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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

ther worthy, named Gaetano Mammone, a miller by origin.This man exceeded in his deeds of cruelty and ferocity,almost any thing recorded of Christian atrocity. His acts, ias well as tastes, were those of a New Zealander. He would :frequently swallow pieces of flesh, torn with his teeth from jthe heads of his victims, placed on the table at his meals, |and he drank his wine from out a fresh and only half cleaned !human skull.

“ Fra Diavolo,” and “ Mammone,” at this juncture, somuch distinguished themselves by the murder of above six ;hundred French and Neapolitan “ enemies to social order,”as to attract the particular attention and approval of KingFerdinand, and Queen Caroline, who, in writing from Sicily ito those monsters, styled them “ my general, and my friend.” ;

The fomented insurrection spread rapidly throughout the jentire kingdom, so that at last, the authority of the republic jbecame confined to little more than the city of Naples and jthe immediate vicinity. j

At length king Ferdinand and his allies determined upon ‘sending an expedition into Calabria. Fabrizio Ruffo , a car- ;dinal, and proprietor of extensive lands in those districts, Iwas chosen as the fittest commander of this enterprise. So ’in February, 1799, the Cardinal, decorated in sacerdotalrobes, surrounded by a motley, but splendid group of priests;and soldiers, landed at Bagnara . Crowds of monks and:priests, banditti chiefs and nobles, rushed to greet him, so:that in a short process of time that army was formed, which,acquired so atrocious a celebrity under the title of the“ army of the holy faith.”

Fra Diavolo, Mammone, Pronio, and several other wor-thies of the same nefarious stamp, were invested with therank of generals, and were the constant comrades and coun-sellors of the Cardinal and his “holy” allies, who madejrapid progress towards the capital. j