telling them that more would soon follow. He was taken to a village not far away, and there in the village church he was solemnly crowned as Theodore I. As the people were too poor to buy him a crown of gold, he had to be satisfied with one of plaited oak and laurel leaves. It was not long before all his money was spent. No more arrived, and the subjects of the new King began to grumble. Theodore wished them farewell for a time, and came over to the continent of Europe to get fresh assistance. He fell into debt, and was imprisoned at Amsterdam, but in 1738 he returned to Aleria accompanied by three men-of-war, a number of gunboats, and some vessels bearing stores. This time he brought 27 pieces of cannon, 7,000 muskets with bayonets, 1,000 muskets of a larger size, 2,000 pistols, 24,000 pounds of coarse powder, 100,000 pounds of fine powder, 200,000 pounds of lead, 400,000 flints, 50,000 pounds of iron, 2,000 lances, and 2,000 grenades and bombs. But to his great disappointment, he found that during his absence the very people who had crowned him King had entered into a league with France, and would no longer receive him as their Sovereign. But he did not give up hope, and after a visit to England he once more returned to Corsica, bringing with him gifts of guns and money. The people took his gifts willingly enough, but they refused to take him as their ruler, and in despair he finally left the island and came back to England. Soon after his arrival in London he was thrown into the King’s Bench Prison for debt. In order to regain his liberty, he made over his kingdom of Corsica to his creditors. On leaving the gaol, he was taken in a sedan chair to the house of the Portuguese Minister. The Minister was not at home, and as Theodore had no money with which to pay the chairmen, he told them to carry him to the house of a tailor in Soho. There he died three days later. He was buried at the cost of a small tradesman named John Wright, who had known him in better days, and who generously wished to save the exiled monarch the shame of a pauper’s funeral. Theodore rests to this day in St. Anne’s Church, Soho London. On the wall of the church there is a tablet to his memory, which bears an epitaph written by Horace Walpole, and which concludes with these words: “The grave, great teacher, to a level brings Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings; But Theodore, this moral learn’d ere dead, Fate pour’d its lessons on his living head, Bestow’d a kingdom and denied him bread.” CHAPTER IV BONIFACIO The Genoese founded five colonies in what are now five of the chief towns of Corsica. These were Bonifacio, Calvi, San Florent, Bastia, and Ajaccio. Four of these towns are described in this and the three succeeding chapters. Each of the towns possesses its own particular interest, and differs from the others in many ways.