essed of putting an end to the armistice, notwithstanding the
capitulation had been signed, while the castles remained unsurrendered,
a few plain words will be allowed sufficient, by the sober part of
mankind, for whom they can, indeed, scarcely be necessary, to set the
question at rest for ever. Had the French fleet arrived, instead of the
British, would the capitulation have been at all regarded by those who
had agreed to surrender these castles? Would they have delivered them up
to the then overpowered besiegers? On the contrary, would they not have
instantly directed the guns of these very fortresses against the persons
to whom they had just signed their submission? These questions are so
obvious, that they scarcely need any reply, since there cannot possibly
be two opinions on the subject. If there exists, in such derogations,
any departure from strictly moral justice, which admits of much doubt,
it must be ascribed to the rigorous necessities inseparable from a state
of war, and not to any want of rectitude in the breasts of those
honourable men on whom devolves the severe task of dictating the
operations of that dreadful but unavoidable chastiser of the human race.
The besieged, by the laws of war, would have had a right to avail
themselves, as is suggested, in the case of such an arrival of the
French fleet; and, unquestionably, that of the British, which actually
occurred, was alike entitled to alter the effect of the unexecuted
capitulation.

It appears, however, that Lord Nelson, though he would not sanction an
armistice which he considered as dishonouring the sovereign for whom he
was acting, had not the smallest desire to interfere with the disposal
of the rebels whom he was so anxious to secure. It was not for their
punishment, but for the security of those whom he feared they might
contaminate by their principles, that he resolved to keep them in safe
custody till the farther pleasure of his Sicilian Majesty should be
known; and, in this, even Cardinal Ruffo, it seems, at length,
reluctantly acquiesced.

On the morning of the 27th, having embarked all the principal rebels in
the several ships of the British squadron, and the rest in polacres
anchored under their care, his lordship ordered Captain Troubridge to
land with a detachment of troops, for the purpose of cutting down "the
infamous Tree of Anarchy," which was immediately burnt before the king's
palace. His Sicilian Majesty's flag was now every whe