and then on another. When
Donato Cappola had finished reading he wanted to take off his sumptuous
dress of silver brocade in the middle of the church, because he declared
that he was now nobody. When he was hindered from doing this, he flung
himself upon the ground and kissed the feet of the cardinal. The Duke of
Arcos swore to the contract, with his hand upon the Gospels. The
Archbishop sang the _Te Deum_, and the people shouted "Long life to the
King of Spain!" The companies fired their rifles; the Viceroy returned
through the streets, swarming with men, to the castle, and everywhere
resounded the cry, "Long life to the King and the Duke of Arcos!" Then,
as Masaniello returned home, the companies all lowered their colors as
he passed.

The power of the Fisherman of Amalfi was at its height; but already he
was near his ruin. The unusual way of life, the always increasing
excitement, the constant speaking and watching, the small quantity of
nourishment which he took from dread of poison--all this, in the most
fearful heat of summer, affected him bodily and completely turned his
head. His actions can only be explained by their being the beginning of
insanity. If a crowd of people did not please him, he attacked and
wounded them right and left. All the persons, amounting to a thousand,
that lived near his cottage on the market-place he expelled from their
dwellings, that these might be destroyed and he might build a large
palace for himself. He lavished gold and silver with prodigality, and
gave a number of prostitutes rich dowries; he distributed the titles of
princes and dukes, gave great banquets at Poggio Reale and at Posilipo,
to which he invited the Viceroy, and sent his wife and mother in
magnificent dresses to visit the Duchess of Arcos. "If your excellency
is the vice-queen of the ladies," said the Fisherman's wife, "I am the
vice-queen of the women of the people."

But fear of the Duke of Maddaloni haunted him like a spectre. He ordered
his beautiful villa at Posilipo to be destroyed, and made his people
ransack once more his pillaged palace at Santa Maria della Stella. The
barber of the Duke and a Moorish slave bought their lives, the first by
giving him various jewels that had been concealed, and the other told
him that it was Diomed Carafa who had caused the admiral's ship to be
set on fire, which had been blown into the air the preceding May. The
Moor, for this lie, obtained the command of four companies of