[122] It is well known that Joachim Murat, escaping with difficulty from France, fled to Corsica, and might have obtained permission to reside upon parole in the Austrian territories, safe and unmolested. He nourished a wild idea, however, of recovering his crown, which induced him to reject these terms of safety, and invade the Neapolitan territories at the head of about two hundred men. That his whole expedition might be an accurate parody on that of Buonaparte to Cannes, he published swaggering proclamations, mingled with a proper quantum of falsehood. A storm dispersed his flotilla. He himself, October 8th, landed at a little fishing town near Monte Leone. He was attacked by the country people, fought as he was wont, but was defeated and made prisoner, tried by martial law, and condemned. The Sicilian royal family have shown themselves no forgiving race, otherwise mercy might have been extended to one, who, though now a private person, had been so lately a king, that he might be pardoned for forgetting that he had no longer the power of making peace and war without personal responsibility. Murat met his fate as became _Le Beau Sabreur_. He fastened his wife's picture on his breast, refused to have his eyes bandaged, or to use a seat, received six balls through his heart, and met the death which he had braved with impunity in the thick of many conflicts, and sought in vain in so many others.--S. CHAPTER LXXXVI. _Buonaparte's attempts to conciliate Britain--Plot to carry off Maria Louisa fails--State of feeling in France--The Army--The Jacobins--The Constitutionalists--Fouché and Siêyes made Peers--Freedom of the Press granted, and outraged--Independent conduct of Comté, editor of Le Censeur--Disaffections among the lower orders--Part of these assemble before the Tuileries, and applaud the Emperor--Festival of the Federates--New Constitution--It is received with dissatisfaction--Meeting of the Champ de Mai to ratify it--Buonaparte's Address to the Chambers of Peers and Deputies--The spirit of Jacobinism predominant in the latter._ [Sidenote: MARIA LOUISA.]