none to be found of Experience sufficient for supplying his place they could do little or no service That the French Fleet would quickly return its Officers with so positive Orders that they would not fail of their duty nor any more as they had done let slip an occasion of destroying the Fleet of Spain which would easily be recovered since at their return they would find it more weak and less provided than before That I had sent a Gentleman into France to give account of all that had passed of which they had but confused notions That I was assured of all manner of supplies that the Fleet went away only to water and joyn with a considerable number of ships that were arming in Provence and that it would suddenly return by the one half stronger than before That it conveyed me many Ships laden with Corn Ammunition and Souldiers to be landed and that before three Weeks were passed I should have a considerable body of French and the best Officers of our Kingdom to land when I should command them and in such part as I should judge convenient That the Court was too well satisfied in my zeal and fidelity for the Crown to distrust me and that I acted not but according to the instructions I received That the King had no thought of invading the Kingdom of Naples but would give its people all manner of assistance without other interest than that of protecting such as apply themselves to him as he had most gloriously made appear in so many parts of Europe that he would satisfie himself in driving the Spaniards out of a Kingdom they had so long a time tyrannised and leave to the choice of those of the Countrey what Government they would erect and what Master submit to if they judged it necessary to have one and would own and support with all his power whomsoever they should raise to their Throne that he would give no jealousie to Italy his designs tending only to its repose and liberty That the suppression of his enemies sufficiently elevated his power and he would gain enough by an alliance with all those Sea and Land Forces they should lose with the Kingdom of Naples which were the most considerable that had opposed the course of his Victories That his Gallies would find little resistance from those of Spain now they had lost so considerable an Admiral as the Duke of Tursi and that for what concerned my self who was more obedient than in former times the Bashaws of Turkie he doubted not of my bringing him my head with the account of my actions at fight of the first Order he should send me That the ill Conduct of the Abbot Baschi was not to be imputed to the Court no more than the Conspiracy he made against my life That our Nation never contrived so horrid designs which its generosity could not put in practice That he much better than my self understood what Genius inspired that Gallant because he was a Pentioner of Spain that this truth should suddenly be made very apparent and I blamed to have let him go unpunished which he should not have done but for my respect to his Character That the power of the Spanish Monarchy was no longer to be apprehended as formerly that it was exhausted both of Men and Money and could onely make a feeble defensive War in Flanders Catalonia and the Dutchie of Milan That he should quickly hear of the Siege of Cremona by the Duke of Modena's declaring for us and that he attacquing them as vigorously there as I did in this Country they would be in no condition to make resistance That I was already Master of the Field through the whole Kingdom and that I would suddenly be so of the City and its Castles That I had so many Forces dispersed in several Quarters that whensoever I pleased to give them a rendezvous I could draw together above twenty five thousand men That the enemies no longer daring to appear were blocked up in their fortifications which must of necessity fall shortly into my hands because unprovided of all things and without men enow to defend them That the people of Naples were no longer cruel nor turbulent that I had brought them to my lure That my care had reduced them to so good order and discipline that in stead of insolencies and tumults nothing appeared but respect and obedience That I was so farr from fearing them that they feared me and the considerable services I had rendered them had so highly recommended me that my power was established upon the universal affection and esteem That my authoritie was questioned by none and that nothing was disputed in Naples neither were there any Contestations amongst the people but who should testifie most respect to my person and greatest submission to my Orders That the rabble had forgot their outrages and plunderings and the better sort acknowledged themselves indebted to me for preservation of their fortunes and the honor of their families and had a greater zeal respect and affection for me than the Lazares themselves and for the Nobility he had not perhaps penetrated to the bottom of their thoughts nor discovered what was in their hearts and that I well perceived he was ignorant of my intrigues secret negotiations and the measures I had taken with them That they could not much longer keep Aversa whose loss would be followed by the disbanding of their Troops and then the greatest part of those Gentlemen would go to their houses which would very much alarm the distrustful humour of the Spaniards After all this I left him to judge by my whole discourse whether I ought to hope or fear That for a Throne I had never aspired to it and for a Scaffold I was secure enough from it and in a condition to make whomsoever I pleased ascend it He seemed much surprised at what I had told him and returning to his first subject asked how I would dispose of him Keep you safe said I and entertain you with all civility imaginable But in what replied he can a man of fourscore years old be useful to you Considering the necessity you are in a ransom would be of more advantage of which if you will treat you shall be punctually paid in Genoua the summ we shall agree on None can be high enough said I to get out of my hands a person of your Consideration and I can make so great advantages by you that what necessity soever I have for Money it is to no purpose to propose it since I less value a Million than the having you in my power He conjured me at least to take Compassion of the youth of his grand-child the sole hope of his Family and his only Heir You are a man said I of a Romane Constancy I can discover nothing weak about you but in this particular of which I must make use and he being so considerable and sacred a pledge I will not part with him since
more impatience than their Messiah is by the Jews If we may believe honest Machiavel I shall be more puissant than the Great Turk since he could not draw together a hundred and seventy thousand men which is the number that in Arms attend to receive my orders Naples is a fair Theater of honour where I am to encounter a Son of the King of Spain put his army to flight take three Castles and other Fortresses of the Kingdom and recover ten Posts that have been lost to the Enemy and kept by them well fortified in that one City Who hath more work to do and more honour to gain if I play my part well How difficult soever it may appear I am made believe I shall overcome it very shortly after my arrival I will keep something yet for you to do and you shall have your part if you take care to send me good store of Money Adieu I entertain you too long considering the little time I have for making my dispatch Plunder all you can lay your hands on and if possible the great Diamonds of honest Chevereuse Leave nothing in Guise house in a word let neither Locks nor Bolts be proof against your Fingers I am all yours The Duke of Guise Rome the 29. Oct. 1647. This Letter went not away immediately and the news I shall now impart arriving after it was written I was forced to adde this Apostile I delayed the departure of Tilli for some Bills of Exchange that are to be agreed on and the Cardinal of St Cicilia and the Ambassadour having judged my presence immediately necessary at Naples I parted for that place the tenth of November This Bearer will assure you he saw me embarque I am in such hast I can write to none you will make it known to our Friends and Relations the next of mine will be from Naples where I shall want a most potent assistance of Money solicite and heap up on all hands In the mean time Father Capuce a Jacobin Frier arrived to solicite my departure and the succours but more to make himself known to me and obtain the charge of being my Confessor and Preacher in Ordinary by it to become more considerable in his Countrey and Nicolo Maria Mannara returned to cause an alteration to be made in the resolutions had been taken concerning me and desired that without expecting the Fleet all being in danger of ruine if my presence re-established it not and re-inspired not courage into the Neapolitans who had intirely lost it I would resolve my departure In presence of the Ambassadour and all the Kings Ministers he delivered me the following Letter Most Serene Lord WE have this day received by the hands of Nicolo Maria Mannara your Highness dispatches by which as well as by his report we understand that many persons whom we have entrusted with Letters to your Highness have not given a faithful account of our intentions We therefore most humbly beseech you to give no belief but to him alone especially in order to the demand he will make your Highness in our name for assisting us with Ammunition and pressing the arrival of the French Fleet of which we are in extreme want but above all of your Highness person And understanding that our said Envoies have not particularly enough expressed our necessities we in all referre our selves to what the said Nicolo Maria Mannara shall represent he having particular information with the extremest zeal and impatience we attend the person of your Highness to consolate the whole Kingdom and with our most humble respects kiss your hands Your Highnesses Most humble and most obliged Servant The Common-wealth of Naples Gennaro Anneze Generalissimo of the People Naples the 3d Nov. 1647. After the reading of which Letter the said Nicolo Maria Mannara told us that the condition of affairs in Naples was changed much for the worse since his last Voyage that by artifice of the Spaniard different reports were every day cast abroad to the wonderful consternation of the people first they endeavoured to perswade them they should receive no succours from France then that I never intended to come and head their Armies and that my designe of expecting the Fleet to embarque on was but a Specious pretence to free my self from the engagement I had made and the word I had too lightly given of coming to serve them I understanding that they would be abandoned and that there was too little honour to be acquired and too much peril to be undergone in this enterprise That Lewis de Ferro who had taken upon himself the quality of Ambassadour of France had offered them in the Kings name a million of Gold fifty ships of war thirty Gallies ten Vessels laden with Corn fifty pieces of Canon twelve thousand foot and four thousand horse with ammunition sufficient for above two years That I was coming to put my self into their hands as Hostage for all these things and that he would give himself up as prisoner to secure them with the price of his head in a word making such exorbitant Proposals as appeared incredible and ridiculous That Gennaro was accused to have been too easily perswaded of these chimerical succours That the people lost all hope of assistance and their spirits were so dejected that they were ready to throw down their arms having no more courage to defend themselves that they might no farther exasperate the Spaniards against them And although the apprehension of their revenge were very great many persons flattered themselves that they might escape it supposing the punishment would fall onely upon the leaders That many Cabals were already formed in the Town That the rabble were observed to make parties in the Streets to murmure That nothing was heard but cries and lamentations and in a word all possest with despair and desolation That notwithstanding all this it was generally believed that at my appearance amongst them they would recover their wonted vigour and courage being by it confirmed that France would not forsake them lest she should so expose a person of my birth and consideration that they would yet take Patience for fourteen or fifteen days but in case the Fleet appeared not by that time they would yield resolved to defend themselves no longer and seek their own security in delivering up their Leaders This news surprised us all well knowing the impossibility what diligence soever could be used of the Fleets precise arrival within that time For besides that the equipping at Toulon was not yet compleated had it been ready to set sail the incertainty of the winds and perils of Navigation the Winter so far advanced would not admit a fixt day for its appearing before Naples Mannara was sensible of the truth of what we said but withal represented that having to do with a multitude turbulent seditious and impatient it was impossible to sway them by reason That they must be convinced by something present and effectual because timorous and incredulous persons
are not easily encouraged That my presence alone could have so great effects and that during the joy conceived thereupon it would be easie to make the people of Naples nay even the women take arms in order to the most desperate attempts That their hatred to Spain might cool but never be extinguished and that there was none that would not under my command expose himself to death and shed the last drop of his bloud for the safety and liberty of his Country We resolved to dispatch at that very instant an express to hasten the coming of the Fleet and I offered to go the next morning to Portolongone to attend it and embarque as soon as it should appear gaining so three or four days time that would have been spent in giving me notice of its arrival and my Journey after receipt of the advice And that if there were any other possibility of my getting to Naples I would make no difficulty of any hazard thereby to re-incourage them wishing rather to die than see the loss of so favourable a conjuncture which could never afterwards be recovered for rendering to France so important and extraordinary service Mannara answered that if I would take so brave a resolution it was easie for me to enter Naples in spight of any hinderance from the Ships and Gallies of the Spanish Fleet that there were small Feluccas so light and nimble that neither Gallies nor Brigantines could overtake them of which there was already experience not one of those which had been sent since the arrival of the enemies fleet being lost either going or coming That if I would make use of them he would send that very night for a number sufficient to take me in with all my train and that they should arrive within three dayes The Cardinals began to look one upon another uncertain what resolution I would take too clearly discerning the danger it being very hazardous though I escaped the enemy to expose my self to the fury of that Sea the Navigation whereof is more to be apprehended than of any other Coast of the Mediterranean especially in the Moneth of November the time in which there arise in the Baies wherewith it abounds most furious tempests Monsieur de Fontenay seeing the necessity of my passing and not venturing to counsel me directly to it said that in effect these Feluccas were so happy and their Mariners of such experience that there was little peril in trusting to them and that the passage was so short that taking a seasonable time which they well understood there was scarcely any thing left to fortune I smiled and looking upon him told him that if he desired to have me attempt this passage he had no more to do but to tell me that it was useful to the Kings service and that I could not do any thing more agreeable profitable or advantageous to France If so never any man exposed himself to greater and more evident danger than I was ready to undertake that instant because I gloried in understanding the peril and contemning it and that the facility of enterprises deprived them of their rellish I told him finally that to serve the King I feared nothing but would venture all with joy and presently ordered Nicolo Maria Mannara to send for Feluccas and to let the people of Naples know they should suddenly see me amongst them armed for their defence or I would die on the way He then fell on his knees to give me thanks in the name of the people to whose protection I was going and particularly of Gennaro whose life I saved it being impossible for him to preserve it above a very few days unless my presence freed him from the danger he was exposed to and which was decreed against him in case the Fleet appeared not in fourteen days or if my arrival were delayed The Ambassadour thanked me in the Kings name for the zeal and passion that obliged me to so frank a hazarding my self for the interests of his Crown and assured me to recommend my resolution according to its merits it being indeed very extraordinary The Cardinals as surprized made the most obliging expressions and flattering me on the action I undertook so generously assured me that by it I surpassed all the Hero's of Antiquity and transcended those of ancient Rome I was told afterwards by the same deputy that they wanted Powder in Naples and therefore resolved to take with me all I possibly could and he assured me that with my presence and this present supply those of France with the arrival of its Fleet would be expected patiently I pressed an immediate dispatch of the post they had resolved to send to hasten it it being but reasonable that my so resolute embarking my self on the Feluccas should rather advance than retard its dispatch so to leave me the less time in that danger into which I so voluntarily cast my self Whilest Mannara went to write to Naples the Kings Ministers and I fell into discourse and they not forbearing to commend me I told them that if what I went about were an action so worthy it could not fail of acquiring me great credit and authority in the opinion of the Neapolitans and that when I should be established by other as important services which I hoped very shortly to render them I should be in a condition to perswade them to any thing and they of contradicting nothing of my Proposals that then I might negotiate their resigning themselves to the King and that I would cause so sudden a performance of such a resolution that the Pope and the rest of the Princes of Italy what jealousie soever they conceived should want time to oppose it They answered me as they had done before at our other Conferences that the King was so farre from any such thought that he would not be so much as believed capable of it that there was too little to be got and too much to be hazarded by such a proposal That the choice of a master was to be left to the Kingdom of Naples and to fortune That all the Spaniard excepted were alike to France that nothing more was to be thought on than the driving out him as they had formerly said and the rest to be left to time and hazard I proposed afterwards to contrive the Election either of the Kings brother or of the since deceased Duke of Orleance They told me the last was old incommoded by the Gout and of little activity that he loved repose and would never quit France to raign in a Kingdom where the Crown was ill setled and where he must be forced to be continually with his sword drawn to support it That for the Kings brother his infancy would hinder the people from fixing their thoughts on him since many years must pass before he could be in a condition to protect or govern them I answered that his few years were in my opinion to his advantage that by being bred up in the
