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foot of Mount Vesuvius , and I assisted at several of theirreviews. On one occasion, I remember being present onhorseback, I was accosted by a Mr. Mackenzie, an English-man, whom I had met at Steuart’s, who, seeing that I did notknock up my horse by galloping to and fro upon thesandy beach, very coolly requested that I would get oft'my horse and let him make a better use of it, by tearingup and down before the line! I thought this demandextremely modest, so much so that I could never forget it.Many years afterwards I met this same pedestrian gentlemanin London , and, upon enquiry, I found him to be no otherthan the chief of the English commission, for the dis-tribution of the money to British claimants for French indemnity, under the treaty of Paris of 1814, which com-mission has rendered itself so notorious by its conduct inmanaging to withhold the claim of Baron de Bode for fivehundred and odd thousand pounds. The baron’s case hassince shewn me that I ought to have been more complaisantto the gentleman who was subsequently so yielding to thenecessities of our liege lord, George IV. , in the case ofBuckingham Palace (called by The Times, DeBode Palace),the jewels of the Marchioness Cunningham, and other littleodd matters, arranged from time to time by the worthyknight Knighton.
At the time when the Neapolitan court and its partizanswere hastening to quit Naples, a friend of mine, a Corsican officer in the service of England, named La Fleche , wasvery desirous of joining his regiment in Sicily, This LaFleche was a man of good education, most agreeable man-ners, and inexhaustible wit and humour. He was a greatfavourite and constant guest of the English residents, espe-cially at the hospitable house of Frederick Degen, in whichhe lived. Having such an opportunity of extending hisknowledge of men and of localities, he contemplated per-