PERSECUTIONS BY THE QUEEN OF NAPLES. 95

hope, and expectation of better things. The speeches ofGabriel, Honore, Riquetti, Count de Mirabeau , were circu-lated in manuscript, and learnt by heart by thousands ofItalians , well-wishers to their unfortunate country.

In the year 1793, a French fleet commanded by AdmiralLa Touche, arrived at Naples, and remained for severalweeks, repairing, taking in water and provisions. Manyyoung Neapolitans of ardent minds and patriotic feelingsconsorted with the officers of the French fleet, while, inturn, the latter were invited to frequent dinners and festi-vities on shore. This intimacy was observed by the Nea-politan government with fear and rage, but silence was pre-served until the sailing of the fleet, which was as much aspossible accelerated by every aid and supply.

The fleet departed; and then broke forth the cruelvengeance of Queen Caroline upon every man who hadhad any acquaintance with the French , or who was sus-pected of entertaining any liberal ideas. Seized in themiddle of the night, and taken nobody knew whither, thefriends and relatives of the unhappy victims lamented themfor dead ; but it was afterwards found that the greater partwere buried alive in the subterranean cells of the Castle ofSant Elmo, without bed or chair, and only bread and water,so that very few survived such treatment many weeks, butby their deaths escaped the lengthened torments which themore robust of them endured. Every professor of theliberal arts, every scholar, most of the nobility, were lookedupon as “jacobins” and conspirators by the suspicious andterrified court of Naples. Every prison, every dungeon,the barren rocks of Panteleria and Ventotene had theirexcavations filled with innocent victims to ferocious des-potism. Few of these were ever brought to trial,— noneever convicted of any crime,—few also survived the horrorsthey endured.