HORRIBLE DECREE AND ITS RESULTS. 1-25

batch,—all municipal or corporate rights were abolished ;all authority centered in the royal person; the conditionof the entire people, one and the same—slaves; allrules of government to be condensed and simplified intoone—despotism.

Full fifty thousand of the best members of society weredeclared worthy of death by the fell decree issued underthe auspices and protection, and on board the very ship ofthe “Hero of the Nile.” The accusations of spies andinformers were received with reckless avidity; no otherwitnesses were required, no defence allowed, witnesses forthe crown examined in private, and not confronted with theaccused! Torture resorted to for the extortion of confessionsas to the pretended guilt of others ; brief were the sentenceswithout any pretence to reason or explanation, and usuallyput in execution the same day—the stream of noble blooddid not flow fast enough to satisfy the thirst of royalty.Another junta was called “ of generals ” presided by Gambs,which with numerous “ military commissions,” spread terrorand death throughout the provinces, by drumhead trials “ adhoras et ad modum belli," immediate execution following.In the city of Naples alone, above thirty thousand of thebest of the community were buried alive in the most dismaldungeons, and there subjected to all the horrors of naked-ness, hunger, thirst, stripes, and insults. The Swiss colonelsDeucce and Gambs, were the most active in heaping tormentsand insults upon the victims. As if to add more horror tothe proceedings of the chief inquisitorial junta, its sittingswere held by night in the convent of Monte-01 iveto, fromwhence the bloody mandates were issued by the dozen,without the condemned being ever seen much less heard intheir defence. The custom of this junta was, to record thesentences on the Wednesday, publish them the next day,and execute them on the following Saturday. All the cells