
the castles, among whom was Caracciolo, who, how-
ever, fled. Some amount of underhand collusion
seems to have taken place now as afterwards. Foote
was perplexed both by Ruffe's contradictory letters,
and by Micheroux, whose authority he refused to
recognise. On June 19, by invitation, Micheroux at-
tended a conference at St. Elmo, with Mejean, Massa
(commanding the Nuovo Castle), and Ruffo. A draft
capitulation was signed with an armistice afterwards
extended to the French which was to last till the ar-
rival of the boats at Toulon, conveying such rebels as
elected to go there, was notified. The whole affair
was probably engineered by Micheroux in close touch
with Mejean. Ruffo's compliance may be attributed
to the necessities of his position and the importance of the Russian troops. He and Micheroux alternately
laid the blame on each other's shoulders. By the 23rd
the capitulation itself reached Foote, who was the last
286 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
to sign, and did so under a protest as to anything which might prejudice his king and country.
The document itself was most peculiar, considering
the conditions of hostile and insurgent garrisons in the face of a successful conqueror. While it was conditional on Mejean's approval, it contained no mention
of St. Elmo, and it was attended by a concurrent
armistice, unspecified in it but very material to two
of its main provisions. The truce's tenor may be gath-
ered both from allusions in letters and from Nelson's
emphatic memorandum, written before he had seen it,
but read to and rejected by Ruffo. One must feel
for the " patriots " in the mass, since they seem to.
have been ultimately deceived, and many of them were
noble. One must detest the vindictiveness with which
the royal house pursued its triumph, though all that
Jacobinism meant at .the time should be recalled. One
must condemn the violence of the mob, for it was
general and indiscriminate. But both the duplicity
and the brutality were the outcome of the two despot-
isms which had so long been pitted against each other.
Nor should it be forgotten that, as already noticed,
Ferdinand himself had no objection to treat with the
French, if only they would hand over St. Elmo to the
loyalists. What he had strictly and constantly for-
bidden was any sort of capitulation for the rebels.
And lastly it should be emphasised that, since on a
previous occasion the rebels had broken a concluded
truce, they might well repeat that perfidy. The city's
horrors had been swelled by the reprisals of the
Jacobins. They were now, in Hamilton's words, " re-
duced to a shabby condition," and it was this that led them to listen to the persuasions of Micheroux and the
dictation of Mejean.
The terms of the armistice, according to Nelson's
version of it, seem to have been as follows:
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 287
It provided for a truce of twenty-one days, by the
expiry of which the French and the patriot garrisons,
if unrelieved, were to evacuate Naples. From Sac-
chinelli's account of the preliminaries, their transport was to be free, i.e. at the King's expense. No wonder that Foote found the terms of capitulation " very favourable to the Republicans," though he based his consent on the express grounds that Ruffo was Viceroy, and that St. Elmo could not " with propriety be attacked " till advices were received that the Republicans had reached Toulon.
Nelson, however, took a much stronger view of this
transaction. All armistices were reciprocal; if either
party were " relieved " or succoured within a given time, a status quo must result. This armistice
, however, provided, and on the most monstrous conditions,
for the interruption of hostilities pending the mere
chance of the enemy being relieved. If the French
fleet had appeared instead of his, no one could sup-
pose that the rebels would keep their word. If, on
the other hand, the King's army were, as it was now
being, " relieved " by the British squadron, the truce was ipso facto determined. The very presence of Nelson's ships, therefore, annulled this armistice.
So much for the truce. Now for the capitulation.
The troops composing the garrisons were to keep
possession of the forts till the boats for their safe-conduct to Toulon were ready to sail. They were then
to march out with all the honours of war. Should
they prefer it, they were granted the option of remain-
ing " unmolested " at Naples instead of proceeding by sea. These terms were to comprise all prisoners of
war. All hostages were to be freed, but Micheroux's
brother and cousin, the Bishop of Avellino, and the
Archbishop of Salerno, were to remain in St. Elmo
and in Me jean's hands, until the arrival of those sent
288
to Toulon should be ascertained. Every condition
was subject to the French Mejean's approval. " They demand," wrote the raging Queen in her indignant
comments, not " the approval of their sovereign, but the approval of a small number of Frenchmen. . . .
What an absurdity to give hostages as though ^ve were
the conquered ! "
This luckless .treaty it was that intensified the mor-
bid paroxysms of royal vengeance, for it converted the
rebels of Naples into a foreign enemy. By insisting
on amnesty as a right, by leaguing with the common
foe, by rejecting more than one previous offer of
clemency, by demanding their very utmost, they for-
feited the least right to a grace which, however, it
would have been far better in equity to have accorded.
Ruffo, by owning himself unable to govern, by his
helplessness to stem the riotous anarchy of vanquish-
ers maddened by the suspicion of a second betrayal
to the French, by his oblique manoeuvres, by his open
breach of the royal trust, endangered not only himself
but the countrymen whom he had so bravely led, and
whom even now he desired to benefit.
Such was the state of affairs when Nelson, round-
ing the Posilippo point with his nineteen ships, sailed
into the bay, drew up his fleet facing the harbour, and
eyed the white flags flying from the castle towers. The
Foiidroyant was hailed as an ark after the deluge. The
quay was thronged with cheering loyalists. Ruffo,
however, at his post by the bridge, must have been ill
at ease. Nor could the Russians have been pleased,
as they had reckoned on reaping the sole credit of a
clever pacification. The poor patriots skulked and
trembled in their fortresses. By night the whole city
was all joy and illuminations, for Naples during the
last few years had proved a kaleidoscope of massacre
and merry-making. Not a minute was wasted by Nel-
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 289
son. He instantly signalled that the truce was ended.
