'faithful supporter of the throne.'"

After long and unaccountable delay, two columns were formed for the
pursuit of the Bourbonites, and a regular civil war began. At first the
Republicans, supported by the French, had the best of the fight, and the
strong towns of Andria and Trani were taken, after a vigorous defence,
with great loss to the royalists, and no inconsiderable one to the
assailants. But the Austrians and Russians now prepared to drive the
French from northern Italy, and Macdonald, compelled to keep his army
together, was unable to follow up these successes. Cardinal Ruffo's
forces increased; he besieged and took several towns, and overran entire
provinces, his ferocious followers committing, as they proceeded, the
most terrible excesses and acts of cruelty. At last, in the month of
May, Macdonald evacuated the Neapolitan territory, placing French
garrisons in the castle of St. Elmo and in the fortresses of Capua and
Gaeta, and leaving the handful of republicans to defend themselves as
best they might against the vast majority of the nation that supported
the cause of the king. Against such odds, the enthusiasm of the
liberals, ill assisted by a feeble and vacillating government, was
unable successfully to contend. Nevertheless, they still struggled on;
fresh troops were raised, and in a sort of sacred battalion, composed of
officers, young Pépé, who had just completed his sixteenth year, was
appointed serjeant-major. In this capacity he first saw fire, in a
skirmish with a band of armed peasants. But the enemy gained ground, the
limits of the Republic grew each day narrower, until at last they were
restricted to the capital and its immediate environs. Cardinal Ruffo's
army, now amounting to forty thousand men, backed by detachments of
foreign troops, and by regiments landed from Sicily, had improved in
discipline and organisation, and, flushed with their successes, ventured
to attack Naples. They encountered an obstinate resistance. General