"_Naples, Dec. 8th._--We are quit of _La Combe de St. Michel_, the Minister of the French Republic at the Court of the Two Sicilies, suite and baggage. I had the greatest pleasure in the world in giving the Genoese Pink _La Madonna di Parto Salvo_, Argita Ferraii, Master, which had him aboard, a pass from the Bay of Naples to the Port of Genoa, which desired His Majesty's Ships, and any private vessel belonging to the English nation, to afford him every assistance and facilitate his passage. "_Naples, Dec. 9th._--It is tails, not heads. It is reported, and indeed is certain, that the Neapolitan officers are run away even at the sight of the enemy. As must ever be the case, several brave officers have fallen. I know not the extent of the disaster, but I believe it is very bad. Have written to Troubridge to keep something very often at Leghorn, for I think it very probable that I may be forced to send for him in a hurry; and I have warned him that everything he sends here must anchor cautiously _if my Flag is not here_. What orders have been sent to General Naselli I know not. It was determined to order him to seize all French and Ligurian vessels in the Mole. This Emma got from Her Majesty, who is the only man in her kingdom. "What an extraordinary thing it is that nothing is to be done here save through a beautiful young woman, and her of another nation! "I am sure, whenever I enter My Lady's boudoir, of intelligent sympathy and co-operation. Those clear eyes see deeper than most into the tangles of politics (which mean intrigues here), and that graceful head has a woman's wit in divining the course of things. But it is the courage of the noble creature that overwhelms me. Neither army nor mob could daunt her from fighting for a friend as a tigress will fight for her cubs; and, what is finer, she is equally dauntless of responsibility. Had Emma been a sea-captain, she would have been as daring as Foley at the Nile. Heaven meant her to be a queen, but stayed its hand and sent her to a country where there was a Queen after her own heart, and to be the ambassador of a greater country, for she is the ambassador of Great Britain. Sir William is too much taken up with the set of his eyeglass and the handling of his snuff-box. Sir William is a Lord of the Admiralty spoiled. He would have set them the finest example of allowing no national peril or disaster to betray him into a loss of manner. "Here, too--I write this only because I know that what I write thus shall never be seen of the public eye--he has his great use, for his enemies look upon him as a fool with whom the forms of respect have to be preserved, and his wife as a beautiful adventuress--how I blush to write these words!--whose lowly origin prevents her having to be reckoned with. In this are they much mistaken, for she can twist the Queen, who is in effect the King, round her little finger, and she has the wisdom as well as the courage to save a kingdom.