To Ruffo, through Hamilton, he communicated his
fixed resolve " on no account to remain neutral." In accord with the Queen's advice, first to require a voluntary surrender, he further proposed to him that within
two hours the French should be summoned to sur-
render, in which case they should receive a safe-
conduct to France, but " as for the rebels and traitors, no power on earth " should " stand between their gracious King and them." He sent Ball and Troubridge with both these missives to the Cardinal, who
flatly refused assent or concert. Next morning he
sent them again, with no better result. He therefore
himself notified to Mejean his curt summons to sur-
render, and to the rebels in the two castles that they
must yield, and were forbidden " to embark or quit
those places." The supple Cardinal, in his haste, had not only exceeded his commission, he had violated his
express directions. Next evening Ruffo and Miche-
roux (who was not admitted) visited the Foiidroyant
to confer with Nelson. During the whole of this stormy
interview the Hamiltons were present, Emma acting
as interpretess. Nelson flatly repudiated all the subtleties of one called by Hamilton the pink of Italian
finesse. He stood by the law that kings do not capitu-
late to rebels, and he dismissed Ruffo with his written
opinion that the treaty needed to be ratified by his
master. An Admiral, he added, was no match in
such matters for a Cardinal.
All that day of June 25, letters, conferences, in-
trigues, confusion proceeded. From Palermo Acton
wrote thrice. The foreign signatories entered a
formal protest, probably arranged, and certainly car-
ried by Micheroux to Nelson, who refused to recog-
nise either it or him. Ruffo threatened to withdraw
his riotous troops, and advised the rebels to profit by
290 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
his treaty and retire by land a course fatal for them.
By night a trumpeter had even announced that this
move had the sanction of Mejean, who had told
Micheroux that if war was resumed he would not be
answerable for consequences. Massa, who asked for
a conference, however, repulsed all Ruffo's overtures
as coercion. The whole of Naples lay between two
suspended fires; and yet Ruffo, afraid of St. Elmo,
now besought Nelson to land the troops, the offer of
which he had put off that very morning. By the next
evening the two castles had unconditionally sur-
rendered. The royal colours streamed from their tur-
rets. The loyalist nobles of the " Eletti " had started to implore the King's presence, and Ruffo, leagued with
the feudal barons, must have trembled. Feux de joie
blazed in all the streets, and from every window, side
by side, waved the British and Neapolitan flags.
In the meantime neither had Emma's energy been
dormant; she did more than copy, and interpret, and
translate the patois. She was a woman of action.
Her enthusiasm spread among the common people, who
adored her. She conjured with the Queen's name :
" I had privily seen all the Loyal party, and having the head of the Lazzaronys an old friend, he came in the
night of our arrival, and told me he had 90 thousand
Lazeronis [-sic] ready, at the holding up of his finger, but only twenty with arms. Lord Nelson, to whom I
enterpreted, got a large supply of arms for the rest,
and they were deposited with this man. In the mean
time the Calabreas [sic] were comiting murders-; the
bombs we sent . . . were returned, and the city in con-
fusion. I sent for this Pali, the head of the Lazeroni,
and told him, in great confidence, that the King wou'd
be soon at Naples, and that all that we required of him
was to keep the city quiet for ten days from that mo-
ment. We gave him only one hundred of our marine
Lady Hamilton at the spinning wheel.
From the ori
ginal painting by George Romney.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 291
troops. He with these brave men kept all the town
in order . . . and he is to have promotion. I have
thro' him made ' the Queen's party/ and the people
have prayed for her to come back, and she is now
very popular. I send her every night a messenger to
Palermo, with all the news and letters, and she gives
me the orders the same [way]. I have given audi-
ences to those of her party, and settled matters between the nobility and Her Majesty. She is not to see on
her arrival any of her former evil counsellors, nor the
women of fashion, alltho' Ladys of the Bedchamber,
formerly her friends and companions, who did her dis-
honour by their desolute life. All., all is changed. She has been very unfortunate; but she is a good woman,
and has sense enough to profit by her past unhappiness,
and will make for the future amende honorable for the
past. In short, if I can judge, it may turn out for-
tunate that the Neapolitans have had a dose of Repub-
licanism. . . . PS. It wou'd be a charity to send me
some things; for in saving all for my dear and royal
friend, I lost my little all. Never mind."
Bravo ! Emma, rash organiser and populariser of
the Queen's party, bold equipper and encourager of
Pali the Lazzaroni, who, when the King at last came
to his own again, brought all his ninety thousand men
to welcome him at sea. We shall hearken to Emma
again ere long. For the present, the recital of sterner
events must be resumed.
The plot, then, to place Naples at the mercy of the
French had been foiled. The question that was to con-
vulse the city on the following day was, On what terms
had the castles surrendered!'
In trying to disentangle the difficulties of the next
few days, a distinction should be borne in mind be-
tween the armistice made by the Cardinal with the
rebels (and afterwards with the French), and the
Memoirs Vol. 14 10
292 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
capitulation itself, which it was designed to further.
It would almost seem as if some of the rebels had al-
ready contrived to escape from the convent of St.
Martino, though not under the capitulatory clauses.
Nelson would be most unlikely to reconsider any of
these clauses, which he had peremptorily cancelled.
But it might be thought possible that he would respect
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