HOMAN AND NEAPOLITAN REPUBLICS. 115

displayed by the senate, and Republican secretaries of state,in the laws, regulations, taxes, and administration of justice.It is a fact, which if I were allowed, I could very well prove,

: that during the sixth months of the republican government,predatory offences were quite unknown at Naples .

; The French forces in lower Italy , were at this moment| very inadequate to the service required. The people,! hitherto retained in all subjection to their priests, had not,j yet had time to comprehend the meaning, much less| the merits, of constitutional liberty. The Bourbons,who retired to Sicily , gorged with the spoils of the ruinedNeapolitans, were moreover furnished with abundant pecu-; niary means—with ships, soldiers, arms by their English ! allies. The Neapolitan republic had not existed many| months ere its authority was assailed in various districts ofi the provinces. Emissaries with arms and money, accom-, panied by itinerant preaching priests, distributing miracul-! ous relics, sent purposely by the Pope as amulets againstthe French or “ infidel Republican” weapons, were pouredinto the territory in every direction. Numerous bodies ofinsurgent peasantry were organized throughout thecountry; money and ammunition were plentifully supplied.Amongst the first to distinguish himself in murderingcouriers and in open acts of violence against the liberalgovernment, in Terra di Lavoro, was Michele Pezza . Bornat Itri of labouring parents, he had for the preceding twoyears been known as a desperate robber and assassin, and ahigh price was set upon his head. But cunning and address,added to his boundless daring, gave him a constant supe-riority over his pursuers. The country folks who think thatthere can be none more crafty than a devil or a friar, gave to: Michele Pezza the name of Fra Fiavolo, which surname hewas proud to retain to the day of his death.

The neighbourhood of Sora became now subjected to ano-

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