128 General Sir Richard Church's Narrative, Sfc. [Feb. 



the battery as our sentinel, and repeatedly tried to induce one of 

 the boats fishing off the shore to pull in ; but not one would ap- 

 proach, as the order of the Sanita, or health-office, was in force all along 

 the coast. It was now broad daylight, and nothing appeared from 

 Palermo : concealment in the battery appeared impossible, and leaving 

 it, out of the question. Convinced that death would be our fate in 

 the battery, we awaited it with tranquillity; resolved, however, to sell 

 our Uves as dearly as possible. Awful as the moment was, we could 

 hardly refrain from smiling at the contrast of our full grand costume 

 with our actual situation. Every now and then a boat appeared 

 approaching the battery ; hope was raised for an instant, but the 

 boat passed along the coast, and the prospect seemed darker than 

 ever. In this state we remained for a couple of hours. At length a 

 person was introduced into the battery by the artillerj'man ; it was 

 an officer of the name of Marotti, sent by General Naselli to inform 

 me that a gun-boat might be every moment expected, and that his excel- 

 lency's orders were for me instantly to go in her to Trappani. This 

 officer was in plain clothes, and after delivering his commission, and 

 stating the difficulty he had in piercing the crowd to get out of the 

 town, he left us, saying he would hasten the boat if she had not already 

 left Palermo. 



As the day advanced, our position in the battery became still more 

 critical, and we saw through the loopholes numbers of people passing 

 it constantly ; many shouting, singing, and relating the events of tlie 

 night, and M'ondering what had become of the general — threats against 

 whom seemed to be the burthen of each conversation. Through the 

 same loopholes, those that passed might also have looked into the bat- 

 tery, as there was no ditch. At length a number of boys and young 

 men, seemingly in search of me, came down to the battery, and lingered 

 during some ten minutes round it, looking in every direction, except into 

 the battery — shouting, and expressing their anxiety to know where 

 I might be found ; while a group of people remained between them and 

 Palermo, evidently waiting some signal from the young men to approach: 

 yet, it never occurred to these stupid bloodhounds to look through the 

 loopholes, and we avoided observation by frequently shifting our places, 

 or sitting down : thus we remained until six o'clock in the morning, 

 having spent about three hours in the batter}^, and half that time in the 

 opposite house. The surrounding groups giving up, perhaps, the hope 

 of finding me, had returned with great noise towards Palermo ; when, 

 at length, a large boat appeared at a distance, rowing towards the shore, 

 and, as it approached, appeared evidently to be the promised gun-boat. 

 In the meantime, numbers of people appeared again along the road 

 from Palermo, watching the motions of the boat, and it was now doubtful 

 whether we could embark before the arrival of the group. At this 

 moment the officer sent by General Naselli returned to the batterj-, and 

 pointed to the boat as the one he expected. It was still at some dis- 

 tance off, and the moment critical ; in that instant, Providence directed 

 towards the battery a little fishing-boat, rowed by one man, which 

 landed exactly on the rocks at the foot of the scarp of the battery : we 

 sprang over the parapet upon the rocks underneath, and, in a moment, 

 were in the little boat, to the terror of the poor fisherman, whom we 

 obliged to row off to the gun-boat, which we reached, just as numbers of 

 people collected on the shore near the spot whence we had just escaped, 



( To be continued.) 