Countrey he would acquire its fashions and customs and so would afterwards pass rather for a Native than Stranger That during his Minority I might govern under him which would be done easily and without resistance the Neapolitans having been some time accustomed to live under my command and to receive my orders To conclude that I assured my self in case they approved this business I should with time bring it to effect They told me they had received no orders in this particular that they durst prescribe nothing to me not knowing the Courts intentions that there was no more to be thought on but to gain the people liberty and let them afterwards embrace such form of Government as best pleased them that what resolution soever they took the King would approve it being resolved to protect them without interest What instructions then said I have you to give me I desire good and punctual Orders that I may in nothing displease but serve the King as much to his content as I hope to do to his advantage They answered manage well the war and drive the Spaniards out of the Kingdom of Naples and for all else regulate your self as you shall judge to best purpose and as you shall find good or evil Conjunctures Immediately after your arrival draw out 6000 foot and 2000 horse to possess your self of some post which opening the way from hence to Naples will give us easie convenience of corresponding that we may act in Consort receiving often intelligence from each other We have only two advices to give you the first That you yield no precedence to Don John of Austria what business soever you negotiate with him and the other That you never loose the respect belongs to you the multitude often abusing the goodness of their Governours and when one is so unfortunate as to fall into contempt it is very difficult to rise again we must not therefore suffer to be dallied with nor make our selves too common These were all the Instructions I could obtain from the Kings Ministers and since my departure not receiving any other orders it is an injury to tax me that I would have made my self independant since I never entertained any other thought but to please and serve the King and in spight of all the troubles that have in his name been set afoot against me I have continued firm in my respect and fidelity and intirely abandoned as I have been chose rather to hazard my life and liberty than accept the advantageous offers his enemies made me as shall appear in the Continuation of these Memoires In the mean time I resolved to send away the Sieur de Tilli to the end he might solicite all succours I wanted and follow the Negotiation with which I had encharged him promising to send a post after him which I did to overtake him on the way and assure him of the day of my embarking not suffering him to depart till he should have seen me at sea I appointed him to pass by Provence and from thence speedily to remit to Rome part of the Money I had designed for my expence and for paying all my debts leaving for security the greatest part of the Family I had with order to my Steward not to go from thence till he saw every man satisfied and presently after to come to me since out of the summe I received from Valenti I could not take so much as would be necessary for it Although the Arrival of the Sieur de Tilly and all effected by it happened not till long after my coming to Naples that I may not confound the Coherence of my Narration I think best to place it here He was received with much Joy by all my relations and with assurances that I should be assisted with whatever was necessary and that all should be hazarded rather than I want any thing Cardinal Mazarin prepared by his brothers dispatches received him very favourably and having commended and approved my zeal and resolution promised I should be supplied with all things that he would take a particular care of it and make it his own business That I should have assistances greater and with more expedition than I expected in short he found the Court in as favourable inclinations for me as I could desire My relations cried me up the honour of our family and the most glorious of all those that had hitherto born our name and supported it with so much splendor and reputation but notwithstanding all these fair Promises and high and great expectations which never had effect I was at last unhappily abandoned by all the World I thought fit before my departure to sound the Popes inclinations and see if the friendship he had promised me were firm and solid enough to prevent his opposal of my designs and whether the consideration of Spain would not hinder him from being favourable to me by concerning himself in an affair whose good or evil success depended much on the part he should take by the balance his authority would give to such side as he should discourage or protect I sent to demand audience which he granted me with pleasure out of the curiositie he had to know the particulars of all that had been negotiated I rendered him an exact account of all that had been treated on to that time and desiring his Councel touching the conduct I was to follow he told me I ought to let loose the reins to the carriere of my good fortune which he desired to see established with solidity and minded me that having many things to fear I ought to have a continual distrust and my eyes ever open not neglecting or contemning the smallest things which might all be of concernment to me since no misadventure could happen to me which would cost me less than my life that I should not depend on the Ministers of France residing in his Court the greatest part of whom were not my friends and who in order to their own advantages would give out that by their negotiations and addresses they were the authors of all the good events procured by my diligence and danger That in case I found it easie to cause the whole Kingdom to revolt they would attribute it to the disposition of the time and the general hatred of the Spanish Government that they would perswade themselves that any other as well as I might have done the same and by this elevating their hopes would use their endeavours to blast my fame and obstruct the establishment of my authority That unknown to me they would manage secret negotiations and form a hundered cabals contrary to me endeavouring to maintain divisions to profit by them That they would cause the Fleet to appear without sending me assistance cause supplyes to be shewn but not delivered to the end that the despairing people might by necessity be compelled to cast themselves into the arms of France and submit to her That this design which they would not fail to undertake
the best of all the Quarters that I might make advantage by the intelligence I had of the Enemies negligence on two considerable Posts called the Mortelles and St. Charles These thought themselves very secure because covered by St. Elmos Castle and Lantignana and the Vomero which are as it were two Suburbs having till then held for them but now had sent to assure me they would declare for me and take Arms on my first Order I sent them one in Writing by Serjeant Major de la Cave who commanded a Body of six hundred Men drawn from a Town of the same name whose Inhabitants have in all Ages had the reputation of the best and hardiest Souldiers of the Kingdom I would not go my self towards that quarter lest I might give suspition of my Design of which the Enemies by their Spies might have received advertisement As soon as it was night I headed my two thousand men in the Market-place ready to March when it should be time I designed two attaques one near the Custom-house and the other by the Cloyster of St. Clare to busie and divert their Forces by apprehension that I was ready to second either of them where I should see most facility and appearance of success The Cavaioli or men of la Cava were in the interim drawn near St. Charles to fall on as soon as I should give the Signal which was a Musket three times fired five hundred Musqueteers of Vomero and Lantignana were to second them and I to be at the same time at the head of my two thousand men to force the Spaniards from all they were possest of in the Town except the Castles These two Posts when gained playing on their rear and cutting off all their other quarters which was not difficult to effect the incapacity of the greatest part of their Officers considered and the astonishment and confusion that would be amongst them at such a surprizal A hundred men were to fall on first and seconded by the like number to advance farther as soon as the Work they had stormed should be possest and in a condition to secure them from being cut off the same thing was afterwards to be done from Poste to Poste and thus without any great hazard of Men I might have succeeded in so handsome an enterprise The signal was to be given at four in the morning and I expecting the time with much impatience that of my Men was so much greater that they began the attaque two houres sooner before those that should have seconded them were come up or I knew how to bring them succor The great firing I heard soon gave me notice of their precipitation I lost no time in beginning my March which I had but just done when I had newes by an Officer dispatched to me in all haste that St. Charles was stormed with the Death or Imprisonment of five and thirty Reformadoes that kept it The encouragement of this good success gave me a great deal of Joy which was too much allay'd a quarter of an hour after when I understood that my men two farr transported by the little opposition they met going on without minding whether they were seconded or not had taken the Morteles and some other Fortified Postes passed on to the Gardiole and St. Annes Chappel which are near the Vice-roys Palace who was so surprised that he abandoned it and in all haste made to the New Castle Had my Orders been followed so that I might have come timely in the Spaniards seemed driven out of Naples the Castles accidentally being provided with no more then four and twenty houres Victuals and their communication cut off But my men dazeled by their good fortune fell to plunder and enter houses which the Regiment of Naples perceiving without resistance re-possest the Postes we had gained but disorderly abandoned and of three hundered men they took they killed some hanged seven or eight and sent the rest a plentiful recruit to their Gallies This sensibly touched me and made me regret the want of a Body of well-regulated Troops who having more obedience would not have exposed me to such a displeasure underderstanding that we ought not to press forward till we have made our selves secure of our retreat Vexed to the Soul by this misfortune I resolved not to retire till I had attempted something else and to this purpose having put such Troops as I had with me in battalia in the Piazza that is before Cardinal Filomarini's Palace I drew out two bodies one to attaque a Work that had been advanc'd by the enemies to the end of the Street that goes towards St. Maries Church where they had lodged one of their most considerable bodies the other to attempt to gain ground towards the bottom of Cedrangulo where they were so advanced they might easily fall on our rear in two or three of the most important places in which we were posted These two attaques had success and seconding them often I had the good luck to recover in less then half an hour in this last quarter all the enemy had gained from the people in six weeks Greater opposition was made about St. Maries my Men were twice beaten back and perceiving them fall from the vigour that first appear'd in them I was forced to give them example and followed by some of my own servants and other private persons I charged the enemies so smartly with my Sword that I drove them into the Cloyster and breaking through the Houses one after another recovered a whole Street and advanced a Trench within ten paces though they had five hundred men in it I order'd Cerisantes to Poste himself strongly there in doing which he behav'd himself as gallantly as he had done at the attacque and made it so defensible that I ever after kept it After this I went to make place for the Cannon on the right and left hand of the neighbouring Workes to flanke them and lodge Musketiers and having broke down a piece of a Wall out of curiosity to observe the countenance of the Enemy I received a Musket-shot below my left eye which only razed the skin and a little singed my hair It was so favourable that it signified nothing but to gain me credit and affection amongst the People all both Men and Women coming to see the mark of it which remained eight or nine dayes giving me a thousand Benedictions and conjuring me to a greater care of my self since losing me they lost all on whom alone next to God depended their repose and liberty This little action not ill managed caused the bad success of the morning to be forgotten and seeing my Levies begin to come on I resolved after a few dayes to take the field to bring Provisions into the Town which necessity began to make murmur All Towns and Villages near the City hearing that I commanded had taken Armes for me and were followed by all the Countrey excepting such places as had Garrisons
heaven for so violent a counsel that the History of England offered another manner of example of King Edward the Third who by his Clemency acquired a reputation that will last as long as the world The Lord Percy being in rebellion against him Archibald Dowglas on his own account and without the authority of the King of Scotland his Soveraign entred England in Arms in favour of his revolted friend beat up King Edward his Quarters in a morning and forced him to shift for himself bare-foot but the King in that great battel he won against him by which he re-established his Crown having struck him from his Horse with his Lance and taken him prisoner after a severe punishment of his rebellious subjects his Council being of opinion that he should cause Dowglas to die as a particular person that unowned by any Crown had come to foment rebellion in his Kingdom that great and wise Edward answered that not being born his subject he had no lawful authority over him that his death would be a poor revenge and blemish the glory of his victory and that judging by the hurt he had done him how much he might be capable to serve him if he became his friend he resolved to give him liberty which he did desiring his friendship and tenderly embracing him with high commendation of his vertue and courage an action certainly well-becoming a most generous Prince and that raised him in honour above all his Contemporaries they advised them therefore without passion to consider which of these two examples was to be imitated by so potent a King as their Master who feared nothing from any private person whom his generosity might for ever engage to him besides the acquiring the admiration of all Europe The Earl of Ognate subtil and politick inclined to the first Opinion which he fortified by many reasons but would not take the burthen of it on himself alone besides being extreamly in love with Negotiations he thought nothing could be lost by hearing what I had to say which could not cause any long delay and after examination whether my Offers were of greater or less importance to their Monarchy than my death either would be in his choice as absolutely depending on him and he so highly satisfied himself that hazard recovered Naples that he would not lightly hazard his reputation nor do any thing that might appear blameable it being an ordinary Maxime amongst the Spaniards That time and patience never prejudice affairs which precipitation often ruins Don John of Austria a young Prince brave and generous suffering himself to be led by his own inclinations joyned with those that had honour on their side making a long and curious discourse such as could not have been expected from his youth but rather from a person grown old in affairs that having fixed all his thoughts on glory governs the advantages of his Nation by high and splendid proceedings He said That the actions he had seen me perform having gained me his esteem he could not hinder his affection from joyning with it that he could not without too sensible an affliction see a Prince whom it was in his power to save die miserably that he should think this not only infamous to himself but contrary to the honour of the King his Father who might draw greater advantages from my life than punishment that such a Clemency would draw on his head a thousand Benedictions and the applause of all Europe and that he could never find a subject that merited it more than I and that in my person alone he might oblige all the Princes to whom I was related that it would be injurious to the Spanish Monarchy to discover to the eyes of all the world that she sacrificed my life to her security that she was too well established to be any ways shaken by any private person that we lived not in the Age of Romances when a Knight Errant by his personal valour was able to destroy Kingdoms that I were indeed an enemy to be apprehended if I had the disposal of the power of France but that she had sufficiently discovered that she would neither contribute to the exaltation or establishment of my fortune that she abandonned me at a time when without danger she might have deprived them of a Crown and that it was very apparent she chose rather not to weaken her enemies than to suffer me to profit by their spoils that he saw great advantages in this so extraordinary Maxime because France alone being unable to make considerable and remote Conquests and that People very improper to conserve them Spain needed neither fear the seditions nor revolts of any of her Dominions time being alwayes favourable to her besides that her subjects would never be forward to flie to a protection that in this conjuncture shewed it self so useless and that no Princes would thence-forward engage in the concernments of a Nation that would not suffer them to help themselves and that looked with envy on the advantages acquired by serving her though at the cost of the enemy that judging my thoughts by his own he believed me incensed by the refusal of assistance in so glorious an enterprise and so far provoked that I breathed nothing but revenge nor desired to preserve my life but in order to it that his Opinion was that this was to be fomented and endeavours used to gain a person that might be so considerable to them that the greater my ambition seemed the greater confidence they ought to have in me for perceiving France would never give me wherewithal to satisfie it I would inseparably engage my self to Spain who at its own charge would assist me with all things necessary to advance it that they ought not to ruin me on account of my having concerned my self in the revolutions of Naples beause it is honourable for a couragious Prince to seek his advancement which he cannot do with greater reason and justice than amongst the enemies of his Countrey that he could not blame that in me which he would have practiced himself if he had been in my place and that it cannot be imputed a Crime to seek to acquire a Crown from a Monarchy opposite to that to which we are born subjects that he discerned nor the reason why particular actions when glorious should pass for more criminal than general ones being as useful and sometimes more to the advantage of our Countrey and that those he had seen me do being so eminent obliged him to wish me well it being just to love vertue even in the persons of those that fight against us and which for that cause we hate that he thought himself concerned to exempt me from this number and having made appear by his discourse how easily and safely I might be gained he should prejudice the service of the King his Father if he used not his uttermost endeavours towards it that by what I had done without supplies and assistance might easily be
people who out of apprehension of becoming subject to a new Authority might reconcile themselves to Spain supposing that instead of obtaining the liberty they pretended and for which they were so well resolved to die they should only exchange their Chains for new ones which perhaps would prove more heavie That if there should happen any discourse of another forein Dominion many different Cabals would be formed which would joyn themselves with the Spaniards and the Nobility to oppose that Faction which should seem likely to prevail over the rest That they wanted nothing but a head to teach them to fight and establish order amongst them That if their Forces and what else they had in their hands were well managed they would suffice not onely to drive the Spaniards out of that Kingdom but to make war upon them in their own Countrey and take from them Sicilie and Sardinia re-united in the interests of Naples That this would be the work but of one Campagna and the Liberty of the Town but of a few Weeks That they looked on me as a Person capable of actions so eminent and that in fine they sent not for me to a combat but to victory and triumph without toil or peril and to make me the most glorious of men in defending their Liberty and freeing them from a servitude they had so long suffered under with so much regret and Impatience Knowing the vanity of the Nation I did not give any firm Belief to all those things yet I could not perswade my self but there was some ground for them neither could I doubt of the truth of a part in which yet I was disabused in a very short time but not till I had so farre engaged my self that I could not with honour decline undergoing the hazard of the enterprise Let all men judge whether after such hopes I must not necessarily be very much surprised when being on the place I found an entire want of all things and that I had onely my self to depend on In the mean time by the return of my Express I received news from Court and Letters from Cardinal Mazzarin which animated and enflamed me more He said that so much danger appearing in the design I proposed he durst not advise me to it but if I resolved to run the hazard I had the Kings leave and should be assisted with all things necessary towards which I had no more to do but apply my self to the Kings Ministers at Rome and take my measures conjoyntly with them to whom he writ to the same purpose I understood notwithstanding that at the arrival of my Express I was looked on as Chimerical all advices from all parts importing that the disorders of Naples were ended That the Spaniards resolved to ratifie what had been demanded and consented to by the Duke of Arcos deferring their revenge and resentments to a time less dangerous in which they might obtain their satisfaction without hazarding any thing which would be after the conclusion of the Peace then treated on at Munster with much earnestness I endeavoured by all manner of ways to understand what passed and was discoursed of at the Ambassadours and amongst the Cardinals of the Spanish Faction of which I had most exact intelligence either by Spies whom I had hired or by women and I found that my Person gave them greater apprehension than all the Preparatives of France And one day meeting the Earl of Ognate accompanied by four or five Cardinals I perceived that after my saluting them they beheld me very attentively and their Conversation became more earnest That Evening one of the best Voices of Rome whom I often went to hear sing with whom Cavalier Lodi Chamberlain to Cardinal Montalte who had great power over the inclinations of his Master and knew all his secrets was desperately in love having learned of him the particulars of that discourse for which I had so great curiosity gave me account of it and told me that that Company discoursing of the affairs of Naples which were the principal subject of entertainments in Rome Cardinal Albornos seeing me pass by cried out that if the King their Master must loose the Kingdom of Naples I alone should do him that mischief being capable of the greatest undertakings and qualified to become the head of the revolted who wanted nothing but a person to lead them on to the most desperate attempts and by establishing Order amongst them let them know their own strength with the weakness of the Spaniards To this some of the Company having replied that I was not so greatly to be apprehended minding so much my pleasure he smiled and told them that Duke Doria had the same opinion of the Earl of Lavagne who the night after made himself Master of the Town of Genova and had perfected so difficult an enterprise had he not been unfortunately drowned in passing to secure himself of the last Galley that I came not short of him either in Ambition or Courage that I surpassed him in Birth and descended of a Family ever ready to execute the highest and most hazardous enterprizes and to conclude if Naples must be lost in his opinion it could not be by means of any other and added that if they made sure of me he would be responsible for the Conservation of that Kingdom That France gave him no apprehension but on the contrary he should gladly hear her fleet was under sail and arrived in the Haven of Naples before that of Spain Its appearance by reason of jealousie of the French power being the best and most assured way for putting end to the difficulties that kept the people from Reconciliation This he confirmed with so many Reasons and so refined Politicks that all the Company concurred with him This Relation fortified my hopes and I was confident so intelligent a Person spoke not without reason and that my design was more easie than I imagined it he having Informations which I came short of I therefore resolved to go no more abroad by night and commanded my Officers carefully to visit what I was to eat and drink being in danger of assassination and poison About this time a Sicilian proposed to Mr de Fontenay a design on the Isle of Lipari extolling the importance of the post and the facility it would give to make advantage of the revolt of Sicily besides that it would not be unuseful for encouraging that of Naples He sent him to me to examine his overture perhaps repenting to have too lightly engaged with me in the affairs of Naples whose execution he thought too easie and therefore rather wished in other hands than mine imagining I might make an exchange and apply my self to a present attempt rather than to one which appeared at a greater distance I immediately suspected that this man was sent to me by the Spaniards who might flatter themselves with the same opinion or that they would insinuate him into my acquaintance to serve them as a
