The King behaved better than usual. That he had a certain manliness in him was proved by his fondness for hunting; and he now declared that, if his kingdom and his capital were to fall, he would fall fighting at the head of his faithful _lazzaroni_. And I think he meant it: life in exile without means for debauchery had no attraction for him, though his great-souled wife would have gone through anything for ultimate triumph. But some one--possibly Sir William, who was of a philosophical turn of mind--put it before him that there was no necessity for his kingdom to fall. There were two Sicilies; and though one of them must instantly be conquered by the French, the other, now that their fleet had been destroyed by the English, was as safe from the French as England itself. Ferdinand still demurred; he did not pay a great deal of attention to business, but he knew how small an income he derived from the island. The same voice reminded him that he had a vast amount of treasure readily transportable, and that there was plenty of hunting in Sicily if there was nothing else. Ferdinand would go, if his money went. He was as willing to have his last of eating, drinking, and merriment, before he died, at Palermo as at Naples. Only he suggested that the _lazzaroni_ must be kept in the dark, or they might turn and rend, and the guillotine remove royal heads in Naples as it had in Paris. Having taken this unusual amount of interest in his kingdom, the King fell back into his wonted habits, and the business passed into more capable hands. Of what followed, Will and I, even more than our other officers, had pretty close personal cognisance. It was of course of the first importance that suspicions should not be aroused; and when, about December 13th, it became known that the armies of the Queen were irretrievably beaten, and that General Championnet must be at the gates in a week or ten days, any increased intercourse between the Queen and the Ambassador and the Admiral must have excited the gravest suspicion.