Ferdinand, and in their machinations Pépé, in spite of his youth, soon
took a prominent share. His aversion to the Neapolitan Bourbons was only
equalled by the indignation with which he saw his native land garrisoned
by foreigners, feeding upon its fatness. Murat, who at first had viewed
him with favour, soon looked upon him as a dangerous political agitator.
At Rome he was imprisoned, but obtained his release through the interest
of a friend. All warnings were unavailing; he was foremost in every
plot, until at last he was arrested at Naples and sent to the Fossa del
Maritimo. He gives a striking description of this horrible place of
confinement. Opposite to the city of Trapano in Sicily, at a distance of
thirty miles, is the small island or rather the barren rock of the
Maritimo, "a Sicilian anagram of Morte-mia, a name quite characteristic
of the horror of the place. Upon a point of this island stands a castle
where, in former days, watch was kept for the approach of the African
pirates who infested the Sicilian coasts. Upon a platform of the castle,
situated at the north, a deep cistern had been made in the rock. Towards
the middle of the seventeenth century, the water had been emptied from
this cistern in order to transform it into a prison for a wretched youth
who had murdered his own father in the most barbarous manner, but who
was too young to be condemned to death." In this den, which since 1799
had been used as a state prison, Pépé and five other political offenders
were confined. It was six feet wide and twenty-two long; only in the
centre could they stand upright: it was so dark that a lamp was kept
constantly burning; the rain entered through the only opening that gave
air; and two prisoners, who had already been there some time, declared
that they had counted twenty-two species of insects. Fortunately for
him, Pépé was not kept long in this dismal cell, although his next
prison, a dungeon cut in the rock, in the very deepest vault of the
castle of St. Catherine, on the island of Favignana, was but little
preferable. Here, however, he obtained books, and was able to complete