more an enemy of your country than a friend of his own. He is
a profound admirer of Bonaparte's virtues and successes, and was, during
his residence, one of the most ostentatiously awkward courtiers of
Napoleon the First. It is said that he has the modesty and loyalty to
wish to become a Spanish Bonaparte, and that he promises to restore by
his genius and exploits the lost lustre of the Spanish monarchy. When
this was reported to Talleyrand, he smiled with contempt; but when it was
told to Bonaparte, he stamped with rage at the impudence of the Spaniard
in daring to associate his name of acquired and established greatness
with his own impertinent schemes of absurdities and impossibilities.

In the summer of 1793, Gravina commanded a division of the Spanish fleet
in the Mediterranean, of which Admiral Langara was the
commander-in-chief. At the capitulation of Toulon, after the combined
English and Spanish forces had taken possession of it, when Rear-Admiral
Goodall was declared governor, Gravina was made the commandant of the
troops. At the head of these he often fought bravely in different
sorties, and on the 1st of October was wounded at the re-capture of Fort
Pharon. He complains still of having suffered insults or neglect from
the English, and even of having been exposed unnecessarily to the fire
and sword of the enemy merely because he was a patriot as well as an
envied or suspected ally. His inveteracy against your country takes its
date, no doubt, from the siege of Toulon, or perhaps, from its
evacuation.

When, in May, 1794, our troops were advancing towards Collioure, he was
sent with a squadron to bring it succours, but he arrived too late, and
could not save that important place. He was not more successful at the
beginning of the campaign of 1795 at Rosa, where he had only time to
carry away the artillery before the enemy entered. In August, that year,
during the absence of Admiral Massaredo, he assumed ad interim the
command of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean; but in the December
following he was disgraced, arrested, and shut up as a State prisoner.

During the embassy of Lucien Bonaparte to the Court of Madrid, in the
autumn of 1800, Gravina was by his influence restored to favour; and
after the death of the late Spanish Ambassador to the Cabinet of St.
Cloud, Chevalier d' Azara, by the special desire of Napoleon, was
nominated both his successor and a representative of the King of Etruria.