"_5th Nov._--Back at Naples. I pray God I may be right about this matter. One cannot be certain of things where one has not Englishmen to carry them out. But I love Italy so dearly, that I feel that surgical remedies must be used to cut out that ulcer in the place from which Rome, the mother of practical civilisation, once sent forth her humanising influences all over the known world. "What a place is Italy! Every spot, almost every building left as it was when its great deeds were done in it, hundreds and thousands of years ago. Nothing but the earthquake, the volcano, and the Popes forestall time in obliterating the footsteps of history here. I am told that they still have the gate at Rome in which Camillus, going forth to exile, paused to wish that Rome might never have need to recall him. That was the spirit of the men whose monuments surround us; but the spirit of the vile brood of Frenchmen, whose presence is a hornet's nest to Italy, is to burn away, to wash away in blood, to trample away with coarse feet, every trace that any man had a father. "_7th Nov._--I am, I fear, drawn into a promise that Naples Bay shall never be left without an English man-of-war. I never intended leaving _the coast_ of Naples without one. If I had, who could withstand the request of such a Queen? Leghorn must be speedily attended to. The Grand Duke, I fancy, begins to see _fear_: the King goes to the army to-morrow. In three days he hopes to march. His Majesty is determined to conquer or die at the head of his army, which is composed of thirty thousand healthy, good-looking troops. "Have had a letter from Louis, enclosing a petition from the ship's company of the _Minotaur_, and endorsing their request. Hang every mutineer! say I; and hanging's too good for 'em. A mutineer is a traitor, and the whole lot are poison. The man who lets his mercy get the better of his judgment in such a matter is disloyal to his country, and I hope I shall always have the faithfulness to string them up with a short shrift. But I cannot well refuse Louis, for I can never forget his noble and effectual support to my flag on the most glorious 1st of August. A friend in need is a friend indeed: never was it better applied than to the _Minotaur_. I must write this to Louis, and also write him a letter to read to his ship's company, saying that it is in remembrance of his support, and of the gallant conduct of the _Minotaur's_ ship's company, etc.