nd several Corsican officers served as escort; he took
the road to Ajaccio by Cotone, the mountains of Serra and Bosco, Venaco
and Vivaro, by the gorges of the forest of Vezzanovo and Bogognone; he
was received and feted like a king everywhere, and at the gates of the
towns he was met by deputations who made him speeches and saluted him
with the title of "Majesty"; at last, on the 23rd September, he arrived
at Ajaccio. The whole population awaited him outside the walls, and his
entry into the town was a triumphal procession; he was taken to the
inn which had been fixed upon beforehand by the quartermasters. It was
enough to turn the head of a man less impressionable than Murat; as for
him, he was intoxicated with it. As he went into the inn he held out his
hand to Franceschetti.

"You see," he said, "what the Neapolitans will do for me by the way the
Corsicans receive me."

It was the first mention which had escaped him of his plans for
the future, and from that very day he began to give orders for his
departure.

They collected ten little feluccas: a Maltese, named Barbara,
former captain of a frigate of the Neapolitan navy, was appointed
commander-in-chief of the expedition; two hundred and fifty men were
recruited and ordered to hold themselves in readiness for the first
signal.

Murat was only waiting for the answers to Othello's letters: they
arrived on the afternoon of the 28th. Murat invited all his officers to
a grand dinner, and ordered double pay and double rations to the men.

The king was at dessert when the arrival of M. Maceroni was announced to
him: he was the envoy of the foreign powers who brought Murat the answer
which he had been awaiting so long at Toulon. Murat left the table and
went into another room. M. Maceroni introduced himself as charged
with an official mission, and handed the king the Emperor of Austria's
ultimatum. It was couched in the following terms:

"Monsieur Maceroni is authorised by these presents to announce to
King Joachim that His Majesty the Emperor of Austria will afford him
shelter in his States on the following terms:--

"1. The king is to take a private name. The queen having adopted
that of Lipano, it is proposed that the king should do likewise.

"2. It will be permitted to the king to choose a town in Bohemia,
Moravia, or the Tyrol, as a place of residence. He could even
inhabit a country house in one of these same provinces witho