discontent at a time when they thought themselves in a well established Peace destroying the City with Batteries of all the Artillery of their Ships Gallies and Forts and entring with all their Forces with Torches in their hands to put all the inhabitants to the Sword and burn all the Houses that this proceeding so injust and violent had so far diverted their inclinations that they were resolved to break the Chain and acquire Liberty by forming themselves into a Republick for the secure establishment of their Government and that standing in need of a Head for their defence and to Command their Forces the People had appointed them in its Name to come and cast themselves at my feet to conjure me to become their Protector and take upon me the same Authority in the City of Naples and the whole Kingdome as hath been and still is enjoyed by the Princes of Orange in the Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countreys That they did not believe they could reasonably cast their Eyes on any other not only in respect of my reputation esteem and merit but out of a just resentment and acknowledgement of the Favors I had done them and the zeale wherewith I had engaged my self to serve them and negotiate necessary supplies and that by reason of the esteem France had for me I should be as a Sacred Pledge to oblige her to their Defence and Protection with all her power But that one of the principal Motives of seeking me for their General was my Birth derived from a family that was so considerable to them that its Memory was with the greatest affection imprinted in the hearts of all its inhabitants as well as its Armes on all Publick Edifices whose Foundations were the eternal markes as well of the Piety as Magnificence of my Predecessors That they believed me too generous to refuse to succor them that they had many Armes to resist their enemies but wanted a Head to regulate their Disorders to teach them how to fight and quickly put them in a condition not only to defend themselves but drive the Spaniards out of their Countrey That there would be no want of Soldiers when they should be Disciplin'd and that I should find none that would not chearfully die under my Command and readily shed his blood to defend his Country and acquire me honor After this they presented the Letters they had for me but stepping back I told them That it was to the Ambassador and Kings Ministers there present to whom they were to apply themselves because that I having the honor to be born his Subject could not without his permission and command engage my self in a forrain Service especially in one so considerable to which I must resign not onely the remainder of my life but also my Successors and that ceasing as it were to be any longer a Frenchman and become a Neapolitan such a resolution was not in my power owing an absolute obedience to whatsoever should be ordained me in his name Monsieur de Fontenay then told me that I ought to accept the Offers made me since the King had not only given me leave but thought himself obliged by it and that he had Order to tell me That Sacrificing my self for the Service and Defence of the Common-wealth of Naples I testified my zeal and passion for his Crown to which I could not render any service more agreeable profitable or important Then turning my self to the Deputies I told them That after the permission given me I joyfully accepted the honor done me by the Republique in making choice of me for their General and Protector of their Liberty That I would keep alive an eternal acknowledgment of a favour so extraordinary and little merited That I would endeavour by my zeal and fidelity to make amends for my incapacity That I would never forsake them till I had obtain'd them repose and liberty that I would expose my self to all perils hazarding my life and shedding the last drop of my blood whensoever their Interest or Honor should be concerned After this I received their Letters which I think fit to publish here to make appear that I will insert nothing in these Memorials of which I have not the justification ready Letter of the Republique of Naples Most Serene Highness Duke of Guise THe most Faithful People of Naples and that whole Kingdome having with Teares of Blood in their eyes besought your Highness to become their Protector as the Prince of Orange is at present in Holland and to procure them the assistances your Highness hath so graciously offered by the Obliging Letter the said most Faithful People hath this Day with open Armes received We cannot be wanting in our incessant Prayers that we may speedily see Your Highnesses Person and enjoy the effects of your Valor whose Hands we kiss with the humblest respect and submission From the Palace of the Royal Poste of the Carmelites Tower the 24. Octob. 1647. Of Your most Serene Highness The most Devoted and Obliged Servants The People of Naples and Kingdom belonging to it Letter of Gennaro Annese Most Serene Highness HAving read the obliging Letter of your Highness I concurred with the rest of the Chiefs of this most Faithful People of Naples to send Seignior Nicolo Maria Maunara our Agent-General with our Instructions and the present Letter but disturbed by so many disorders of War we referr our selves in all to what he shall Propose Judge Supplicate and Act as well in our behalfe as in the Name of the most Faithful People and in fine most heartily recommending his Person to you we remain in expectation of your Highness Favors whose Hands with all manner of Respects we most humbly kiss From the Pallace of the Royal Poste of the Carmelites Tower the 24th Oct. 1647. Of your most Serene Highness The Most Humble Most Devoted and Most Obliged Servants Gennaro Annese Generalissimo and Chief of the Most faithful People of Naples Don John Lewis del Ferro First Counsellor After perusal of these I told them that having Devoted my self to the Service of the People of Naples by the Charge they had offer'd me in its Name and which with submission to the Kings good pleasure I accepted with as much satisfaction as respect and acknowledgment it was but reasonable they should give me account of the present condition of Affaires and acquaint me with all their necessities that I might begin to demand on their behalves all such assistances as they stood in need of and become their sollicitor as well to the Court as the Kings Ministers The Deputies told me the Tragical accident of the Gallant and too unfortunate Prince of Massa the Disorders and Confusions that reigned in the City for want of a Person of Authority and Conduct sufficient to redress them that the whole Kingdom at the arrival of the Spaniards throwing down their Armes and abandoning their Party followed that of the strongest That they received no more succors from abroad the
passages being obstructed on every side and all the Countrey Enemie except some neighbouring Towns and Villages that seemed yet inclinable to them but the fame of my arrival would alter all And that they doubted not but at the appearance of a Chief of birth and reputation all would take Courage and wearied by so cruel and insupportable Tyrannies after their Example use all possible endeavours towards Liberty That they were unprovided of Corne for more than six weeks or two moneths with small hopes of any from the Countrey unless by my Valor a passage might be open'd to that purpose That although many particular persons had well profited by Plunder yet every one concealing his Treasure they had not wherewithal to help themselves That the Banke could not be touch'd without raising a dangerous Sedition all parties as well enemies as friends being concerned in the preservation of that which had ever been Sacred and Inviolable that to make use of the Churches Plate was to draw on their heads the Vengeance of Heaven and indignation of Rome That the Nobility and the rest of their most invenom'd and formidable Enemies Armed and got a Horseback through the whole Realme that they might contribute to their Oppression and revenge themselves for the Affronts and Outrages done to the most considerable of that Body by pillaging their Houses and cruelly Massacring the Prince of Massa Don Pepe Caraffa and some others That they stood in need of Powder as well as of wherewithal to make it for want of Saltpeter being obliged to consume a great quantity continually in Attacques and Defences of the several Postes and the frequent Skirmishes made night and day That the People as a testimony of zeal and fidelity to their King seduced by some corrupted persons had in time of the Truce furnish'd the Castles with Victuals and Ammunition That the same fault had been committed through the whole Kindom by supplying the Fortresses that were before unprovided of all things hoping by it the more easily to obtain Ratification of the Articles concluded with the Duke of Arcos and so having disfurnished themselves of those things they formerly had in abundance they were reduced to the present necessity That the Spanish Ships and Gallies cut them off from the Sea by which they heretofore received their subsistance That they had Multitudes of Men who if well Commanded and Disciplin'd being zealous and brave might undertake great things That at the last Muster there were found above one hundred and seventy thousand Armed men well resolved to die for their Countrey That by this Discourse I could better than they judge what was necessary for them and lastly that the courage of all the Inhabitants began to fall and could not be raised but by my presence That they therefore besought me to hasten my Voyage all I possibly could and press their supplies without which they could not evade the desolation of the Town and consequently of the whole Kingdome This true relation caused me to make some reflexion on the dangers into which I went about to precipitate my self But not valuing my life and resolving to sacrifice it for the interests of the Crown addressing my self to the Kings Ministers I let them understand that I was not at all discouraged by news so surprizing and contrary to all that had till then been reported That it concerned them to consider whether the King would engage his Forces in an enterprise of so much difficulty that in case he would I undertook to run the hazard But that they as well as I might foresee that to abandon was to expose me to eternal infamy and inevitable ruine and that it was neither just nor reasonable to engage me too lightly where the reputation of France was so farre concerned With one Voice they answered that I ought to doubt nothing That the Supplies should be so sudden and considerable that in the Execution of so glorious a design I should neither meet the difficulties nor dangers I imagined And going about to convince me of this by many reasons I replyed It was to no purpose to alledge them That I was not a person could vainly flatter my self That I perceived well what was to be feared but that difficulties and dangers in stead of discouraging animated me more that my Confidence in their promises and that which I had in the protection of Cardinal Mazzarin joyned to my Passion with loss of my life to contribute to the advantages of France would make me affront death and all manner of difficulties and that I required them to be witnesses of the fidelity and zeal wherewith I contemned not onely my safety but also my honour when it might be useful to such a purpose That they must needs concur with me that I was peradventure the onely man in the World capable of undertaking so dangerous a Commission the very apprehension whereof might make the most hardy and resolute tremble They seemed convinced of this and to advance and settle so great an affair assured me That I needed onely demand what I desired that they had Commission and power to grant it that on this I might depend the Kings Promises being secure and inviolable I demanded the Fleet to wait on my Orders as strong in Ships and Gallies as possible might be two hundered thousand Crowns ready Money in expectation of a larger supply four thousand foot ready to land at my first demand fifteen hundered horsemen with Saddles Bridles and Pistols to be mounted at Naples the like furniture for two thousand horsemen I intended to raise there Pikes and Muskets for twelve thousand foot twelve Pieces of Canon 60000 weight of Powder with Match and Bullet proprotionable and at the least four Ships laden with Corn that thus provided I would be responsible for the success of this great design and for depriving the King of Spain of the Crown of Naples in a very short time All of them in the Kings name gave me positive assurance Afterwards I gave Letters to Nicolo Maria Mannara as did also Monsieur de Fontenay that he might render account to the Republique of the happy success of his Negotiation I charged him also to let them know that I prepared for my Voyage to go and serve them and that as soon as the Fleet should be arrived at Protolongone I would embarque without loss of time to carry with me all supplies that should be necessary for them In the mean time Tonti to let Monsieur de Fontenay see he had no dependance on me but on France and him alone hoping so either to credit himself the more or that this minister would procure him some considerable Pension from the Court and a summe of ready Money for himself and friends with whom he held correspondence as he pretended at a great expence Or to discover as he endeavoured to perswade me whether his pretences to me were sincere and veritable propounded to him to move that some person of quality
as the Earl of Harcourt or Marshal of Meilleray might come with the Fleet that so it might be in his choice either to entrust this enterprise to me or put it into their hands if they should seem more agreeable the Neapolitans being in so great a necessity of supplies that provided they might receive them they would very little trouble themselves to consider by whom But whether it were that by report of the Condition of affairs he imagined them too hazardous to expect that any but my self would run their fortune or that he thought me too farre engaged to suffer with patience another to take my place being unwilling lightly to offend a person of my Condition He answered that it would be unreasonable after having gone on so farre with me to change thoughts and enter on a different conduct Tonti came with great hast to court me with this answer and to make appear to me as an eminent service the artifice he had used to discover whether they were real in my concernments After which he desired me when I should write to the Court to recommend the Services of himself and brother in law and procure them Pensions and some considerable summe to reward their Friends and Correspondents that they might by interest allure many more Neapolitans to the service of France acquire Creatures and form a powerful Cabal which in time and place might be disposed of to serve her faithfully and contribute to her advantages For my own part I had no other thoughts than to fit my self for my departure and provide all things necessary that I might embarque as soon as the Kings Fleet should be in a Condition and place convenient to receive and transport me And knowing I could not undertake this voyage without Money I used all endeavours to get it I sent for all the French Merchants to draw from them the greatest summes I could giving them Security and Bills of Exchange payable at Paris My misfortune would so have it that the Duke of Modena having taken upon him the command of the Kings armies in Italy and formed great designs and high enterprises wanted it as well as I in so much as that he might be supplyed at the appointed time the Kings Ministers had given them order not to part with what they had in their hands which obliged me to apply my self to the Cardinal of St Cicilia and Monsieur de Fontenay to get them permission to treat with me who thereupon sent for the Sieur Philip Valenti and told him he would do the King acceptable service and a kindness to Cardinal Mazzarin in furnishing me with 4000 Pistols on Bills of Exchange which I would give him for whose payment they would be Security the Crown undertaking to satisfie in case my Family should delay him He kept this summe readie for me in Gold to deliver it at my departure for fear I should spend part of it before I left Rome and so oblige them to supply me with more it being impossible for me to go without Money and the necessity of affairs being such that they could not pass me by nor retard my voyage without entirely ruining them I cannot here forbear mentioning the generosity of a woman though not very pertinent to the Subject I am speaking of who hearing of the care I took to provide Money for this enterprise now no longer a secret in Rome brought me all that she had in plate and jewels and ten thousand Crowns in Obligations on the Bank which with thanks I refused it being all the wealth she had acquired by the industry and travel of many years I resolved to send to the late Dutchess of Guise my mother a Letter of Attorney for disposal of my whole estate thereby to engage her more powerfully to my assistance desiring her to dispose of all for furnishing me with the greatest summe she possibly could because on such a supply depended my establishment or ruine I was daily in continual Conferences with the French Ministers and Cardinals of that Faction to determine with them of all that was to be done for the service and advantage of the Crown but though I pressed them concerning the conduct I was to follow and demanded what instructions they had for me whether after having gained esteem in Naples on pretence of Establishing their Republique I ought not to endeavour an insensible traversing their inclinations towards the King it being impossible that the Nobility and People as much separated by interest as affection could ever so unite as to form the body of a Common-wealth and govern themselves without being weary at last and choosing a Master this unquiet and turbulent Nation having never been under any other Government than that of a Monarch and their natural jealousie one of another considered could never be at rest but under the command of one alone This was granted but apprehending it dangerous to propound to a violent and seditious people a forein power which they ever apprehended he told me that the choice was to be left to themselves of their form of Government and Master The imagination alone that the King had any thoughts of becoming such would gain their hatred in stead of their friendship and contribute to their Reconciliation with the Spaniards That on the other side the Pope without whose authority no innovation could be made in that Kingdom he being Lord Paramont might enter into alliance with the rest of the Princes of Italy to oppose it fearing lest France having gotten so firm a footing might at last attempt to subdue the whole That it would be a sufficient advantage to the King to cut off from Spain so potent a Kingdom from which it derived its principal forces and that by the loss of it France would be as much raised above her as by a conquest that besides this such persons of that Countrey as sought an innovation to advantage themselves by the honours and imployments of the Kingdom by Governments of Towns and Provinces which they had hitherto with regret seen in the hands of Strangers would apprehend to be nothing the better but rather that they should be impoverished and ruined by the enriching other Countries with the transportation of their wealth And lastly reuniting to the enemy all such as on any other grounds were against it the party would be so much weakned it could not long subsist That for such powerful reasons I was to endeavour to dissipate all I possibly could the suspitions they might have of any such thought giving out that France never acted but on Principles of Generosity altogether dis-interessed to relieve the oppressed and procure the Liberty of those that languished under the tyranny of their enemies That the Spaniards at what price soever were to be driven out of that Kingdom that it was no matter what means were used towards so great a work That the King would assist what resolution soever should be taken That he had formerly consented to the crowning
