Hostilities were resumed with France in 1803; and in March of the same year the regiment embarked from Egypt for the island of Malta, where it was stationed two years. Napoleon Bonaparte having assembled a numerous army at Boulogne, and made preparations for the invasion of England, the British military establishment was considerably augmented, and a _second battalion_ was formed and added to the SIXTY-FIRST Regiment; it was composed of men raised in the counties of Durham and Northumberland, under the provisions of the Army of Reserve Act, passed in the summer of 1803, and was placed on the establishment of the army on the 9th of July. [Sidenote: 1804] The strength of the second battalion was augmented in 1804, with the men raised in the county of Northumberland under the provisions of the Additional Force Act, passed in July of that year. On the 10th of October the battalion embarked from Ramsgate for the Island of Guernsey, where it was stationed during the following year. [Sidenote: 1805] While the first battalion was at Malta, Bonaparte was elevated to the dignity of Emperor of France and King of Italy, and in 1805 he marched his armies into Germany to crush the combination forming against his interests. At this memorable period the regiment embarked from Malta, and sailed for Italy with the force under Lieut.-General Sir James Craig, designed to support the interests of the allies in that quarter. A treaty of neutrality had been concluded between France and Naples, by which Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops from the Neapolitan territory, where they had been stationed since the commencement of the war with England; and the King of Naples was bound not to admit the fleet or armies of any state at war with France into his ports or territory. These articles were, however, violated; an English and Russian armament appeared in the Bay of Naples in November, 1805, and the SIXTY-FIRST, and several other British regiments, landed at that city. This provoked the wrath of Napoleon; and the great success of the French arms in Germany having enabled their ambitious sovereign to assume the tone of a dictator, on the morning after the signature of the peace of Presburg, he issued a proclamation declaring, “The Neapolitan dynasty had ceased to reign,” and denouncing vengeance against the family he had thus resolved to dethrone, in terms which left no hope of accommodation. [Sidenote: 1806] The Russians withdrew from Naples; and the British, under Lieut.-General Sir James Craig, were too few in numbers to think of defending the kingdom against the powerful armies which Napoleon sent against that devoted country, in the early part of 1806, under Joseph Bonaparte.