had promised himself in the
fragrant and shady gardens.

The market was filled with riotous people, and the uproar was so much
the worse because Masaniello, with his troop of Alarbes, had met them in
the morning for a grand review. The people of Pozzuoli, of bad fame
since the days of Don Pedro de Toledo, quarrelled and protested; the
Neapolitans were not a whit behind them in fluency of speech. The
tax-gatherers would listen to no remonstrances and insisted upon the
payment.

Andrea Naclerio tried in all ways to obtain a hearing and to appease the
tumult. He said to the Pozzuolans that they ought to pay, that the money
would be returned to them. They would not. He demanded to have the fruit
weighed; he would pay the tax out of his own purse: this also they
refused. The tax-gatherers and _sbirri_ now lost all patience. They
fetched the great scales, and wanted to weigh the fruit by force. Then
the venders pushed down the baskets, so that the fruit rolled along the
ground, and called out to the people: "Take what you can get, and taste
it; it is the last time that we shall come here to the market."

From all sides boys and men flung themselves upon the baskets and the
fruit. The signal was given for an insurrection. The tax-gatherers drove
the people back; the people made use of the fruit as their weapons.
Andrea Naclerio rushed into the thickest of the crowd; the captain of
the sbirri and some of the respectable inhabitants of the adjacent tan
quarter hastened hither, and bore him in their arms out of the knot of
men who in one moment had increased to a large mass; for idle people had
flocked thither from the neighboring street, from the dirty and populous
Lavinaro, as well as from the coast. The deputy was rejoiced to reach
his boat, and made the rowers ply vigorously that he might bring the
noise of the tumult to the palace. But the populace proceeded from fruit
to stones, put to flight the tax-gatherers and sbirri, crowded into the
custom-house, destroyed the table and chairs, set fire to the ruins as
well as the account-books, so that soon a bright flame rose up amid the
loud rejoicings of the bystanders.

Meanwhile Andrea Naclerio had reached the palace. He related the whole
proceeding to the Viceroy, and pointed out to him at the same time that
only the abolition of the fruit tax could appease the people. The Duke
of Arcos resolved to try mildness. Two men of illustrious birth, who
were more beloved by the cr