would destroy the business and precipitate me knowing as he did the nature of that people who are much greater enemies to the French than Spanish authority because of the violent and impetuous humor of our Nation and that onely from this might arise the desolation of that Kingdom and the re-establishment of all things in their first condition That I ought to distrust equally both crowns of which the least suspected would do me most mischief That the difference between the Nobility and People would hinder all my Progressions that I should be able to effect nothing till I had reunited them that this ought to be my onely care and principal employment which if I could compass the conquest of that Kingdom was infallible That he could assure me that the Nobility were more incensed and more desirous of Liberty than the people though they dissembled their true resentments That all Italy would oppose the Establishment of the French and would be favourable to that of a particular Prince That on this foundation I was to build my hopes and regulate my proceedings That he loved not the Spaniards so much as was imagined That he would look on all as an indifferent father without concerning or declaring himself on either side That the rigors and vexations under which that whole Kingdom long groaned had drawn down the indignation of Heaven the effects whereof perhaps were now at hand That divine vengeance though slow never fails of arriving at last and that I should have a care to avoid the snares would be laid for me on all sides that I should meet them at every step I made that I was to avoid them by Prudence of which I had great need in an enterprise of so much difficulty and glory That he offered me his Prayers which he would continually pour out for the preservation of a person so dear to him and for whom he had the same tenderness a father hath for his beloved son and at parting after he had given me his blessing embracing me with tears in his eyes told me That he was indifferent who hereafter should present him the white Nag which he would as willingly receive from my hand as any other I besought him yet to hear a word I had to say to him which I thought necessary the better to sound his intentions and discover his most secret thoughts and expressing my acknowledgements for his many favours during my stay at Rome and giving him a thousand thanks I assured him that if he had any design of making advantage by the present revolutions and reunite Naples to the Papacie which by very good right belonged to it more than to any whosoever I was so much devoted to his service that I proffered my interposal and assistance desiring no other recompence than the glory of serving him towards which I thought to find great facility in the present dispositions of the Nobility and People of that Kingdom He thanked me for my good affection and told me he was now too old to expect time for so great a design That it would be the ruine of his family and draw more envy and powerful enmity against his Relations than they would be able to support themselves against after his death That the example of Paul the fourth made him wise and in fine that he would not begin so great a work to leave it imperfect That his ambition was moderate and sought not for his Relations more than such a competent fortune as they might maintain That he was obliged to me for the kindness of my offer but that he would not at all concern himself in any thing that was to be done which he would look on as an indifferent Spectator that his wishes should be on my side and that my advantages would as sensibly concern him as his own and confirming all he had said to me again embraced me and gave me his blessing Having kissed his feet I took leave assuring him that as soon as I should be departed Monsieur de Fontenay should give him an account of my passage towards Naples with the knowledge consent and order of the King as he had promised and punctually performed the day after my embarking That night I desired the Ambassadour and the rest of the Kings Ministers to send some one to continue with me on their behalf to take charge of the ciphers They propounded the Sieur de Cerisantes for want of any other at that time capable of such an employment Having then no Secretary and it being impossible for me to be without one I desired one of their recommending They proposed the Sieur Fabrani who had formerly been imployed in service of the Barbarines and principally in that of Cardinal Antonio He followed me in my Voyage and served me till the day of my prison He had good parts but spoke no French and understood it but indifferently which gave occasion to some complaints were made of me at Court and at which such as loved me not would have taken occasions to my prejudice All the dispatches I made from Naples were in Italian which was excepted against as if I pretended to separate my self from France and make my self independant refusing to make use of that Language But it may easily be understood that this was a pure effect of necessity and not of choice the pressure of affairs that lay on me night and day gave me not time to write with mine own hand and in this I was forced to ease my self by the assistance of Sieur Fabrani who taking only my Orders and Conceptions to write them down could do it in no other than in that Language was known to him besides all which having to do with distrustful people I was forced to shew them all my dispatches which they could not have understood in French This is so innocent and convincing that I need no longer justifie my self of so frivolous an accusation which I touched not at first but by the by to make appear that nothing was omitted towards doing me ill offices to which it was very necessary I should give no occasion by my comportment use being made of a matter of so small importance The Feluccas being at last arrived I seriously prepared my self to be gone taking leave of all such persons as I had respect and friendship for And the Cardinal of Este being with his brother the Duke of Modena I writ to him to acquaint him with my adventures and take leave of him being very sorry I could not in person perform that duty to which I was obliged not onely by the relation of Kindred and near friendship between us but in that notwithstanding my refusals out of fear of incommoding him he had given me the use of his Equipage and Coaches all the while I stayed in Rome I writ also to Cardinal Grimaldi who was at Modena the following Letter For Cardinal Grimaldi I Suppose your Excellence hath been sufficiently informed by the Ambassadour of his Negotiations
with the Neapolitans and the Ministers of France doing nothing without your participation and approbation it will be needless to trouble you with particulars better known to you than to my self Nevertheless I cannot omit acquainting you with my embarking for Naples and beg of you the assistance of your prudent Counsels in an enterprise so full of dangers and difficulties The goodness your Excellence hath expressed towards me since my coming to Rome makes me hope much from your Generosity and I am assured that in order to a powerful assistance in this occurrence it is enough that you know the honour of France to be concerned of whose interest and reputation your Excellence is so glorious a supporter If I prove so happy as to serve the King advantageously in this conjuncture I will by an express give your Excellence notice of it with my thanks for your favours which I hope to do in person before I return to France beseeching your Excellence to believe that I will seek all occasions of expressing my acknowledgements and to make appear that I am more than any other Your Excellencies most humble and most obliged Servant The Duke of Guise My Palace was filled with Neapolitan Mariners and every hour of the day I sent them to see if there were any appearance of fair weather and the winds setling so as to carry me speedily to Naples where I most impatiently desire to be but I was nine dayes in this continual expectation One Evening they came to tell me of the arrival of a Felucca my desire of news caused me to send for the Mariners who acquainted me that they had brought with them an old advocate called Francisco de Pasti to negotiate something on behalf of the Republique Monsieur de Fontenay concealed from me as well his Arrival as his Negotiation of which I seemed to him to have no knowledge nor suspition learning by this what I was to expect from him who began with me in a fashion so disobliging hiding from me affairs in which I had so great concernment Francisco de Pasti at his return acquainted me with all things and I think shame obliged the Ambassadour to make this a secret to me not willing I should perceive how easily he swallowed whatsoever was propounded to him It being the opinion of some in Naples that to hasten the Kings Supplies they must in some manner own a subjection to him they had sent this honest man to offer a yearly tribute to France which would more have offended the Pope than a pretence to the Sovereign power and dis-obliged him by accepting an offer so unreasonable at a time when he might be useful to the acquiring a Kingdom In the mean while his Proposal was received with open arms but kept secret as a mystery and Monsieur de Fontenay thought by it to have rendered to France a service of extraordinary importance not remembring that CHARLES the eighth very ambitious and very wise had formerly refused it Knowing well that a Kingdom owning but one supreme Lord cannot pay tribute to two at the same time whose equality of Power being inconsistent destroys the glory and advantage The End of the First Book The second BOOK THe Felucca's of Naples having attended me seven or eight days at Fiumicine the peoples Envoies very much pressed my departure the Town as hath been already said being reduced to so great extremity so divided and sunk in hope and courage that they resolved to return to the Spanish Obedience and yield themselves with their Leaders to mercy in case that by Saturday the sixth of November the Kings Fleet appeared not or they were not in some other manner relieved The necessity of my presence there giving me greater assurance of being supported in such an enterprise with all that should be necessary I made a shew of some coolness for executing a design so hazardous being laid wait for by the whole naval power of Spain and besides Ships and Gallies by a great number of Felucca's and Brigantines The Kings Ministers perceiving that on my passage alone depended the Continuation or Conclusion of the revolt of Naples made use of all expedients to recommend to me the importance of the service I should render the Crown in sacrificing my self to its interests and the honour I should acquire by so extraordinary an action And understanding the esteem and friendship I had for Sir Kenelme Digby encharged with the affairs of the Queen of Great Britain at Rome conceived him very proper to perswade me I pretended to yield to his reasons provided they assured me in the Kings name to send his Fleet suddenly to Naples to attend my Orders and with it all such assistance as I had demanded These just Proposals having been consented to in the name of his Majesty by Monsieur de Fontenay his Ambassadour the Cardinals Theodoli Vrsini St Cicilia and the Abbot of Sâ— Nicholas his Ministers at Rome Cardinal D'Este the Protector of France being then absent and Cardinal Grimaldi at Modena to negotiate with that Duke I engaged my self to enter Naples to revive their spirits and continue them in arms till the arrival of the Fleet and that nothing but my death should prevent performance to which purpose I would be gone as soon as the wind appeared setled for my passage And though they were all of opinion that I should embark disguised I judged it would be easie to kill me by the way the Spaniards not wanting Spies to give them notice of the time and manner of my departure and therefore desired the Ambassador to command all the French that were in Rome to take horse and accompany me esteeming this not onely more honorable but more safe because I could not be attacqued but by a considerable body which the Pope would not suffer to be drawn together in his Dominions Wednesday the thirteenth of November at my rising having notice given me by the Sailers belonging to the Felucca's that were to transport me that the wind was come about and seemed setled to continue fair some time having gone and satisfied my self in it I gave accompt to the Ambassadour and told him I would be ready to go away immediately after Dinner Having heard Mass and given Order for all that was necessary towards so precipitated a Voyage after Dinner quitting my Court habit for such as suited with a Camp I appeared in Buff and published to all whom the news had invited to me that I was going for Naples firmly resolved either to perish or drive thence the Spaniards The Ambassadour carried me in his Coach as farr as Saint Paul's accompanied by the Abbots of S. Nicholas and la Feuillade and followed on horseback by all the French that were in Rome the horse I was to make use of being led by me In this equipage I passed cross the Spanish â—iazza to let the Spaniards see that occasions of serving my King requiring it I gloried in declaring my self their enemy
with which I held my self to be infinitely honored and lastly consulting with them by what means we might get in Provisions and re-establish plenty They told me that of Wine there was so great a quantity that it was sold for a Pistol the Tun That Butchers meat and salted meats were so farr from augmenting in price that they were fallen lower and that in a long while no want could be of them no more than of Poultry and all other sort of Victual which would come in abundantly as soon as the Countrey should have knowledge that I commanded their Forces and that this would oblige all of them to declare That the onely thing that was wanting though indeed the most necessarie was Corn of which some quantity might be had if the Stock designed for buying it had not been wasted I offered them two thousand Pistols for their assistance in so pressing a necessity which I caused to be immediately delivered out of the Money I brought with me till I could supply them with more considerable summes or till I should have forced open a passage whereby to receive Provisions from abroad We concluded that Bread should be sold something dearer than the Corn cost us by that small profit to increase the Stock I gave them and that it was better to forbear lessening the price of it at present than to be afterwards obliged to raise it In the mean time our Felucca's plentifully furnished us with fish and all manner of herbs fruits and roots on which the greatest part of the Inhabitants usually feed The chief of the Army came afterwards to make their Complements and having given them order to bring the next Morning at my rising the names of all Officers and a Roll of such persons as were in arms in the Town of whom I intended to take a review they told me that powder was wanting on all their Posts not having wherewithal to defend them should the Spaniards make any attack that night I instantly ordered some to be delivered and commanded Amello Falco General of the Artillery to cause two thousand weight to be sent to Gennaro for defence of the tower and the rest to be carefully laid up to give me an exact account and deliver none without order under my hand the little remainder obliging me to so cautious a management Having dismissed the Officers I sent for the Counsel and having received and answered their Complements on the same Subject in the same manner we sate down to deliberate on the publique affairs Gennaro took his place next me whose perpetual disquiet obliged him to incessant risings up to receive advice of some plunder was to be made or to lay up such as was brought in He perceived us incommoded by this it being necessary to begin again all discourses that every moment were interrupted and desired me not to mind him his presence being little necessarie and that he complied with whatever we should resolve Our beginning was the limiting his Authority and mine and it was concluded that I should absolutely dispose of all that related to war and that the Officers and Souldiers should have no dependance but on me alone That he should take upon him the civil Government yet not to act any thing without advice of the Council which should be assembled on all manner of occurrences where I should sit President and hold the first place That in case of my absence I should receive Advertisement of all Deliberations which should not be executed without my assent and participation That his power in the Town having never been owned by the rest of the Kingdom should extend no farther And that all Declarations Manifests and Proclamations which should be sent into the Provinces should be made and published in my name onely And lastly it was resolved that all Militarie Officers should take new Commissions from me and the extreme want of Provisions considered that I should be besought to draw out the greatest force could possibly be made both of Horse and Foot to attempt the regaining of the Suburbs of which the greater part were possessed by the Enemies to make my self Master of the Field oblige the Countrey to declare for us and open the Passages which were blocked up so to have Communication with the rest of the Kingdom and principally with those Provinces from which the City had wont to derive its subsistence And when I represented that Levies in order to this could not be made without Money and enquired from whence we might draw such summes as should be necessary Gennaro was moved to furnish us the publike Treasurie being exhausted Upon his refusal I offered to make this expence as farr as the little Stock I had brought with me would extend They told me I should find Arms sufficient in the City causing search to be made amongst the Inhabitants the meanest of whom had wherewithal to arm four or five persons And it being represented that those that kept Guard at the several Posts though with convenience enough because every one was in his own quarter tired with this duty which they thought insupportable because it lasted so long would no more perform it without pay it was resolved to seek all expedients for a remedie and that all such as had any advice to give me in order to it should be heard and that in the mean time I would not be wanting my Self to consider of it that so we might avoid the mischief threatned us by the cooling of the old hatred against the Spaniards now no longer expressed but in words that so every one might do his utmost for defence of his liberty estate life and honour I was also besought to send a Manifest through the whole Kingdom to declare that I came to Naples with no other intent than to procure liberty and drive away the Spaniards by the assurance I brought of the powerful assistance of France which would very suddenly send a potent Fleet with all necessary supplies and which to avoid giving jealousie should land no Forces but such as were demanded the King having no design to invade the Kingdom or make himself its Master but onely to deliver it from oppression it having ever been the custom of France to assist without interest all such as groaning under Tyranny have recourse to her this being of the highest consequence to remove the distrust the Spaniards maliciously infused into the minds as well of the Nobility as People of Naples naturally enemies to all forein dominion and that of this no certainer testimony could be required than my Order to come amongst them and engage my self in their service by so solemn an Oath which discharging me of all other Obligations as nearly concerns me in their interests as if I had been born in their Countrey They told me afterwards that in order to my greater Authority and to open a way for such of the Nobility as were willing to re-unite with them by knowledge of some one to whom they
