followed. Donadieu waited until the
last, as was his duty, and as he put his foot on the ladder he felt the
other boat begin to go under; he turned round with all a sailor's calm,
and saw the gulf open its jaws beneath him, and then the shattered boat
capsized, and immediately disappeared. Five seconds more, and the four
men who were saved would have been lost beyond recall! [These details are
well known to the people of Toulon, and I have heard them myself a score
of times during the two stays that I made in that town during 1834 and
1835. Some of the people who related them had them first-hand from
Langlade and Donadieu themselves.]

Murat had hardly gained the deck before a man came and fell at his feet:
it was a Mameluke whom he had taken to Egypt in former years, and had
since married at Castellamare; business affairs had taken him to
Marseilles, where by a miracle he had escaped the massacre of his
comrades, and in spite of his disguise and fatigue he had recognised his
former master.

His exclamations of joy prevented the king from keeping up his incognito.
Then Senator Casabianca, Captain Oletta, a nephew of Prince Baciocchi, a
staff-paymaster called Boerco, who were themselves fleeing from the
massacres of the South, were all on board the vessel, and improvising a
little court, they greeted the king with the title of "your Majesty." It
had been a sudden embarkation, it brought about a swift change: he was no
longer Murat the exile; he was Joachim, the King of Naples. The exile's
refuge disappeared with the foundered boat; in its place Naples and its
magnificent gulf appeared on the horizon like a marvellous mirage, and no
doubt the primary idea of the fatal expedition of Calabria was originated
in the first days of exultation which followed those hours of anguish.
The king, however, still uncertain of the welcome which awaited him in
Corsica, took the name of the Count of Campo Melle, and it was under this
name that he landed at Bastia on the 25th August. But this precaution
was useless; three days after his arrival, not a soul but knew of his
presence in the town.

Crowds gathered at once, and cries of "Long live Joachim!" were heard,
and the king, fearing to disturb the public peace, left Bastia the same
evening with his three companions and his Mameluke. Two hours later he
arrived at Viscovato, and knocked at the door of General Franceschetti,
who had been in his service during his whole reign, and