re flying in
Naples, except on the Castle of St. Elmo. This fortress still remaining
in the hands of the French, Captains Troubridge and Ball, who had now,
in some degree, conciliated the cardinal, taking with them thirteen
hundred men from the ships, five hundred Russian troops, and a
considerable body of royalists, proceeded to invest it.

As there could be little doubt that this place, though exceedingly
strong, must in a few days yield to the vigorous operations of the brave
and skilful officers by whom it was besieged, which would complete the
repossession of the Neapolitan capital, Lord Nelson wrote to General
Acton; requesting that his Sicilian Majesty would come into the Bay of
Naples, as well as the general, to sanction and direct, by his royal
presence, and their united councils, the requisite measures for
completing the important business now in so fair a train for being
happily concluded.

At the surrender of the castles, Carraccioli had effected his escape;
but he was soon apprehended by the royalists, who were clamorous for his
execution; and, on the 29th, after a fair trial, by a board of naval
officers of his Sicilian Majesty, for rebellion against his lawful
sovereign, and firing at his Sicilian Majesty's frigate La Minerve, he
was hanged at the fore-yard-arm of that ship.

Lord Nelson greatly lamented the fate of this unhappy man, though he
could not deny the justice of his sentence; and he would, undoubtedly,
have recommended him as an object of mercy to his Sicilian Majesty, had
he not well known that such an interference, in the then temper of the
people, must have rendered himself an object of their suspicion; and
thus have operated against the king's interest, without finally
preserving the culprit from the worst effects of their fury. When it is
considered that, a very few months before, Carraccioli had received, at
Palermo, the supreme command of the small remains of his Sicilian
Majesty's fleet; that, on his departure for Messina, he had been
earnestely and most pathetically conjured by the queen, while taking
leave of her majesty, to do every thing in his power for the promotion
of the welfare of her little family; that he had, soon after, under
pretence of assisting the royalists in Calabria, abandoned his
sovereign, and actually joined the republicans with the force committed
to his charge; he cannot be well regarded as an object entitled to any
very extraordinary degree of commiseration.