might apply themselves their vanity not suffering them to make any Addresses to Gennaro because of the meanness of his Birth henceforward remissions and Graces should be dispensed by me alone Some of the most violent exclaimed at the word Nobility and said they ought to extirpate them all that it was they possessed the Countrey and cut off their Provisions who after having on all occasions joyned with the Spaniards to oppress them had now taken arms in order to their final ruine that but two days ago had routed their Forces and caused many families to wear Mourning for the loss of their Relations and particularly that the Prince of Montesarchio had cut off their Water Upon this discourse Gennaro taking his place propounded to go to the Cloyster where were four of his Sisters and cut off their heads to send him as a token or at least to be revenged on him cause them to be ravished and abandoned to the Skum of the people I replyed that was not the way to recover the water he had deprived us of but that I would take upon me to give him notice of the danger from which I had secured his Sisters which peradventure my authority might another time come short of and that all was to be feared from an exasperated people whom he ought not to drive to despair and that giving alarm in the Cloyster of what these poor Ladies were to apprehend they would gladly make use of all their credit with him for the obtaining that which we demanded on which depended their Lives and Honours which he could not refuse had he the least affection and kindness for them This advice was generally approved and attained such success as I expected and for what concerned their great hatred for the Nobility I gave them to understand that it having no other foundation than the mischiefs already received and which for the future they apprehended from them to pretend to ruine and massacre them as irreconcileable enemies was to engage them to worse and re-unite them inseparably with Spain who without their assistance was not in a condition to do us much hurt since it was the Nobility were Masters of the Field and that cut off our Provisions if we could therefore once separate them from the Spanish interests and engage them in ours the whole Kingdom would declare for us After which it would be easie for us blocking up the Spaniards in their Castles to starve and force them to yield and that so in a short time we should arrive at the height of our wishes being delivered from all forein power and in condition to form our Republique and raise it up to be as considerable and potent as that of Holland All yielded to my Reasons and conjured me to labour in so important a design and to this purpose to send for all such Gentlemen as were in Town to give them assurance of my good intentions and order them to give notice of them to the rest of the Nobility I would not make any expressions of my joy for having obtained so important a point towards the Publique safety and my own particular lest I should render my self liable to the peoples jealousie who ever inclined to the worser side desire that which is prejudicial to themselves and concealing my satisfaction replied that understanding the natural vanitie of the chief of their Nobility I knew they would become insolent if they found themselves sought to and looking on themselves as too considerable imagine we could not subsist without them which would cause them to exact from us insupportable conditions but if they thought fit I would let them know that but for me their estates persons and families were in continual danger and that I would still continue my endeavours for their preservation That if they thought good to joyn with us I assured them they should find in our Republique conditions worthy their Birth That the common interest of their Countrey obliged them to this concurrence for driving away the common enemy That they as well as the people wore Chains which were to be broken and that when ever they should take so good a resolution they should find me ready with open armes to receive them and sacrifice my Life for their Interests which Honour Reason and love of their Countrey ought to render inseparable from those of the People The Managing this Important Affair was left to my discretion and the Council rising every Man retired and having supped ill and slenderly I went to make a dispatch to give the Court and the Kings Ministers at Rome advice of my arrival at Naples and all that passed since and having furnished the same Felucca that brought me favoured by the night I sent a servant called Bourdeaux to supply the omissons might happen in my letters and to give an exact account of all things whereof he had been an eye-witness Monsieur de Fontenay had been so strongly prepossest by the Fabulous Relations made him of the Forces of the People of Naples that imagining there was no want either of Victualls Ammunition Mony or Men but onely of a Head that with Authority giving remedy to their Confusions after an establishment of some Order might make a profitable use of all advantages He had encharged me to draw out five or six thousand Foot and two thousand Horse to open a passage and make a free correspondence between Rome and Naples I thought it necessary by making him understand the true condition of Affaires to let him see the impossibility of executing so great a Design being so farr from it that I was at the point of ruin unless powerfully and speedily succored which obliged me to write him my wants more at large that being sensible of them he might become my Sollicitor But whether it were that he credited more the Chimerical discourses of some Neapolitans or that he was ill affected towards me the cause whereof I know not or out of desire to appear considerable by seeming better informed at Rome of what passed at Naples then I that was upon the place or that flattering himself in some secret intelligences and negotiations with persons though without his knowledge employed by the Spaniards who decried my conduct and gave him jealousie of the credit I daily acquired or imagining that any other might have done what I did and perhaps more and that I owed my Authority less to my own address and care then to the irreconcileable hatred the Neapolitans bore the Spaniards on which though on a deceitful bottom he grounded great hopes of rendering himself necessary he began to complain of me as if to avoid dependance and such orders as I might too frequently receive I would not by opening a passage establish a more easie correspondence betwixt us and without excusing me on account of the difficulties of Navigation in so tempestuous a season and the obstruction of the passage of Felucca's by a Fleet composed of so many Ships Gallies and
distrust applies it self to prevent those it takes to be in a condition to do hurt if they have a mind That I was sorry to see all the Nobility in this danger and him as most powerful and considerable more than any other That he was to understand he should make himself criminal by great and generous actions and that his ruine as well as that of all his Companions was inevitable because they should either be miserably involved in that of the Spaniards or most certainly destroy themselves in settling the others affairs and re-establishing their authority nothing being able to secure them against their distrust and severity That no faults were venial with them that whatsoever gives them jealousie often raised on no foundation they call design and treason that they should be looked on as more guilty than the revolted people by opposing their insolencies and endeavouring as they did to settle the general disorders of the Kingdom prevent its total subversion That the Spaniards dissimulation was too well understood to be confided in and that after many fair words and specious appearances the time would come when they should feel the effects of their cruel Maximes without knowing how to avoid them He relished all my Arguments and could do no less then yield to them answering that he had very well considered all I had so judiciously represented but that he would continue as he had begun and even to death comply with his obligations the greatest you have said I is the preservation of your Country and protecting it from final ruine and the whole Nobility and your own particular Family from perishing miserably and you will be blameable to eternity if having it in your power to prevent so many mischiefs as threaten you you obstinately draw on your head Famine War Murthers Conflagrations and Plunderings and so become the destroyer of your Country when you may make your self the restorer You began not the insurrection but not being able to allay it you ought to make use of it for procuring repose and liberty The Spaniards alone will be blamed for this Revolution their injust and violent conduct having acquired the general hatred of the People and their negligence and weakness depriving them of the meanes to secure themselves from their resentments so that you abandon them not till they had first abandoned themselves and you to the violence and brutality of a despairing multitude Are you obliged to impossibilities in the behalf of those who have suffered themselves to be over-powered for want of foresight and precaution against a mischief one may say they wilfully pulled on their own heads since after so many reiterated advices they would not change their conduct Can you alwayes maintain at your own charge the Troops you have raised in a War that probably may last long You will soon be exhausted receiving no rents from your Lands which I shall not alwayes have a power to secure from spoiling nor your houses from demolishing when obstinate against all reason and contrary to your own Interests you shall continue in Armes against me and when necessity shall compel you to lay them down you will be undone and become inconsiderable to each party being neither in a condition to assist nor prejudice Prevent by prudence this inevitable inconvenience by which you will lose your reputation and credit I demand not your joyning with me it would not become you to do it so lightly nor me to propose it since I have a particular care of your honour I would have you first see performed what I have promised you will therefore do well to go every one home for preservation of your Estates and gain time to contemplate the course of Affaires and make use oâ— them to your advantage I shall have great cause of satisfaction in you and the Spaniards none of Complaint when you let them know you have done all that was possible for them that you have raised and maintained Forces at your own charge which for want of Money you can no longer keep together That you go home to endeavour to raise more and seek to preserve that little of your Fortunes that remains having spent the rest in their Service I will not only give you safeguards but the Command of your Towns to such as you shall nominate since under the Constellation that now predominates the smallest Village must have a Captain and make War I will prevent all talke of a Republick till such time as you shall be in a capacity of entering upon that part of the Government that belongs to you and of giving your opinion for the manner of establishing it My opinion said he and all the Nobilities is that a Republique being no wayes suitable to us we neither can nor ought to hearken to it we will never suffer the People to share the Authority with us and we are naturally of an humour so turbulent and vain-glorious that it is impossible for us to look one upon another in an equality of power There will infallibly arise Divisions Jealousies and hatreds to the ruine of the Country We are born under Monarchy and cannot subsist without a King A Soveraign Authority must be Guardian of our repose and quiet pacifie our Dissentions and reconcile our Enmities to this Nature and Education incline us which supposed we must of necessity resolve to lose our lives and fortunes for continuing us under our Kings Authority how violent soever we are habituated to it and believe that of France would not be more moderate and that we should not gain but might possibly lose by the Exchange We shall still see our Countrey at the feet of strangers our Employments Offices and the Government of our Towns and Provinces in their hands our VVealth will as formerly be transported into another Countrey which will be enriched by our Impoverishment and we shall still be enforced to Court and kneel to a Vice-roy of no greater birth than our selves By this you may perceive we shall no wayes better our condition besides that the Spanish humor suites more with ours the French being too airy for People serious and jealous as we naturally are I replyed That he had no reason to distrust France who contributed her assistance and power to give the Kingdom of Naples liberty without other interest then the Glory of succoring the oppressed as she had done to the Princes of Germany that had recourse to her Protection and deprive her Enemies of a Crown from whence they derived the best of those Forces that resisted her Victorious Armes That the King two well understood his Interests to pretend to be their Master by which he might possibly incurr their hatred but most certainly the jealousie of all the Princes of Italy who would on that account enter into a League against him so as he should by it draw great inconveniences on himself without any advantage That doing the contrary he should win the hearts of all as well Nobility as
by declaring that I had notice of his most secret intrigues his negotiations with Gennaro and their designs against my authority libertie and life which he impudently attempted to deny But he was altogether out of countenance when I gave him the particulars of all that had passed of the means they intended to use for putting their intentions in execution and nominated to him all persons that had knowledge of this plot he seemed very much disturbed yet fortified himself on the negative but was entirely confounded when I declared to him that I was informed of all these things by Francisco de Pati and told him the recompence I had given him for so eminent a service and that if he desired it I would send for him to justifie all to his face His speech failed him and he was â—o possest by fear that he thought his life at an end but I recovered him by assurance that I bore so great respect to his Character of the Kings Agent that whatsoever he had attempted against me in stead of resentments he should receive from me all manner of Civilities and Services That I would oblige him to acknowledge that I had greater zeal passion and fidelity for the service of France than himself since his endeavours tended all to the re-establishing the Spaniards and ruining an enterprise so advantageous to the Crown by contriving the destruction of the most zealous faithful and disinteressed servant it ever had and that in despite of all his malicious artifices I would continue such resolved to sacrifice my life for its advantages and glory that I was assured so infamous proceedings would be disavowed and that it was not by the Courts orders that he acted in such a manner and that there was no need to have recourse to so extraordinary wayes for overthrowing my fortune and opposing my establishment for if the Court had any distrust of me or would not have me continue any longer at Naples on the first order signed by his Majesty or the least ticket under the hand of Cardinal Mazarin I would go away without contest to give account of my actions preferring the glory of obeying and complying with my duty to the highest and most solid establishment I could expect from Fortune He was sorry to find me so submissive because he wanted a pretence to prejudice me but having dealt so ill with me he was careful not to give a true account of my conduct but on the contrary did me all the ill offices he possibly could to prevent my being assisted and causing me to be abandoned by all so to hasten the ruine of a person he had too highly offended to expect any pardon and that would ever be an irreproachable witness of his infidelity to France He continued two days in Naples after this in which he neglected not the pursuit of his designs as will appear by the remainder of this discourse He plotted to cause me to be killed in a popular commotion and agreed of all circumstances of doing it with Vincenzo Andrea and others of that Cabal would have me looked on as the tyrant of Naples rather than as the restorer of her Liberty and in case he failed in this which he thought the handsomest way of doing it that so he might seem unconcerned in an accident which would be attributed onely to the fury of an outrageous and tumultuous multitude he resolved casting off his mask to cause me to be poniarded by a conspiracie of seventeen persons the heads of whom were Tonno Basso Salvator de Gennaro and Petro Damico perswading them that as an enemy of France I was the cause the people received no succours from thence which would supply all their wants abundantly as soon as it should have knowledge of my death and that without this the Fleet had order to abandon them I had some jealousie of this plot and engaged two persons who seeming very much dissatisfied and animated against me had admittance into all their assemblies and gave me punctual advertisement of all resolutions that were taken That very night they drew a great many people into arms in the Market-place and sent a like number into the Carmelites Cloyster where I lodged and I was surprised to see whilest I was in conference with the Abbot Baschi the Magistrates of the Town and Council come in who demanded to speak with me of an affair of the highest consequence for the publick good Vincenzo Andrea having met them as if by accident Tonno Basso was their spokesman a man eloquent hot headed and violent He told me the people had satisfaction in my conduct with a very great sense of the extraordinary services I had rendered them but the establishment of a Republick being so necessary he besought me to lay the first foundations That I should continue the qualitie of Duke and General of their Forces with the title of Protectour of their Liberty which I had so well deserved but that it was time to form a Senate without whose advice and deliberation nothing should be acted or undertaken for whilest the whole authority was in my person alone I seemed either a King or a tyrant that the jealousie of this would draw upon me the hatred of all men because it would look as if I had rather a design to enslave the City and Kingdom than to deliver them from Captivity This captious discourse surprized but did not astonish me and caused me in an instant to recollect all that my intellect could furnish me withal which was augmented by the necessity of immediately freeing my self from so dangerous and slippery a precipice there being much to be apprehended on either side since if I refused what was so pressingly demanded of me I could not escape death by discovering an intention to become a tyrant and if I yielded to what was desired I should afterwards be but a shadow without credit and without power All had their eyes fixed on me expecting my resolution with impatience not imagining that being so unprepared I could take any advantageous to me nor avoid a danger so evident and in a manner one and the same to which side soever I inclined I answered them smiling that I thought my self extremely happy in that the services I had hitherto endeavoured to render the people were acceptable but that my satisfaction was redoubled to see the passion with which they endeavoured to form themselves into a Republick that they might recollect that I was the first proposer of this manner of Government and which I most earnestly desired to see effected as the most advantageous resolution we could take That to this no man alive should be more forward because on its establishment depended the repose and liberty of the Country That we were seriously to consult and act in order towards it but that all Europe and Rome especially having their eyes upon us we ought to proceed with so much justice and reason that at least we might not become ridiculous
abandoned them that they neither had hope nor confidence in any else that they desired not that I should take advice of any body standing in no need of it and to conclude that they would obey none but me and that I should command as Sovereign since they owned me for their Master I pacified all by complying with the pleasure of so many people and the better to discover their thoughts appointed all to assemble the next Morning in their several Quarters where I intended to go to learn them The Abbot Basqui after his leaving my lodging had conference with the Conspirators who being enraged to have failed of their design and to see with what address I had avoided so dangerous a snare as they had layed for me and that my authority was the more confirmed and themselves entirely excluded from the part they pretended in the Government met in a Church to resolve of poniarding me but not coming to a result either of the time or place for executing their enterprise they referred their conference to the night following And in the Morning the Abbot Basqui coming to take his leave of me that he might return to the Fleet there to expect the success of his Conspiracie not thinking himself safe in Naples where my power would not be able to prevent his being torn in pieces by the people his design failing and he discovered to be the author but I detained him to be a witness of all that should pass in the Town I went through all the Quarters where having openly declared what had passed overnight and desiring the sense of the people he was very much surprised to hear them with one voice declare that it was their will I should be absolute Master and that I should act with Sovereign power demanding my permission to take and drag through the Streets all such as pretended to oppose This was followed by a general exclamation that they would never own other authority than mine that to make me Duke of their Republick was too farre below my deserts that they would therefore have me their King This I opposed as I had twice done before and on the same account threatened to leave them and ship my self on the Fleet if they continued obstinate in that which was so unreasonable and out of season Then calling me their Father Defender and Protectour of their Estates Lives and Families they with excessive Testimonies of respect and affection protested to live and die with me and that they would neither be sparing of their own bloud nor that of their wives and children in order to serve me or advance the least of my Interests The Abbot Basqui was amazed at the great esteem I had acquired in so short a time and to see all the houses in a moment hung with Tapistry for my Passage Flowers Sweet waters and Comfits cast from the Windows Cloaks and Tapistry spred under my Horses feet Perfumes and Incense burned before me Men Women and Children giving me thousands of Benedictions and such Testimonies as were easily discerned to be cordial and to have nothing of flattery or dissimulation He said he could never have believed what he had seen I desired him to give a faithful account of it and to let me understand the intentions of the Court telling him that I managed the inclinations of the people at my pleasure and that in a short time by my address and diligence I hoped to be able to put the Crown of Naples on the Kings Head or he not accepting it on his Brothers or Uncles and I conjured him to speak freely to me to so important an affair since I neither had nor ever should have any other design than to make those of France effectual whatsoever they might be He assured me he had no instruction relating to this particular and that all that he knew was that the King pretended nothing more than to see the Spaniards driven out of Naples they loosing the Kingdom it was indifferent to him into what hands it fell because he should from that derive a sufficient advantage I know not whether he was no better informed of the designs of France or whether he would open himself no farther to me that he might have still pretence to complain of my conduct but this is a great truth that I could neither from him nor any of the Kings Ministers residing at Rome ever learn in what manner they desired I should comport my self So that they neither can nor ought with justice to blame my actions which they would never regulate His fear that I might comply with the Officers of the Fleet and give them particular informations of all obliged him with all possible care to prevent the landing of the Gentleman the Duke of Richelieu sent to complement me to which purpose he caused him to be most sollicitously detained aboard another ship that he might not return to the Admiral till the Fleet was ready to set sail which evinces that it was not my fault that I had no correspondence with the officers which I earnestly desired They sent me word that for want of water they should be forced to set sail if I provided them not wherefore I presently sent them eight Felucca's to fetch it but this number being thought insufficient they took so slight a pretence to go for Portolongone having done no other thing but exposed me to a thousand dangers from which I may safely say I escaped not without a Miracle and had I not before established an extraordinary confidence in the people I should have been torn in an hundred pieces when they found themselves frustrated of all the succors I had given them cause to hope with so great probability for which I was security yet there remained now no more but my person alone to assist them This powerful Fleet would not contribute to the destruction of Spain which had been infallible by taking or burning all its ships which at its arrival were found at anchor unarmed and unmasted consumed half my Provisions uselessly and if I may be aâ—lowed to say it maliciously took two ships laden with Corn in my sight and sent them to Portolongone refused me the little Money I demanded for causing those troops to subsist whose landing I pressed with so much importunity furnished me with no more but six Barrels of Powder and gave me no manner of assistance but by the arrival of the Knight de Fourbin the Baron de la Garde the Knight of Gent Souillac de Glandeveze Baron Durand Saint Maximin afterwards Quartermaster of my Guards and Beauregard an Officer belonging to the Artillery and used all possible endeavours to prevent the coming of these to me I leave it to be judged if an other man seeing himself so wretchedly abandoned would not have lost all courage as well as all hope And whether I stood not in need of an extraordinary resolution to resist so spightful a fortune and of as great address to secure my self
