"entered into with rebels," ought not to be carried into execution without the approbation of his Sicilian majesty.* Upon This, the cardinal retired from the conference in disgust. In the evening, when Captain Foote came on board the Foudroyant ; Lord Nelson gave him full credit for his zeal, assiduity, and good intentions, but declared that he, Captain Foote, had been imposed upon by "that worthless fellow, Cardinal Ruffo, who was endeavouring to form a party hostile to the views of his sovereign." Captain Foote replied that, when he concluded the treaty, he had more reason to expect the French, than the British fleet in the bay of Naples, and that he could not be supposed to know, or even imagine, that the cardinal was acting contrary to his sovereign's interest, when he still retained so high and confidential a station. �

On the 26th, two days after the arrival of Lord Nelson in the bay, the garrisons of Castel-Nuovo and Castel-del' Uovo, in obedience to the ninth article of the treaty, set at liberty the state prisoners and the English prisoners of war. The garrison then, as stipulated in the third article, marched out with the honours of war, and grounded their arms. � After this, such of them as chose, comprising nearly the whole present, embarked on board 14 transports, chiefly polacres and feluccas, in orders as they understood, to be conveyed to Toulon, conformably to fifth article, but, in reality, to be held as prisoners on board their vessels, until the King of the two Sicilies, then at Palermo, should determine how he would dispose of them. Here, then, was a gross infraction of the treaty, and by whom ? By Lord Nelson. Had he and his fleet, by any fortunate chance, been prevented from entering the bay until the 27th or 28th, the wretched garrisons, the unhappy victims of violated faith, would have been on their way to Toulon, and British honour have been preserved without a tarnish.

Prince Francesco Caraccioli, a younger branch of one of the most noble families in Naples, an officer once high in command, and not only of deserved distinction in the Neapolitan navy, but who had commanded a ship, with credit to himself ; in a British, line of battle, accompanied the king, when he and his court, in the preceding December, fled to Sicily. Shortly, afterwards the Neapolitan revolutionary government, or Parthenopæan republic, as it was styled, issued an edict, ordering all absent Neapolitans to return, on pain of confiscation of their property. Caraccioli, having great estates in the country, obtained the king's permission to go to Naples to see after them. He departed from Palermo, and, in a short time, was found at the head of the republican naval forces, acting against the king and his allies.

* Harrison's Life of Lord Nelson, vol. ii., p. 101.
� Captain Foote's Vindication, p. 22.
� Letters of the prisoners to Lord Nelson. See attested copies, in French and English, in the Appendix to Helen Maria Williams's Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the French Republic, vol. ii., pp. 319-328 ; also Captain Foote's Vindication, p. 39.

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