On landing, he secured a carozza and told the driver to take him to Crocielle's Hotel. They had hardly set off along the waterfront before he saw that all the buildings were decorated with flags; so he called up to the man, asking the reason for this gay display. Turning on his box the driver replied cheerfully:
' Have you not heard, signor? We are celebrating our victory over those pigs the French. Tidings arrived yesterday that our good King Ferdinand entered Rome in triumph four days ago.'
This was surprising news indeed to Roger and he was even more surprised when he learned that the Neapolitan Army had invaded the Roman States only six days before it had captured Rome. Either the Italians must have shown most unusual dash or the French had suddenly gone to pieces.
At the hotel Roger learned further particulars of this new war that had broken out only while he was being desperately seasick in the Adriatic. Britain was said to be supporting it enthusiastically and Nelson was the hero of the hour. He had sailed on
November 22nd—the day before war had been declared—for Leghorn, with five thousand Neapolitan troops on board, to support the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a nephew of the Queen of Naples, in an attempt to throw the French out of his dominions. Austria, on the other hand, having only a defensive alliance with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies—of which Naples was the capital—had not yet come in, although the Emperor—another nephew and also son-in-law of the Queen—had sent on loan his veteran General Mack to command the Neapolitan Army.
While eating the first enjoyable meal he had had for a month, Roger considered this entirely new situation which suddenly appeared to threaten the dominance of the French in Italy. He would have been delighted by it had he not had distinct misgivings about the outcome.
Admittedly the French forces were stretched to the limit, garrisoning Holland, Belgium, the ex-German provinces west of the Rhine, Switzerland, all northern and central Italy, Corsica, Corfu, Majorca and Malta, in addition to which their greatest General and finest regiments were marooned in Egypt. But, even so, how could a second-class Power like the Two Sicilies possibly hope, unsupported by any other nation, to defeat the mighty Republic?
It was, too, only in recent years that the Sicilies had ranked even as a second-class Power. The kingdom was theoretically a fief of Spain. The Bourbon King of Spain, Philip V, had given it to his second son, Carlos, and had won the goodwill of the Neapolitans by a promise that the two crowns should never be united. In 1759 Carlos had succeeded his father as King of Spain, so had resigned Naples and Sicily to his son, the present King Ferdinand, who was then only eight years old.
During the boy's minority a Tuscan Minister, Bernardo Tenucci, had ruled in his name at the dictation of the Court of Spain; but at the age of seventeen Ferdinand was married to Caroline, the eldest daughter of the Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, and from that moment the influence of Spain had begun to wane.
The young couple could hardly have been more ill-matched. Ferdinand was a boisterous, easy-going fellow, with no interests other than outdoor pursuits. What very little brain he possessed had been criminally restricted in its development by Tenucci, who had seen to it that his education should be rudimentary so that when he grew up he would be incapable of interfering in politics. Caroline, on the other hand, had an ungovernable temper, was well-educated, religious and inordinately ambitious.
Although the masses in both the Kingdom of Naples and the island of Sicily lived in the direst poverty and under the severe repression of corrupt officials, they never blamed this on King Ferdinand. On the contrary they adored him, because his simple pleasures brought him into intimate contact with them. Dressed in a jersey, woollen cap, coarse trousers and seaboots, he often spent the night fishing. In the morning he would sell his catch in the market, haggling like any other huckster for the best price he could get for each fish from a crowd of laughing housewives. Then he gave away the money he received. But the strongest hold he had acquired over the riff-raff of Naples was through having accepted the office of Master of the Guild of the Lazzaroni. This Guild consisted of literally thousands of professional beggars and petty criminals, who made a living by preying in a hundred ways on the better-off part of the population. Ferdinand encouraged and protected them and delighted in the nickname the people gave him of ' II Re dei Lazzaroni \
His other main interest he termed ' hunting \ It consisted only of standing in a stone sentry-box, while hundreds of beasts and birds were driven past him. With an indefatigable lust for slaughter he stood there hour after hour, shooting them down. He was also a great practical joker and from time to time found it most amusing suddenly to decree that some staid visitor to his Court should be tossed in a blanket.
While this young moron was harmlessly enjoying himself, or bellowing with laughter at his sadistic pranks, Queen Caroline had been intriguing without pause to get the Government of the country into her own hands. Whenever Ferdinand put up the least opposition to her proposals for innovations she flew into such violent tempers that he was only too glad to escape from her at the price of giving way. Even when at table she screeched at him like an angry eagle, and on one occasion actually bit him. In due course she had succeeded in getting rid of Tenucci and replacing him with a Minister of her own choice.
This was General Sir John Acton, the son of an English physician who had settled in France. At an early age Acton had joined the French Army, but later left it for the Court of Tuscany. In '75 he had greatly distinguished himself while commanding a
Tuscan frigate in an expedition to suppress the pirates of Algiers. Four years later Queen Caroline had persuaded the Grand Duke to let her have Acton to reorganize the little Neapolitan Army.
The newcomer had at once set about building a Fleet out of all proportion to the resources of the country. To secure enough money for this he had to be made Minister of Finance, as well as of Marine. To these posts he had soon added that of Minister of War and, finally, Prime Minister. He was now sixty-three and for the past twenty years he and the Queen had run the country. Naples now had a Fleet of one hundred and twenty ships and, on paper, an Army of sixty thousand men, so had become a Power of some importance. But the effort had virtually bankrupted the country.
On the credit side, as Roger naturally regarded the matter, Acton was the firm friend of Sir William Hamilton, who had been British Ambassador in Naples for the past thirty-five years; while an even stronger tie existed between Sir William's wife, the beautiful Emma, and Queen Caroline. Working hand in glove, these four had weaned the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies away from Spain and France into the orbit of Austrian, and British influence. Above all, the triumph of Sir William's long career had been the securing for Britain of the magnificent harbour of Naples as a naval base, from which her sea power could command the Mediterranean.
Having finished his meal Roger decided to lose no time in calling on Sir William. He took a carozza up the hill to the beautiful Palazzo Sessa, which housed the British Embassy. Giving his name to the footman as Robert MacElfic, he added that he was a cousin of the Earl of Kildonan and that he would be grateful if the Ambassador could spare him a few minutes on urgent business.
He was kept waiting in the big marble hall only long enough for him to admire some of the ancient statues which formed a small part of the priceless collection of Roman remains that the Ambassador had acquired during his long residence in Naples; then the footman returned and showed him into the splendid library.
The elderly Ambassador rose courteously from behind a big desk to receive him, shook hands and waved him to a chair. He then raised his quizzing glass, looked at Roger again and said,