Bread very black and full of Sand and indeed so bad that I could not imagine how it sustained them receiving but nine or ten ounces a day Amongst this number of desertors a matter of sixscore desired to serve me which I distributed amongst the body to keep them asunder except sixty Portugals which I put into the Colonels Company of my Regiment till I might get a number sufficient to form a body The Spaniards were very much concerned to hear on our Posts in the night their Language spoken and invitations to run away by representing the necessity they suffered and the abundance that was amongst us That which I thought most pleasant was that they which were with us called the other the Rebels of the people of Naples Their most prodigious sufferings were every day more and more confirmed by our taking sometimes six or seven of those wretches who having lost the shape of men went out of their Quarters to eat Grass like beasts of which some burst when having come to us they had filled their bellies This disbanding more and more increased and so farr that apprehending they might be met with as they went away and stopped to strengthen the Garrison of Gaeta and some others of the Kingdom I shut up in the Vicairy all those that would not take entertainment with us There was amongst them a Portugese of ill meen but good wit who by my Order going over to the enemy never came back without debauching five or six of his Companions and one time brought me seventeen in this he had success nine or ten Voyages but being at last discovered by imprudently opening himself to a Serjeant he was hanged which broke off this little commerce and for a while prevented the desertion of their Souldiers The Spaniards now gave themselves for lost and resolved to abandon the Castles and retire to Gaeta and the other Forts of the Kingdom in expectation of succors from Spain and Provisions from Sardinia and Sicilia from whence came three Vessels laden with Corn so opportunely that at that time they had not wherewithal to subsist above three or four days This great necessity put them upon all contrivances to oblige me to go out of Naples believing my presence alone to be the cause of all their sufferings and that my address vigilance and secret negotiations reduced them to this unhappy condition An accident of which I made the best advantage redoubled their jealousie of the Nobility The Duke of Andria having been with Don John and the Vice-Roy to get leave to go home sent a Priest in whom he had confidence to fetch him two thousand Crowns he had left in Naples with one of his friends and some Stuffs to make him Clothes As he returned with all these things he was taken and brought to me as also some Letters found about him After many enquiries of his Masters health I ordered him to make him many Complements in my name and caused the Money and Stuffs to be found out and restored without loss of any thing telling him in the presence of a great many purposely that it might become publick that I would my self correspond with his Master and all Persons of Quality that had affairs in the Town or any thing to pretend there and that no man should better nor more readily acquit himself of all their Commissions desiring nothing so much as to serve them concerning my self more in their interests than in my own particular I gave him two of my Guards for his convoy and caused him to pass in sight of the Spaniards to whom this manner of proceeding gave strange suspitions supposing it to be the consequence of a particular friendship I had made with him at our Conference He pretended himself much obliged to me but stayed but little with the Vice-Roy who was in a mind to have secured him which yet he durst not do apprehending that by means of the interest his Birth and Merit gave him amongst the Nobility his imprisonment would be followed by a general Declaration in my favour but this became so fixed in the thoughts of that revengeful and distrustful Nation that on doubt of some correspondence with me at my last journey a few days after my return they caused him to be miserably slain One Morning Don Carlo Gonzago who kept very near me to get an employment demanded if he might speak freely to me which having promised he told me that a very honest man a friend of his intrusted with Credentials not to be disowned had desired him to come and found me whether I would hear a proposal in behalf of the Spaniards on condition nevertheless that if I liked it not I should not enquire his name to this he caused me to make Oath which I religiously observed I was willing to hear him that by the largeness of their offers I might judge of the extremity they were reduced to They were to give me Finale and the other places of Toscanie in Soveraignty with the Principalities of Salerno Piombino and Portolongone for attacquing which they would supply me with sufficient Forces besides all such as my interests could draw together in the Kingdom of Naples if I would retire That they would make what they offered me worth three hundred thousand Crowns a year for which I should have sufficient security and when I should be out of danger of exposing my self I should be umpire between them and the People and knowing the Pretences I had by my Great Grand-mothers mother to the Dutchy of Modena they would procure me to be put in possession of it by the Emperour who should send an Army out of Germany to joyn with that of the Dutchie of Milan and that to revenge themselves of the Duke of Modena they would abandon all affairs in other places and give me the command of such Forces that I should find very few rubs in my way Italy having no cause to be jealous if I sought to make good the right I had to that Sovereignty I answered smiling that he had done me a pleasure to make me understand by his discourse that the Spaniards were so near ruine that I would prosecute them the more vigorously and that though my own were infallible I would never fall from my fidelity to the Crown of France nor attacque its Allies and that I would most religiously observe the Oath I had made to the people of Naples never till death to lay down the Arms I had taken up for their Liberty that I was not offended with him for what he had undertaken knowing that his friendship for me was the cause of it and that being an enemy to the Spaniards as I had been informed they having ever used him ill and detained him so long time Prisoner I was assured he had an aversion for this imployment and that he was too much a man of Honour to advise me to fail of my duty and betray those I was obliged to serve That he should
give thanks to his friend in my name and assure him I would never enquire after him The Town the mean while was divided into six factions which obliged me to be extraordinarily scrupulous in my conduct lest whil'st I inclin'd to one the rest might joyn with our enemies which would have infallibly ruined me but I had influence over all those separated interests without discovering my own thoughts and kept so good correspondence with them all that I obliged them to concur to the execution of my enterprise which was not difficult The first of these factions was that of Gennaro and the rabble which ever since their hatred of the Spaniards had been so habituated to the plundering of Houses and all manner of insolencies that they could not now forbear them These people were enraged against me because by my punishing such actions they were forced to observe the prohibitions I made but they hoped for some disorder and revolution little caring from whence it came nor who had the advantage of it provided they might rob and murther with impunity being so accustomed to bloud that they preferred the pleasure of shedding it above all other advantages They continued an irreconcileable hatred against the Nobility and civilized people whom they feared because they had so often and highly affronted them they could expect no pardon I kept this sort of people low and was their capital enemy believing that if I permitted disorders I could not subsist long I yet indulged them by the care I had to supply them with all things necessary to life at easie rates The second was that which desired to submit to France made up for the greatest part of Artificers who hoping to make their fortunes by our Nation and enrich themselves by our expence in Clothes and all such other things with which we are wont to furnish our selves more than other Nations and pretending to no Offices nor Imployments apprehended not subjection to foreign Dominion desiring that rather than any other because by it they expected more profit I humored all that were of it seeming to have no other thought nor to labour to any other purpose but as I desired to continue in their good opinion I was also to be careful to keep secret that pretence that I might not reunite all other parties to joyn with our enemies which must first be driven away after which it would be easie to attain our ends The third was composed of Monks and Priests and others of the devouter sort who desired the reuniting the Crown of Naples to the Papacy this I let them understand was my principal end that I was of a Family highly Catholick very much devoted to the Pope with whom I had taken secret Measures and made so near a Conjunction that he was well satisfied of my intentions That they ought to concur with me to drive away the Spaniards and keep their thoughts very secret lest we might meet obstacles by the confederacy of those which desired the contrary and I promised that as soon as we had overcome our enemies we would submit our selves to the authority of the Church The fourth was more easily managed than the rest for desirous of a King and signifying that they had made choice of my person they were sensible of the necessity of Secrecy and the friendship they had for me securing them of my acknowledgements they were altogether guided by my Directions and acted nothing but by my Orders This Partie consisted of such as aspired to the honours and grandeurs of the Kingdom every one according to his Quality who resolving never to become subject to a forein Dominion desired no money might go out of their Countrey imagining this the only way to enrich themselves and re-establish traffique and that a King whom they had chosen for his own interest and preservation would have no other Countrey but his Kingdom nor any confidence love or inclination but for his Subjects The fifth Faction was of those that desired a Republick of whom the greatest part understood not what they sought mightily taken with the word which they scarce knew how to pronounce imagining they should be subject to no body and that the meanest of the common people should have credit and power equal with the richest and best qualified I perswaded them that such an establishment was my prevailing passion that I looked on such a structure with affection and delight as the workmanship of my hands since I had been the first proposer of it and that the Dignity of Duke to which they had raised me gave me the first place the principal authority and all the Honours of a Sovereign I moved them to consider how much it concerned us to conceal this design that we might not incite against us all that were contrary and that as soon as ever the Spaniards were driven away towards which we must with hazard of our lives use our utmost endeavour This form of Government would in a manner establish it self none being excluded and every man in a possibility of finding advantages and security and making his fortune by it of what quality or profession soever he might be In this manner every one of the five factions took me to be of their partie and changing like a Camelion according as I spoke to one or the other of them concealing my own thoughts I discovered theirs to get light and take unerring measures The last was of such as were addicted to the Spanish interests by reason of those themselves had on the Gabels where lay the best part of their Estates I gave them hopes of preserving them in case of a subversion of the Government and minded them that a greater jealousie being had of them than of others they ought to be more careful of their conduct since the least of their motions would be made criminal These were obliged to me for preserving their fortunes and the honour of every one of their Families whereof I assured them to take a particular care provided they did nothing to deprive me of the means of protecting them I commended their zeal and fidelity and told them I affected and esteemed them more than the rest because they were persons of more honour These were very sollicitous for my safety which they thought necessary to their own and their ruine being infallible on the least revolution being hated by the common people and the Spaniards having no jealousie of them they gave me notice of all conspiracies against me and all other enterprises fearing my fall and their own with me if the success were dubious These were the men that served me to most advantage and which I insensibly united to the fourth faction because they resolved if they must lose their old Master to have no other but me Thus I made advantage of the variety of mens inclinations governing all these Cabals every one in a particular manner and with such address that none of the rest had the least suspition of it
disengaged from their Oath of Fidelity by the Protestation they had made they would most certainly declare with us for which he could be responsible by the certain knowledge he had of their intentions and that then the ruin of the Spaniards was infallible that besides this there was another way to the same end more speedy and no less safe which was that abandoning the Town I should march into Apulia the fittest place for a rendezvous because in the middle of the Kingdom that as soon as I should be there all the Nobility would come in to me and place me at their head that I should then immediately raise a great Army with which returning to Naples I might at once destroy the Enemy there that by this means I should free the Nobility from distrust who coming to me would suppose they re-united themselves with the People whereas they desired I should owe my fortune to them alone that apprehension of the fortified places of the Kingdom ought to give me no trouble for they were entirely unprovided of all things necessary for defence besides that there was not one of them in which some Gentlemen had not intelligence and credit enough to become Master that I had nothing to do but let a little time pass after which I should neither want Money Men nor Provisions that on the Five and twentieth of April the Custom-House of Foggia would pay me down in ready money Six hundred thousand Crowns that if I would make him President of the two Calabria's he doubted not in less than three weeks to draw together Six thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse and to deliver me in Silk Salt and Oil the value of more than a Million of Gold that for Corn I should find in Apulia and Basilocata more than was necessary to supply the Town of Naples two years and that in a word he would be responsible for the Conquest of the Kingdome that there needed only a little time and patience to see the effect of the Mines which were almost ready to be fired I must confess his Discourse charmed me and that I used all endeavours to give him testimonies of my acknowledgements and how much I thought my self obliged to him I told him his arrival assured me of the Nobilities declaring whose intentions I never distrusted though I ever thought such an example as his necessary to confirm such as were yet irresolute that I doubted not to see him quickly followed by all persons of quality that remained that this was not the first time that the Family of St. Severine had influence over the whole Kingdome that I ever held it in very great esteem and Veneration and should be unworthy the Family of Anjou from which I descended if I had not an hereditary affection for it that I was yet more engaged by his handsom manner of proceeding with me for which I would never prove ungrateful and that I would never pretend a fortune but on account of sharing with himself and friends all its advantages that I was well informed of the extremities the Spaniards were reduced to whom I could no longer fear and now I had him on my side contemned that assuring my self of all he had told me I with pleasure looked on the Conquest of the Kingdom as in a manner perfected and the design I had undertaken of giving it liberty as infallible yet without any other interest than the glory to have contributed towards it with peril of my life that ly I should afterwards die with satisfaction supposing my memory would be eternal I by his assistance becoming the most illustrious Person of my time that I expected the return of the French Fleet with as much assurance as impatience after which the taking of the Castles and driving away the Enemy would be no longer a business that my intention had ever been to have gone into Apulia to assemble the Nobility as he had advised me and would do it as soon as my Brother the Knight of Maltha should arrive whom I intended to leave in Naples which I should infallibly lose if I abandoned it though I valued it not but in regard of reputation being certain to re-take it without difficulty as soon as I should appear before it followed by the Nobility that with a very good will I gave him the Charge of President of the two Calabria's and what ever else he should desire of me which was indeed only to present him what his own credit and declaration for me put me in a condition to dispose of He tarried but two dayes with me so great was his impatience to bring to effect all the advantages he had given me hope of He desired some French men might go with him and I gave him the Baron Durand and two or three others with Don Carlo Gaeti whom with the Dutchess his Wife I afterwards saw here for Commissary General of his Horse Whilst he acts in Calabria it will be best not to interrupt the dependencies of my discourse to return to what passed with me in the mean time and relate the order I sent to the Sieur de Mallet to post himself on the Voltorno so to streighten Capua by cutting off its Navigation on this River and Communication with the Sea He sent three hundred men towards Gracianisa to entrench themselves on the River side who dislodged some Troops they found there and Dom Lewis Poderico having made an ineffectual attempt upon him returned with greater force and caused some foot to fall on which was vigorously beaten off but having made a shew of retreating he returned to the attacque an hour after and for encouraging his Foot caused two or thrve hundred horsemen to alight which after a skirmish of half an hour forced my men to retreat with the loss of thirty or forty slain on the place Thus we lost that Post which we had kept three dayes and the Enemy understanding its importance caused it to be fortified and intrenched in such a manner that the difficulty of retaking it caused us to lose the thought of it Two dayes after a furious Skirmish happened near St. Maries of Capua which lasted two or three hours with equal advantage to either side The Sieur de Mallet unable to imagine on what account Don Lewis Poderico had caused him to be engaged as soon as it was at an end discovered that while he amuzed him by this Skirmish he had caused the Mills of Morrone to be burnt supposing we should have been more incommoded than we were by it The next day the Sieur de Mallet sent me word that Don Lewis de Poderico had intimated to him that he desired a personal Meeting by my permission which I granted with order to sound him as much as possible and seek as well to discover his thoughts as those of the Nobility that were with him in Capua Each of these endeavoured to gain the other by many proposals and advantageous offers and after a Conference
