still it is well to tell you that, in whatever circumstance it may
please God to place me, my course will be what I have manifested on
this sheet, strong and unchangeable either by force or by the flattery
of others.'

Brave words! News came in due time of the sequel. On the 9th of
February 1821, the Regent received a letter from the King, in which he
gave the one piece of advice that the people should submit to their
fate quietly. He was coming back with 50,000 Austrians, and a Russian
army was ready to start if wanted. Nevertheless, to prevent a sudden
outbreak before the foreign troops arrived, the Regent carried on a
game of duplicity to the last, and pretended to second, whilst he
really baulked, the preparations for resistance decreed by Parliament.
Baron Poerio, the father of two patriot martyrs of the future,
sustained the national dignity by urging Parliament to yield only to
force, and to defy the barbarous horde which was bearing down on the
country. The closing scene is soon told. On the 7th of March, in the
mountains near Rieti, General Guglielmo Pepe, with 8000 regular troops
and a handful of militia, encountered an overwhelmingly superior force
of Austrians. The Neapolitans stood out well for six hours, but on the
Austrian reserves coming up, they were completely routed, and obliged
to fly in all directions.

'Order reigned' in the kingdom of Naples. In Sicily, a gallant attempt
at insurrection was begun, but there was not the spirit to go on with
it, and General Rossaroll, its initiator, had to fly to Spain. The
afterpiece is what might have been expected; an insensate desire for
vengeance got hold of Ferdinand, and the last years of his life were
spent in hunting down his enemies, real or imaginary. Morelli and
Silvati were hung, the fugitives, Pepe and Rossaroll, were condemned