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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.
Duly to reward the services of Nelson, and with an eyefar more to his political than naval achievements, the Kingcommanded a transcendant feast to be prepared in the royalpalace of Palermo. One of the great halls was fitted up torepresent the temple of glory, in which the Admiral, salutedby the King and Queen, was crowned with laurel by thehand of the Prince of Salerno, the heir apparent. A swordcovered with diamonds was presented to him by the King,together with the title deeds and patent of the Dukedom ofBronti, which gave an income of six thousand ounces(£3,000) a-year. Bronti is a little village on the flanks ofMount Etna , said to derive its name from that of one ofVulcan’s workmen, a renowned Cyclops.
The acts of pillage, murder, private revenge, whichflourished with impunity, for a long time after the entranceinto Naples of the “ Army of the Holy Faith," would takea volume to describe. Not a house of any note or respecta-bility, save, those of the murdering, plundering leaders,either in the city or the suburbs, but what was pillaged fromtop to bottom. All such things as plate and jewellerydisappeared. On my arrival at Naples, it was still a com-mon apology, in use amongst persons of rank or talent,whom I visited that they could not exhibit a decent fittingout upon their table, or that the rooms were stripped oftheir rich curtains and best furniture, by reason of the“ Santa fedef of 1799.
Mourning still prevailed at Naples, and far around, in allthe most distinguished families. Brothers, fathers, hus-bands, sons, were still lamented, after five long years goneby. But here I must end the dismal tale of Bourbon atrocity,which I should not have thought necessary to recount,had it not been so intimately connected with the history ofEngland. The received accounts of the foregoing transac-tions are at once meagre, garbled, and confused. I have not