of his head as I was of Paul's of Naples But if for the future he become more submissive and obedient I will cherish and consider him as formerly and give him more Authority and Credit than ever His Messenger carried him back this Answer which made him tremble notwithstanding his great confidence which I perceived by his proceeding causing instantly to be rendered all that had been taken away and without reply or delay complying with all I ordered him ever since The dissimulation of his discontent diminished it not but obliged him to a nearer friendship with Gennaro He sent him a dispatch to be conveyed to the French Ministers offering them in case they would send the Fleet to Salerno to put it into their hands and to draw together all the Banditi of St. Severine La Cava and Nocera to the number of Six thousand men This caused the misfortune of the enterprise of Prince Thomas of which the Spaniards having notice by this dispatch which fell into their hands after my imprisonment at the arrival of their Fleet they possessed themselves of Angri which is the pass of the Mountains and by it preventing the meeting of the forces of the three Towns above-mentioned caused him to distrust some treacherie since nothing they had given him hope of had been performed This obliged him to reimbark with a great deal of haste and but little honour of which I cannot but acknowledge my self to have been very glad to see that with all this powerful correspondencies the Kings Fleet and a considerable Body of men to have landed he could effect nothing whereas I alone and without any assistance subdued a great Kingdom and subsisted five moneths though my Conduct was decried and I deprived of the honour of an atchievment so extraordinary and incredible The Peoples Elect continuing his correspondence with the Enemy I resolved to punish him but it being dangerous to do it publickly and by the hand of Justice the authority his Imployment gave him considered I resolved on an indirect way towards it which should be performed with such adress as should give no cause of suspicion and his death seem the effect of a popular Tumult The Inhabitants of the Quarter of Porto gave me notice that intelligence had been given them by some of their Pelucca's that in the Island of â—rocita of which he was Native he made provision of all manner of refreshments to send to the Enemy I gave credit to the report and so far incensed them against him that they resolved immediately to cut off his head which I expresly forbid promising to cause him to be secured that very day and to bring him to his Tryal and cause him to dye by Law it being of great concernment to draw from him by force of torments the names of all such of the Cabal as corresponded with the Spaniards After this I sent them away recommending secrecy and desirous to make use of so favorable a Conjuncture commanded Cicio Battimiello and Peppo Ricco Persons resolute and faithful and fit to execute an affair of this nature to dine in that Quarter to keep the humor warm and to have some ready to follow them at the hour I should intimate When I rose from dinner I was told there was some disturbance in Porto and that the Inhabitants took arms I went immediately thither where finding a tumult I asked the reason they told me that having discovered more treasons of the Peoples Elect they could no longer suffer him and resolved to go to his house and cut off his head and drag his body about the Streets I forbid them to undertake any such violence which as long as I commanded in the Town should not be suffered causing them to lay down their arms and whilst I was on the way home ordered Batimiello that went along to wait on me thither to return and make them reassume them and go and execute their design of which I could not be suspected after having appeased the disorder that he should lose no time because I was informed that Onoffrio Pagano was with him who I was desirous should run the same fortune As soon as I came home I went into my Cabinet to entertain Marco Antonio Brancaccio with whom I had not a quarter of an hours discourse before my Servants came to tell me that a great noise was heard of abundance of people that had tumultuously flocked about my Palace Looking out at the Window I perceived them carrying a head on the point of a Pike and draging a naked body by one foot the boyes having torn off the clothes by the way I called to them to stand and asked what spectacle that was They told me it was the body of Antonio Mazella the Peoples Elect and that his head that was carried on the Pike Cicio Batimiello and Peppo Ricco marching amongst the formost I asked them how they durst take the boldness after the prohibition I had made to undertake such an action for which I had a great mind to cause them to be hanged Falling on their knees they begged my pardon and my leave to come securely to me which I granted them They came up to my Hall whether they brought Mazella's two Brothers-in-law bound telling me that after I had appeased the Tumult of Porto they had advertisement of a new treason of the Peoples Elect and of a conspiracy of his against my life which was to be put in execution the next morning That incensed by this they had immediately punished him apprehending that my over great clemency would have pardoned him that they willingly submitted to what soever I pleased to inflict upon them and would die contented to have given a testimonie of their affection to me and their Country I pardon said I the indiscretion of your zeal but if you ever do the like I will make you such examples that none in Naples shall afterwards dare such an attempt For terror to others I commanded his head to be set on a Post in the Market-place and his body to be hanged on one foot One of his Brothers-in-law I caused to be discharged immediately being assured of his fidelity and the other to exempt him from fury of the people I sent to the Vicarie and two dayes after sent him a pass to go whether he pleased provided he left the Town The Spaniards were very sensibly concerned at this tragedie losing by it a Person they very much depended on Gennaro was most furiously alarmed at it and to avoid the like resolved to embark with all his treasure on a Felucca and retire to Venice I cunningly sent him Masters of Feluccas that pretended to serve him but that letting me know the time of his departure would give me opportunity to seise upon him with all his wealth which would have supplied my necessities and in a few dayes have made an end of our business and surprising him in the very act of abandoning the Town and carrying away the
with the assurance of the return of that of Spain with considerable forces and how much better it were by laying hold on a favourable opportunity to apply my self to an honourable and secure fortune though some-wayes moderated than to glorious and high incertainties attended alwayes by much hazard and most commonly by few or no advantages or profits I gave ear to all these plausible discourses without interrupting him to discover to what so long an Oration tended which seemed to have been very studiously premeditated My silence encouraged him and thinking me wavering he told me My Lord you have it now in your power to make your self the happiest man of this Age restore quiet to this unfortunate Kingdom and all Italy with peace and security to this City and a solid establishment to your self capable of satisfying your ambition which is not only so high but so well grounded that it were not reasonable to offer to a Person of your Birth and Merit any thing below a Crown and I am now to present one to you This is no illusion nor artifice to deceive you I have Commission from the Pope Colledge of Cardinals and all the Princes of Italy to tell you they will be security for the performance of what I am entrusted to propound to you First of all the Spaniards make you the sole Arbitrator of this Kingdoms differences for settling whose Peace and establishing whose Crown which hath been long tottering they will be obliged to you alone They will give you Sardinia the strong places of which during a Cessation of Arms they will put into your possession till which be performed you shall continue here in arms and endeavour to regulate all the affairs of this Kingdom If what be propounded to you be not satisfactory your self shall make conditions and if the Spaniards perform not what they have promised here you can come from thence with greater force to assist this People by which both they and you are secured all hazard and dangers remaining on the Spaniards side I asked him smiling Whether he were sure that all he promised would be made good he told me yes of which if I desired Confirmation he would shew me good Authorities he not being a person to engage in any thing lightly nor to expose himself to the hazard of being disavowed My Lord said I after all these fair Proposals I expected you should have demanded of me Passes for the Spaniards to go away in safety and my Parole they leaving me the Kingdom of Naples in which they can no longer maintain themselves to suffer them peaceably to enjoy Sicilia and Sardinia without design of driving them from thence which I must have taken some time to have considered before I could have resolved on such a Proposal had been reasonable and handsom but the exchange you offer I shall not easily condiscend to I know to what extremities they are reduced I expect the French Fleet in a very few dayes I have Provisions in abundance and for more than two year the Nobility is ready to declare for me all Provinces apply themselves to me and know not what other course to take Before six weeks be over I shall receive Six hundred thousand Crowns from the Custom-House of Foggia I have the value of a Million of Gold in Silk Oil and Salt drawn from Calabria I have in all parts above Five and twenty thousand men which I can draw together in eight dayes with great quantities of Powder and Salt-Peter You may therefore tell them the Conquest of this Kingdom is compleated that this Campania will with ease make me Master of every part of it by the end of which I will not leave them one single Castle that the next Campania I will drive them out of Sicily after which I will not satisfie my self by taking Sardinia from them but ere two years be over leave them nothing in the Mediterranean that all this and more is to be feared from a man that alone and without any assistance hath reduced them to the present extremity and that if they desire to purchase my friendship it must be on other conditions than those you have offered me that nothing can draw me off from the interests of France that I will perish a thousand times rather than ever prove unfaithful to her and to conclude that I love honour too well to do any thing that may be blameable and that if I be liable to the temptation of a Crown it must be of a better Kingdom than Sardinia He answered That he was very sorry to find me so much led aside by my own opinion and had great apprehensions for me I replied What remains there for me to fear Can my Enemies employ against me any thing more than Fire Sword and Poyson which they have so often unsuccessfully made use of Indeed my Lord I never forsake a handsome undertaking when I am once engaged in it I can but die and am prepared for it At my first arrival at Naples I resolved either to perish or deprive them of its Crown Events are in the hands of God let him dispose of all according to his pleasure and how fatal soever the conclusion prove I will see it come without fear or disquiet there is no more therefore to be said and thus our Conversation ending he returned home and I went to Mass my thoughts continually applied to finish what I had so happily begun The Earl of Ognate hearing that I had news of the speedy return of the French Fleet judging that their 's not arriving time enough to oppose it they should be cut off from receiving any provisions by Sea thought he was to use all endeavours to keep Puzzolo on whose preservation the Castle of Baiae depended which having a free Communication with Capua might send him refreshments if he could force the Suburb of Chiay the Castle of La Grotta and the Tower of La Piede de Grotta He embarked foot on three Gallies and taking the Baron of Batteville with him visited Puzzolo and re-inforced the Garrison and passing to Nicita left a hundred men there judging rightly that the French Gallies could not ride securely before Naples till the Spring should be more advanced nor find any safe Harbor but between the Island of Nicita and the Point of Posilippe This put into my head a design to attempt it which I executed a few dayes after In the mean time whilest I was passing the Evening of the first of April according to my Custom in answering such Petitions as had been presented me that day my Servants came to advertise me that something extraordinary appeared about the Moon the curiosity of seeing what it might be obliged me to walk out upon a Terrace that was on the top of my Pallace where I could discern the weather being fair and clear and the Moon right over our heads a black Circle about a foot broad that environed her all parts of it equally distant from
de la Torre Lieutenant of the Camp-master-General with some Reformadoes came ashore in the boat to receive me All my company and Servants were most sensibly afflicted They had been told that I should have been allowed the choice of eight or nine persons to have taken with me to have kept me company at Gaeta and a great emulation arose who should make up that number but Alvaro de la Torre soon put an end to it for after a very slender Complement in the name of the Viceroy he told me he had order to take but two persons along with me namely a Chamberlain and a Cook but having no Cook and the permission being for two I desired it might be a Gentleman and a Chamberlain He rudely answered it could be no more than one of them and the Knight des Essars being already come into the Boat unwilling to oblige him to go out I took my place and they rowed off all whom I left on the shoar despairing of ever seeing me again by their cries and tears expressed so much sorrow that I was more sensibly concerned at it than at the unfortunate condition to which I found my self reduced A Capuchin was seated next me which I looked on as a bad omen and I over-heard a Spanish reformed Captain called Ambrosio Fermandez say it was strange they suffered me to live so long which I could never forgive him to this day I continued a while silent making reflexions on my present misfortune Don Alvaro de la Torre naturally very uncivil and very indiscreet applyed himself then and ever after to give me all discontent imaginable of which taking little notice I began to rally in which he interrupted me to tell me that the Councel had assembled twice to deliberate of my life and had not Don John of Austria opposed it my death being necessary towards the settling the affairs of Spain and reestablishing its authority in the Kingdom of Naples I had already mounted a Scaffold to punish my insolence for pretending to a Throne that the result of this was deferred till the return of an Express sent to Rome for the opinions of the Ministers and Cardinals of that Faction that I was therefore to prepare my self for all events I answered him laughing that it was happy for me that his opinion had not been demanded since I perceived it would not have been favorable but that my head was too well settled on my shoulders to be shaken by the humor of private persons and that the blood of those of my quality used not to be shed without the participation and precise order of Kings This entertainment not very agreeable ended not till we came to the Gally which did not salute me and into which they caused me to ascend not only without ceremony but common civility the Spiniards using very little with Prisoners of what quality soever As soon as I came into the Cabbin they seated me between two Capuchins who busied themselves to entertain me with such discourse as is usually addressed to persons that are to prepare for death yet all those Ceremonies gave me no alarm they seemed too affected to be much apprehended and I only told them with a smile that at that time all things were so indifferent to me that I was incapable of fear That in spight of my Enemies nothing should make me sad and that my life being in the hands of God I would make no inquiry into the duration of it but of this I was resolved that whilst I could preserve it I would make it as agreeable and pleasant to me as possibly I could The Knight des Essars something more apprehensive than my self was not at his ease the Companion of the Capuchin that entertained me telling him that my life was at an end and that he being a Switzer and on return to his Country would willingly take upon him to go into France to carry my last Testament to my relations He could not hear this without extraordinary concernment and came to tell me of it with a great alarum I answered bursting out into laughter that he was very silly to contribute to the diversion of those people that studied all our postures to deride afterwards the weaknesses we should discover and turning to Don Francisco de la Cotera Captain of the Gally told him Sir our discourse is very serios for persons that have not dined I fared very ill at Castle Voltorno and am very hungry and you will do me a kindness to let me have something to eat Such persons as I accustomed to travel the world are not bashfull but freely demand what they have occasion for he gave order and quickly after Dinner was brought in Being a person of honor he told me he had such an esteem for me that he could not see my ruin without sorrow and that he was obliged to wish me well by reason of the acquaintance I formerly had in Flanders with his Brother Don Pedro de la Cotera Colonel of foot and Governor of Gueldres and on that acount to acquaint me with the danger I was in from which yet I might easily free my self by appearing very much animated against France and resolved to embrace the interests of Spain which would make great advantages by acquisition of such a person whose courage and address might be very useful to her I thanked him for his good advice and told him that what he had mentioned was not only my greatest passion but that it had been already propounded to Don John of Austria and the Viceroy He seemed glad of it and assured me that being so not only of his confidence of my obtaining liberty but establishing a glorious fortune After dinner going upon the Deck I began to put in practise what he had so kindly advised me to which I looked upon as the general sense of their whole Nation so many persons having agreed in it As soon therefore as I returned to the Company I said that notwithstanding the great hatred I perceived they had for me the King of Spain was more obliged to me than to any other person in the world for having preserved so florishing a City as Naples from sack and fire and preventing that whole Kingdomes being plundered of all its wealth towards which I had laboured more successfully than all his Ministers that I would yet do more by making it peaceable to him which would be very easie for me and impossible for any other That it was but reasonable that in order to so important a service he should grant me his protection and revenge me of France for having abandoned me and thwarted my fortune which would have raised me to be the most glorious person of my age had I received the least assistance That I therefore desired nothing so passionately as to kindle a fire there by an Insurrection which would not be difficult to me This discourse met a general applause and the greatest part of the Spaniards having
my quality the failings of which must needs proceed from you by diverting the allowance to your own particular profit Incensed by my reply he hastily told me that he was a poor soldier but did all things with honour I believe said I that you are poor since you comport your self like a man that would very fain become rich but for soldier God having forbidden us to judge rashly and never having seen you on service it is not fit that I say any thing He cried out you attacque my honor but if you were in another condition I would let you see I want neither that nor courage You use me so ill replied I that I will have nothing to do with you for you make me lose all consideration but if you have such courage and honour as you would have us believe persist and put me in a condition to give you satisfaction and then I shall learn either at your cost or mine own what opinion I ought to have of you He grew mad with choler and vented a thousand impertinences Don Martin de Verrio a very discreet and gallant person told him he fondly brought trouble upon himself by his imprudence and that the Viceroy would not approve his insolence and loss of respect to me on all occasions I besought him to be a witness of what had passed and to consider whether it must not of necessity be very insupportable besides the rigors of a Prison to be every day liable to such extravagancies afterwards they took leave and Don Alvaro's passion was so high that he saw me no more in two dayes which I could very well have excused not thinking it any loss to have been deprived of his entertainment but then Don Martin de Verrio bringing him to me as I went to Mass he cast himself on his knees to beg my pardon according to the Order he had received from the Earl of Ognate beseeching me to forget his imprudence and want of respect which I promised provided he would afterwards be more discreet Four or five dayes after he came to me to ask my counsel whether he should not wrong himself by accepting the command of the Viceroy's Company of Gendarmes made up of Reformado Officers the greatest part of them Captains of Horse I seriously told him he should do himself a very great injury and that it was too much below him that I might not prevent him from breaking his neck as I saw he went about to do He held himself to be obliged by my counsel which very much pleased him because it suited with his own opinion and thanking the Earl of Ognate for the honour he pretended to do him besought him to have the goodness to allow him time to advise with his friends whether he could with his honour and without prejudice to his reputation accept it but if he pleased to bestow upon him the Government of Reggio he should like it much better that in the mean time he should highly oblige him by giving him leave to go to Rome to confer with his Brother who was Spanish Agent in that Court. By this answer he perfectly lost the Viceroy who sent him word he had done him more honour than he deserved having preferred him to persons much more considerable than himself that he would see to make a better choice that the Government of Reggio being already given it was to no purpose for him to pretend to it nor to any other favor that depended on him that he should do very well to go and visit his Brother of whose instructions he had a great deal of need to make him more wise and considerate for the future Whilest he was on his journey Order being come from Spain to send me thither the Viceroy caused the Galley of John Andrea Brignolle the best of the Duke of Tursi's Squadron to be made ready sending the Prince de Cellimare Deacon of the Council to give all Orders necessary for my embarking with all possible civility and honour as had been expresly commanded by the King of Spain's dispatch signifying his desire to see and confer with me about the Proposals I had made which had been sent him He caused him to be accompanied by a Secretary of his a Burgundian called Don Edward de Francalmont whom I had formerly known in Flanders who made me a great complement in his name excusing himself of all the ill usage I had received which could not be dispensed withal because I was in a Kingdom whose rebellion I had a long time supported and where authority and obedience were not altogether settled but had I been any where else he should have dealt with me in a very different manner and by his care to serve and oblige me have made it appear how great consideration he had for a person of my merit and quality I answered these civilities with all imaginable acknowledgments He told me afterwards that his Master had a great esteem and friendship for me in Rome though he looked upon me at that time as the most dangerous enemy of the Monarchy of Spain which obliged him by the rules of policy to seek my ruin by all wayes notwithstanding which he had taken care of my preservation in several times refusing the offers had been made to attempt my life by sword and poyson Having at that instant about me wherewithal to prove the contrary so vain a dissimulation offended me and I answered him that I was very much obliged to the Earl of Ognate for his good inclinations towards me to have refused to take my life that had been so often offered him but that as several hours of the day bring several changes upon us he had perhaps forgotten that he caused a promise of Six thousand Crowns to be given to Cicio de Regina and a Commission for a Troop of Horse which I shewed him to have killed me the Twenty fifth of March in the Church of the Annunciata which I learned by the Confession he made on the Rack and confirmed at his death that I had no prejudice for him on accompt of it it being just that he should serve the King his Master and the condition into which I had reduced his affairs considered I could not blame him to have recourse to all manner of means for ridding himself of me but yet I could not chuse but tell him that I should have thought my self much more obliged if I had found greater sincerity in his civilities and that they had not been carried on to so great an excess that I had unfortunately in my hands wherewithal to contradict them Francalmonte desired me to give him the two Papers I had shewn him that he might burn them and eternally destroy their memory but I replied that were to do his Master ill service for I intended to shew them to the King of Spain to make appear to him that he had a Viceroy in Naples that omitted nothing to do him service and settle his Throne that
