THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



Vol. I.] MARCH, 1828. [No. 3. 



LIEUT. GENERAL SIR RICHARD CHURCh's PERSONAL NARRATIVE 

 OF THE REVOLUTION AT PALERMO, IN THE YEAR 1820. 



( Cmiduded from ;>. 128. ) 



I FOUND Lieut, de Nitis who had been in disguise to tlie viceroy, and 

 who communicated the viceroy's command for me to go immediately 

 to "trappani, where I should find fartlier orders. He informed me 

 that the populace, now mostly provided with fire-arms, surrounded my 

 lodgings, while other parties were searching for me in every direction ; 

 he represented the shameful apathy of the troops, who seemed quite in- 

 different to what was going on, and reported having communicated to 

 Major General Pastore, whom he found at the viceroy's, the critical 

 position of the Lieut. General commanding. Upon this information I 

 ordered the boat to stand a little off from the town, and then to take the 

 direction of Monte Pellcgrino, a promontory near Palermo ; this gun- 

 boat was commanded by a Sicilian jnlota named Natale La Rocca, and 

 the crew consisted of two and twenty seamen, of whom about fifteen 

 were on board : she was armed with a long twelve-pounder and had a few 

 muskets and sabres ; fortunately, as will be seen hereafter, both the 

 commander and sailors were of Trappani. As Lieut. Quandel and my- 

 self were still in full uniform, we changed our military coats for seamen's 

 jackets. The boat, having stood out from the shore sufficiently to deceive 

 the people as to her direction, changed her route and gained the coast, 

 close under Monte Pellegrino ; as, however, the health-office had es- 

 tablished a cordon along the coast, no landing could be effected, except 

 at particidar stations ; it was, therefore, necessary to remove to near one 

 of these stations, where the gun-boat anchored probably about 1 1 o'clock, 

 in the forenoon. A variety of reflections had already passed through my 

 mind, on the little dependence to be placed on the few troops in Palermo, 

 and on the inutility of leading troops now belonging to a government 

 which I refused to act with. No party had declared for the King, or 

 called for the old constitution of Sicily, or that of 1812 ; all had proceed- 

 ed from popular fury and the instigation of fanatical Carbonari, both. 

 Sicilians and Neapolitans. The lower orders had roared out for the con- 

 stitution of Spain ; the troops sj^mpathized with their comrades in the 

 kingdom of Naples ; but, singularly enough, seemed for the moment united 

 with the Palermitan populace, and the violence of tfie torrent was such 



M.M. Nexv Scries.— Vol. I. No. 3. 2 G 



