468

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

and not likely to occur again. Rocco Sileo was set atliberty; and the king, in consideration of his being reducedto indigence, settled upon him a small pension out of hisprivate purse, on which he lived for many years in deepaffliction, but commiserated and respected. I should muchlike to hear the casuistical disquisitions of our temple-lovingpleaders on the various merits of this case of Rocco Sileo,his judgers, and his pardoners, something very like the dis-cussion that might take place between the manes of Ceesarand of Brutus would be elicited.

Before I take my readers back to Rome, I will mentionsome few anecdotes relating to Murat which are necessaryfor the due understanding of his story, and his relationswith his brother-in-law Napoleon , as well as indicative ofhis character and position. If ever I should be called uponto publish a second edition of this work, and my field shallbe a little extended, I shall take good care to fill up many,many vacancies which I have every moment the pain to seemyself led through by the desire, or rather obligation, ofbrevity. The compound history which I have undertaken,has never been published in any language, and the worldhas nothing but scraps and vague notions of the eventsderived from the card-table prattle of travellers, or from thepartly official and partly “magazine” correspondence ofmilitary and political partizans.

The expedition against Sicily had been undertaken, pro-secuted, and abandoned without any adequate plan, reason,or consistency. This was caused by the growing misunder-standing between Joachim and the Emperor. The expensesof the expedition were such, as to allow of Murat beingseduced by his less scrupulous minister of finance, Agar ,Count de Mosbourg, to seize upon a number of Americanmerchantmen at Naples , under very flimsy pretences ofinfringements of the regulations of neutrality. The Bour-