The presence of Bianca was the only damper to my ardour; for I anticipated with dread the dangers to which she would be exposed when the coming strife closed around us: but to my earnest entreaties that she would join her aunt and the young viscontessa, who had retired to Carolina’s court at Palermo, she answered only by her tears and entreaties that I would not send her away, but permit her to share all the perils to which I might be exposed. Poor girl! little knew she of war and the manifold horrors of a protracted siege, or a fortress carried by assault: but to resist her charming entreaties was impossible; and my anxiety increased as the distance between us and the enemy lessened. How marriage spoils the _esprit du corps_! Every officer and private of the 62nd looked forward with ardour and hope; and I felt the old reckless spirit rising, notwithstanding the fears that oppressed me. The daily arrival of couriers from the Masse, and from the armed cavalieri on the mountains, the telegraphing of despatches to and fro with Messina, the hourly training of soldiers at the batteries, the visiting of guards, which were doubled at night, and all the eternal hubbub created by the near approach of the foe, kept me fully occupied; and never, even when tenanted by the martial cardinal, had Scylla witnessed such military bustle and excitement. Advices soon reached us that General Regnier had invested the castle of Crotona; which, after a bold defence by the Free Calabri, had been compelled to capitulate when the heavy battering train of the French opened on its decayed fortifications. All Naples was exasperated by the intelligence that the gallant Cavaliere del Castagno had been hanged as a traitor by orders of Regnier; whose forces, eager to revenge the triumph of Maida, marched rapidly by the shores of the Adriatic: they crossed the mountains at Francavilla, fighting every inch of the way with the Masse and the bold comrades of Francatripa, Fra Diavolo, Benincasa, and Mamone, and reached Monteleone, which the Italians abandoned; and once more the tricolor of the Buonapartists was triumphantly hoisted on its ramparts. *CHAPTER X.* *WRECK OF THE *_*DELIGHT*_*.* Towards the end of December, the French had pushed forward as far as Seminara; and, by the concentration of troops and a train of heavy ordnance at that place, I had no doubt that preparations were making to besiege the castle of Scylla. Every exertion was made by the loyalists to prevent the carriage of cannon into that corner of Calabria: working parties of soldiers and armed peasants were continually employed in trenching and barricading the roads, and rendering the passes of the Solano impracticable; thus making every approach down from the hills of Milia as difficult as possible.