In the middle of March 1799 Troubridge returned from the Levant, his command there having been given to Sir Sidney Smith. Vexatious as was the arrangement to both Nelson and Lord St Vincent, it had one point of importance in its favour--and was to have far-reaching results later--in that it enabled the Admiral to send the trusted captain with several vessels to blockade Naples. Troubridge was to “seize and get possession” of the islands of Procida, Ischia, and Capri, to use his influence with the inhabitants there and elsewhere, “in order to induce them to return to their allegiance to his Sicilian Majesty, and to take arms to liberate their Country from French tyranny and oppressive contributions.” On the 3rd April, Troubridge was able to tell Nelson that “All the Ponza Islands have the Neapolitan flag flying. Your Lordship never beheld such loyalty; the people are perfectly mad with joy, and are asking for their beloved Monarch.” That Nelson’s hands were “full,” as he wrote to his brother, is sufficiently evident. He had become “a Councillor and Secretary of State,” to use his own words, and his public correspondence, “besides the business of sixteen Sail of the Line, and all our commerce, is with Petersburg, Constantinople, the Consul at Smyrna, Egypt, the Turkish and Russian Admirals, Trieste, Vienna, Tuscany, Minorca, Earl St Vincent and Lord Spencer.” Moreover, he was now Commander-in-Chief of the Neapolitan Navy, and had been promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Red. His health during this trying period was far from good. He complained to his friend the Duke of Clarence of being “seriously unwell,” and he told Lord St Vincent, “I am almost blind and worn out, and cannot, in my present state, hold out much longer.” He seemed to be growing more despondent daily, the good news of the success of the Austrian arms in Italy “does not even cheer me.” Victory no longer attended the French cause in the northern part of the peninsula, and the forces of the Republic were to evacuate it and to join the main French army. On the 7th May, Ferdinand’s kingdom was relieved of its unwelcome visitors, save only the garrisons which were left at Capua and Caserta, and at the Castle of St Elmo. The internal condition of the State, however, was still far from settled. Commodore Caracciolo, representing the Jacobins, commanded a miniature fleet in Naples Bay; Cardinal Ruffo led a nondescript band called by the high-sounding title of “the Christian Army,” against the Neapolitan republicans, who were in some force. The unhappy position of the Royal Family at this time is well described by the Queen in a letter to the Marquise d’Osmond, mother of the Comtesse de Boigne. It is from the Appendix to the first volume of the “Recollections” of the last-named that the extract is taken. The communication is dated from Palermo, the 2nd May 1799.