146 
sasp'cion suddenly seized the. massé, 
that the Neapolitans meant to desert 
them in the heat-of: the engagement, 
upon which.they immediately secur- 
ed th@ person of Cancelliete, the 
general sect over them by his Sicilian 
majesty, and refused to deliver him 
up, when demanded, to the other 
generals... Many of ‘the cape or 
chiefs of the insurgents were men of 
infamous character, who had justly. 
forfeited their lives to the hiws of 
their country. Pane di Grano, one 
of the most celebrated of their lead- 
ers, was a priest, whose crimes had 
been so enormous, that, though a 
‘clergyman, he had been condemned 
to the galleys. Fra Diavolo, who 
distinguished himself in the neigh- 
bourhood of Naples, had been 
guilty of robbery and murder, 
Galley slaves, polluted with every: 
crime and prepared for every atro- 
city, were collected by order of the 
court of Palermo, and Janded 
among its former subjects, in order 
to keep alive the insurrection, and 
render desperate the hope of accom. 
modation with the enemy. The 
consequences of employing such 
agents to conduct the war may be 
easily imagined. Murderand rapine 
spread universally over the country. 
The lawicss avd vicious combined 
against the orderly and well_disposed. 
Those who had property were 
oppressed and plundered by thosé 
who had none, and many victims 
were sacrificed to private resent- 
ment, under the mask and pretence 
of public duty. ‘The French, irri- 
tated by cruelties, which the huma- 
nity of sir John Stuart interposed 
inetfectually to prevent, retaliated 
on the insurgents with a mbarbarity 
equal to their own. Prisoners 
taken with arms in their hands 
‘were shot instantly, on the false and 
2 
ANNUAL REGISTER; 1806. 
monstrous pretext, that,they were ree 
bels against Joseph Bonaparte. Vil- 
lages, which refused to admit French 
troeps within their walls, or to pay 
the, contributions demanded from 
them, were pillaged and burned ; 
and..in some atrocious. cases, the 
wretched inhabitants were included, _ 
without mercy Or distinction, in the 
conflagration, and, with their wives 
and children, prevented by French 
soldiers, from making their escape 
from the flames that consumed their 
habitations. 
When sir John Stuart returned 
to Messina from his glovious expedi- 
tion in Calabria, he found lieu- 
tenantgeneral fox arrived there 
from Gibraltar, with a commission 
of commander-in-chief of the British 
forces in Italy.. General Fox took 
upon him the command of the army 
on the 29th of July, and immediately 
appointed sir John Stuart to conduct 
the war, which he had begun with 
so much success, in the two Cala- 
brias. This office sir John Stuart 
most readily underteok, and in the 
prosecution of it, made a second 
expedition to Calabria, for the pur. 
pose of restoring some degree of 
order in that country, and_repres- 
sing the excesses of the massé; but, 
when sir John Moore, his senior 
officer, joined the army with rein- 
foreements from England and 
became, of course, second in coms 
mand, he preferred returning home 
to England, to continuing third in 
command in Italy. 
Soon after the arrival of sir John 
Moore, that gallant and experienced 
officer was- dispatched along the 
coast to the bay of Naples, to collect 
information of the state of the 
country, and to confer with. sir 
Sidney Smith about operations, in 
which the assistance of the navy 