as certain as full of shame and infamy unseconded by a Fleet abandoned by all but his virtue and courage without any one Man in whom to confide or capable of easing or executing his high Designs having Forces so considerable to oppose him that the apprehension was able to make the most resolute tremble and whose adventures resembled more the actions of some despairing wretch then of a generous and ambitious Prince That he could not think of it without sorrow that he conjured me to make a serious reflexion and without prejudice consider what I had to fear and hope He told me besides That he perceived I flattered my self with a hope of drawing the Nobility to me which I ought not to expect that it was true there was not any of them that had not great esteem respect and kindness for me or that did not hold himself obliged to me for putting an end to the burning and plundering their Houses and protecting them since my arrival from the insolencies and outrages of the Common People or that did not attribute to my care the preservation of what remained of their Estates Relations and the Honour of their Families for which they would never prove ingrateful but that all things considered I had no interest in this Affair having no other share but what my Command of their Forces whom I served gave me of whom I was not Master Gennaro being the head whom persons of quality would never own that he thought me too generous to pretend to advise them to it and that they had too much vanity to submit to Peasants they had till then alwayes trampled on That this were not to acquire liberty but become slaves to the meanest of the multitude whose hands with sorrow and resentment they yet saw reeking with the blood of their Relations the revenge whereof had been as certain as ready if my arrival vigour and conduct had not retarded the execution by the courage and resolution I made appear in supporting so ill a cause That their Births and Honours rendring them the supports of the Crown of Naples obliged them to continue their fidelity to all extremities That I might judge of their zeal by their having formed an Army at their own charge and carryed on the War without fear of exposing their Families and Fortunes to the rage of the Rebels That they gloried in spending to their last peny and shedding to their last drop of bloud to preserve the Crown to their King and Master though to deal freely with me they expected no other recompence than the satisfaction to have complied with their duty it being most generous to sacrifice all after having been so ill used and little considered as they had hitherto been by the Spaniards not expecting so much as thanks for what they did so frankly and with their total ruine but that it was enough for them to let all Europe see that they had consumed their Estates and hazarded their persons to save a Kingdom whose destruction they might have beheld without crime by not opposing the torrent nor applying themselves to more than the defence of their lands and preservation of their fortunes To conclude that they were sorry to see me every hour of the day in danger of my life either by poison assassination or treason That it would prove impossible for me to overcome alone such oppositions as would daily arise That I was not to depend on a people void of courage and honour who as they had done but two dayes before would ever abandon me on all occasions of warre That questionless a false account of the peoples forces had been given me at Rome or I had not come to their service but that he doubted not that having discovered such malicious artifices as were made use of to engage me I had a hundred times repented to have so easily cast my self into the middest of so infamous a rabble That I ought to consider that upon the first ill success for which according to their custome they would make me responsible or at the first sedition incited by some fool or mad man whose credit should cry louder than that of others they would cut off my head and dragge me through the Streets That he very well knew that in two or three rancounters they had already lost their respect to me and though I then found a remedy in resolution and courage I should not perhaps have alwayes the same fortune though the same heart and whensoever she failed me I should infallibly loose both my life and honour That he came expressly to represent all these things to me in the name of the Nobility and to offer me in case I resolved to retire to Rome to accompany me in a body thither that as my Servant he advised me to this resolution since I could not nor ought not to fancy any establishment by the people capable only of tumults and seditions Revolutions of Monarchies and alterations of Governments being effected by the Nobility who could never be favourable to the hopes wherewithal I perhaps flattered my self my obligation to and dependance on the Commonalty preventing their uniting with me who on my part would not think my self beholding to them for my establishment whose first foundations had been layed by the people I began with my thanks for the good Counsels he gave me as well in the Nobilities name as his own which yet I had no inclination to follow neither could I do it with reason and honour I told him also that I hoped he had so good an opinion of me that he did not expect it that I had not attempted so hazardous a passage to loose the glory it acquired me and make that seem an action of imprudence which I had undertaken with so much honour and resolution That I found nothing in Naples that surprized me That I foresaw all the dangers to which I exposed my self and fancied greater difficulties than I had met withal That honor cannot be obtained without danger that my Passion for the service of the Crown to which I was born a subject armed me against all That I had calmely considered all the good and evil successes of fortune and sought all means of advancing the one and remedying the other and that casting into one scale the honour and glory I should acquire and into the other all manner of dangers I was to undergo I found my self so animated and confirmed in my designs that nothing in the world was capable of making me forsake them That I engaged not so lightly as he might imagine That if I had alone in a felucca crossed through the Spanish Fleet and contemned such perils as another might with reason have apprehended it was not that like a fabulous Knight errant I thought to defend a people against such puissant forces by Land and Sea as I was to combat and alone conquer a great Kingdom but having been acquainted that the people of Naples were discouraged I
thought good to enter to animate them and gain time for the arrival of the French Fleet with all succours necessary not onely for preservation of the Town but for driving the Spaniards out of the whole Kingdom which I thought speedily to effect In a word I told him I had provided for all things a potent Fleet was coming and at present under sail to attend my Orders whose arrival the Winds alone were able to retard you will see it said I very suddenly sink and burn that of Spain it is furnished with all things necessary whereas the other is intirely unprovided It convoys me ships laden with Corn Ammunition Artillery and Money it brings a great body of foot that I may land such numbers as I shall think necessary and a great many horsemen whom when I have mounted nothing can prevent my being master of the Field I am willing to give you and the rest of the Nobility notice of this that you may perceive I am not chimerical and that without vanity I may boast to be ready to give the Law and not receive it I am sorry for your blindness that provide not for your selves and fear if you open not your eyes to seek your security least you be irreparably involved in the ruine of the Spaniards Do not fancy that I endeavour to engage you on precipices I love you too well I would have you make reflexions but neither resolve nor execute till you see all that I have told you made good If you continue united to the Spaniard the Forces of France joyning with the people will declare against you the Establishment of a popular Republick may be taken into consideration which will trouble you and being once excluded you will never recover the Rank and Authority you may now reasonably expect You may answer me that the execution of this project is very difficult as long as you oppose it which I shall grant you and more that possibly you may prevent it but this cannot be done without great effusion of bloud the destruction of your families and ruine of your estates with the desolation of the whole Kingdom which you will make a Stage of war perhaps for many ages whereas reuniting both the bodies of the State in the same interest as it is unnatural for them to be divided liberty and enfranchisement from the tyrannous dominion of Spain will be the work but of a few weeks And as you are to receive greater advantages by it then the common people it is but reason that you take your share of the pains and travel neither would it be honourable for you to leave them all the glorie that you might acquire all the profit In such a case none but my self would have any thing to pretend having the command of their Forces in my hand which I will share with you now that I may do the same hereafter by such advantages of fortune as will follow it Do not imagine that I would by this perswade you to cast your selves at their feet I hate the multitude too much and love persons of quality too well to be capable of such a thought If the authority of Gennaro offend you you shall quickly be rid of him for I give you my word that at my return to Naples I will take it from him and you shall understand it to be wholly in my hands I promise you that I will not be there eight days before you shall hear that I am master and no orders but mine spoken of Matters are so well disposed towards this that no man is in a condition to oppose it I have so farre gained the affection of the better sort and am so much feared by the vulgar that I am more absolute than you formerly saw Mazaniello When affairs shall be in this condition if you think good to have recourse to me you shall alwayes find me ready with open arms to receive you with all manner of services and testimonies of esteem and friendship and to remove all unwillingness know that I am an enemy to disorder insolence and tumult that I will cause them to cease and re-establish repose and justice cause to be given to persons of Quality the respect that suits with them and hold the vulgar in such contempt subjection and dependance as belongs to it and in which it was ever held before the revolutions I will punish all Incendiaries and such as are accustomed to plundering houses I will sacrifice to the resentments of their Relations all such as have dipped their hands in the bloud of the Gentry to put a beginning to which I keep in irons Michael de Santis who cruelly massacred Don Pepe Caraffa I will sacrifice him to you and your family and before six dayes are over you shall see his head on a Post at the gate of Aversa and his body hung by one foot on a tree on the High-way side These are the testimonies I will give you of my credit and authority as well as of my affection for the Nobility and the design I have of seeking your good will by rendring you all manner of service hoping withal when you shall see so many things effected more for your interest than mine own you will consider your condition and prevent your being involved in the ruine of the Spaniards and labour as prudence shall require to make your advantages by them Afterwards I told him that I commended his zeal and fidelity for Spain though it would infallibly be rewarded with ingratitude that they might assure themselves all services they did for her would be reputed as crimes because the refined Politicks of her Ministers would oblige her to destroy those she could not recompence according to their merits and whose resentments she must afterwards fear which would reasonably draw on her hatred and ingratitude That it was much easier to cause the ruine of a Kingdom than to preserve and maintain it against the decrees of Heaven and general Revolutions and that the Spaniards would not run a hazard of depending on the humours of the Nobility who might at their pleasure deprive them of the Crown they had with so much Generosity and Courage supported That they knew very well there was not any that had not been stabbed in his bosom and highly outraged by their injurious usage That the Spaniards would not think themselves obliged by their arming nor assen bling so considerable troops for them which had hitherto prevented their being driven away and preserved them all their Garrisons that all this would be attributed to their hatred against the common people and revenge for their insolence in plundering their houses and resentment of the bloud of their Relations so barbarously spilled In a word that the Council of Spain fears all and is obliged by nothing punishes but never rewards looks on all as enemies whose power gives jealousie apprehends Revolutions and studies to destroy all that are capable of making them and out of its natural
gathered what I could do in my Countrey amongst my Relations seconded by their Power and animated by a spirit of revenge in a Kingdom so turbulent and ever ready for revolutions that his opinion was not only for saving my life but giving me liberty that having honour I would questionless become faithful to Spain the remainder of my dayes receiving so considerable and undeserved favours from her France instead of recompencing my services having ingratefully abandoned me that their hatred and animosities for the Duke of Modena were much more reasonable than for me who after the so good usage of the King his Father without any cause of complaint or dependance on or engagement to any other had proclaimed war against them voluntarily and attacqued the Dutchy of Milan for enlarging his own Territories but that things were very different on my side that I was born a Frenchman that war had been proclaimed between the two Crowns and was not brought by me to Naples that came thither only to seek my fortune by assisting such as had already taken arms against the profest enemies of my Countrey that it was good policy to revenge our selves of one enemy by the hand of another and that I might most fitly be made use of against the Duke of Modena that the Emperour had cause enough to dispossess him by the Imperial Ban and my investure in that Dominion being procured to give me forces sufficient to punish him which he himself could not do without provoking the opposition and jealousie of all Italy that this policy would seem new to all the Council but we must change according to Occurrences and when it should be examined without prejudice he thought it would find a general approbation without the contradiction of the King his Father This discourse suspended the opinions of all the Council it was not followed because too favourable to me neither durst any persist in that which was contrary two Councellors of State having voted for the preservation of my life The result therefore was to send to Rome for the advice of the Cardinals of the Spanish Faction and to determine nothing concerning me till the receipt of their Answer Marco de Lorenzo in the mean time to testifie his zeal for me resolved to hazard a message to get news of me and send me an account of what passed in Naples he entrusted this imployment to a Musician he had who had the cunning for all my Guards to get to me in my Chamber where he told me that the Town made no opposition to the entry of the Spaniards nor durst take arms because of the report industriously spread abroad that I had made an agreement with them of which when they came to be disabused by the news of my imprisonment the publick sorrow and despair was unimaginable that though the inhabitants were not yet disarmed the intention was to do it that they were flattered by many fair promises with hope of the confirmation of their Priviledges and exemption from Taxes but that refusing all those advantages they had unanimously answered That having so essential Obligations to me they could not look on my misfortune nor the great peril to which my life was exposed without a most sensible concernment and that therefore renouncing all other pretences the people were ready without contest to submit to whatsoever the Viceroy should please to impose upon them provided I might be set at liberty and that they would freely sacrifice their lives and estates with their wives and children to my interests The concernment of the City of Naples for my imprisonment and my fidelity to them were great consolations to me And though I apprehended my life to be in a great deal of danger this relation was very agreeable and I desired the Messenger to assure his Master of my acknowledgments and to tell all his acquaintance that my misfortune afflicted me on no other account but in that it prevented me from delivering them from oppression according to my promise and most earnest desires In the afternoon the Bishop of Aversa was brought to me by Don Lewis Poderico and after the complement to which my condition obliged a person of his generosity we took Chairs and having caused all to avoid the room he told me That in order to my demand that some body might be deputed to hear the Proposals I had to make Don John of Austria and the Viceroy had given him Commission for it that he had accepted it with joy as an occasion of doing me effectual service that I might at least assure my self of this that it could have been put into the hands of no person of better intentions and that he would employ the uttermost of his care and address to free me from my misfortune or at least to consolate it I told him that I came not to Naples without the participation of France and the assurance that it was the best service I could possibly render her that a resolution had been taken that I should have embarked on the Fleet and commanded it so to carry the people all the assistance they had desired but that the extremity to which they were reduced not permitting them to tarry so long the French Ministers at Rome had pressed me to hazard that passage which succeeded not without a great deal of toil and danger that I would without regret have sacrificed my self for the interests and glory of the Crown to which I was born a subject that the King had not only approved my resolution but had by his Letters testified an extraordinary obligation to me with assurance that he would assist me with all things necessary and send me a potent Fleet with men ammunition money and victuals after all which the envy and malice of my enemies or rather the treachery of a Pensioner of Spain had caused me to have been miserably abandoned but thinking my life could not be spent better than for the advantages of my Countrey neither my courage nor good intentions became less on that account and he might probably have heard what offers I had refused it being impossible for me to be biased from my duty that all my endeavors were recompenced with a Prison that by so unjust and hard usage I was discharged both in the sight of God and men of all Obligation and Allegiance that my resentments were as great as just that I would therefore cast my self absolutely under the protection and into the interests of Spain who by what I had done against her might easily judge what I could undertake against France even at the point of an insurrection when seconded by her power that I had friends and relations very much dissatisfied who would concern themselves in the wrongs I had received my fidelity having been distrusted and the advantages of the Crown neglected only in order to destroy me that in some Provinces I had powerful Confederates that I had some Towns in my own possession and could engage