When their country was invaded, the Neapolitans exhibited neither public spirit nor the love of freedom, but abandoned their sovereign to his fate, and submitted to the invaders. Persons of all ranks attached themselves to the French interest, and Napoleon issued a decree conferring the crown of Naples on his brother Joseph and his legitimate heirs male, without prejudice to the eventual claim of the throne of France, but with the proviso that the crown of France and that of Naples should never be united on the same head. The city of Naples was illuminated, and the nobles were eager to manifest their attachment to their new king. Insurrections occurred in several places, but the French arms were successful, and the provinces became tranquil under the Buonaparte dynasty. It was important to England that Sicily should not fall under the dominion of France, and when the enemy made preparations for the invasion of the island, they were met in Calabria; the battle of Maida, on the 4th of July, 1806, proved the superiority of the British troops, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Calabria were restored to their legal sovereign. [Sidenote: 1807] The services of the TENTH regiment of foot became connected with the interests of the exiled royal family of Naples in the autumn of 1807, when the regiment embarked from Gibraltar, and arrived on the 28th of September at Messina, a city on the north-east side of the island of Sicily. The TENTH did not land at Messina, but were ordered round to Augusta, where they disembarked on the 2nd of October, and occupied quarters in the citadel. [Sidenote: 1808] On the 5th of April, 1808, Major J. Otto Beyer, five lieutenants, one ensign, six serjeants, and three hundred and sixty-two rank and file joined from England. About this period the two flank companies were ordered to be completed to one hundred rank and file each, and to join the flank battalion formed on the island. In June four companies were sent to reinforce the garrison of Syracuse, a fortified town situated on the south-east of the island, and celebrated in ancient times for its great population. These companies returned in August; but were again detached on the same services in October. [Sidenote: 1809] On the 20th of March, 1809, the head-quarters marched from Augusta, and the detachment from Syracuse, for Catania. At this celebrated city, which is beautifully situated in the Val di Demona, on the east coast of the island, and on the borders of Val di Nota, the regiment remained ten days, and afterwards marched to the port of Melazzo, and joined the army encamped on the plains of that town. Meanwhile Joseph Buonaparte had been removed to the throne of Spain, and the French Emperor had placed Marshal Murat, his brother-in-law, on the throne of Naples.