n corvette the "Veloce," and carried off prisoners to
Palermo,--the one solitary capture the royal navy made in the whole of
that eventful struggle.

The proofs that they were Garibaldians were too strong and many for
denial; and for a day and a half their fate was far from hopeful.
Indeed, had the tidings of the first encounters between the King's
forces and the buccaneers been less disastrous than they were, the
prisoners would have been shot; but already a half doubt had arisen
as to the fidelity of the royal troops. This and that general, it was
rumored, had resigned; and of those who remained, it was said, more than
one had counselled "concessions." Ominous word at such a moment, but the
presage of something darker and more ominous still.

M'Gruder bore up with a stout heart, and nothing grieved him in all his
calamity more than the thought that all this time Tony might be exposing
his life as worthless and hopeless, while, if he only knew it, he had
already succeeded to what men are content to pass their whole existence
to grasp and gain.

Nor was he inactive in his imprisonment He wrote letters to Garibaldi,
enclosing others to Tony; he wrote to all the consuls he could think of;
to the Minister at Naples, or to his representative; and he proclaimed
his right as a "civis Romanus," and threatened a Palmerstonian vengeance
on all and every that had a hand in curtailing his freedom.

In this very natural and British pursuit we must now leave him, and
betake ourselves to other cares and other characters.

CHAPTER LII. ON THE CHIAJA AT NIGHT

The night had just closed in after a hot sultry day of autumn in Naples,
as Maitland and Caffarelli sat on the sea-wall of the Chiaja, smoking
their cigars in silence, apparently deep in thought, or sometimes
startled by the distant shouts and cries of the populace who crammed
the Toledo or the Quarter of St Lucia; for all Naples was now in the
streets, and wild songs and yells resounded on every side.

In the bay the fleet lay at anchor; but the rapid flash of lanterns,
as they rose and fell in the riggings, showed that the signalman was at
work, and that messages were being transmitted and replied to throughout
the squadron. A like activity seemed to prevail in the forts above the
city, and the roll of the drum and the bugle-call occasionally could be
heard overtopping all other sounds.

"What would a newly come traveller say to all this?" said Caffarelli, at
last.