he country. He was never offended at Pepe's
frankness, for he had faith in his personal attachment. "It is certain,"
says the General, "that, after my country, I was most truly attached to
Joachim, and I would have given my life for him." Subsequent events
proved this, and showed Murat that the man who, boldly and to his face,
had blamed the conduct of the king, was the firm friend of the depressed
and unhappy fugitive. In the closing scene of Joachim's reign, when the
disbanded Neapolitans, badly led, and in some instances deserted by
generals who should never have held the rank, fled before the hosts of
Austria, the sympathy and friendship of his plain-spoken follower were
amongst the last and best consolations of the falling monarch. Very
bitter must have been Murat's reflections at that moment; the conviction
was forced upon him that his misfortunes resulted chiefly from his own
want of judgment and too great facility; captivity or exile stared him
in the face; the sunny smile which, even in moments of the greatest
peril, rarely left his countenance, was chased by shame and
self-reproach, and tears stood upon his cheeks. "I could not restrain my
own, and, instead of speaking, I advanced, took his hand, and kissed it.
Oh! how touched he was by this act of respectful affection on my part!
Who knows but at that moment he recollected the words I had addressed to
him in his palace, 'Whenever you shall find yourself in a situation of
danger, you will learn to distinguish your real friends from the friends
of your fortune.'" A very few days after this affecting scene, on the
night of the 20th May, Murat crossed over in disguise to Ischia, and
embarked for France. On the 23d, took place the triumphal entry of the
Austrians into the city of Naples.

The particulars of Murat's last mad act, his landing in Italy at the
head of thirty men, and of his consequent capture and tragical death,
have been related by many writers, and General Pepe could add little in
the way of facts to what was already known. He makes some interesting
reflections on the subject, and traces the supreme ill-luck by which
Joachim was pursued in his last desperate venture. On the return of the
Bourbons to France, two of his followers, who had accompanied him from
Naples, hired a vessel to convey him to England or America. But, as fate
would have it, the place of rendezvous was misunderstood. Murat missed
his friends, and, being in hourly peril of his life,