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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.
know—any how, his [Government held by him. He wasthen a Colonel, but soon after was made a General, andthen chosen as the fittest possible personage to be the moralexecutioner of Napoleon at St. Helena. So much for SirHudson Lowe , K.C.B., A.B.C.D. .
Capri was now well garrisoned by Murat, and manypoints of defective fortification, which the attack had pointedout, were improved. The island contains above threethousand inhabitants, is picturesque and also fertile in thehighest degree, except the mountain of Anacapri, whichis of a bare rocky soil, producing nothing but olives. Theother portion is all like a beautiful garden, yielding sixor eight diversified crops every year. My readers willdoubtless remember how this delightful spot was chosen bythe execrable Tiberius as a retreat, in which he indulged inall the crapulous debaucheries that the ingenuity of Sejanus and the abominable committee of panders to imperialfancies, called Spinctri, could devise. Very considerableruins yet remain of the Palaces of Tiberius , but it is not mybusiness to describe them. The first time I ever visitedCapri , was in company with six or eight Englishmen in1805; Mr. Frederick Degen, Dixon, and Schwartz were ofthe number, and this trip I think well worth recording,from the curious fact of my antiquarian comrades having-taken up their quarters at an inn, in which they actuallyremained immured during the three entire days and nightsthey spent at Capri , occupied in playing at whist! Not soI, who moreover abhorred cards and card playing of everydescription. I roamed about the lovely island in alldirections, and amongst other novelties I met with two orthree farmers who kept hawks for catching quails, accordingto the most approved method still practised in this country,at some little cost, by his Grace the “ Grand Falconer ofEngland.” Excited by this pretty exhibition of animal