"penitus toto divisos orbe." But a new world, of which they themselves have become the center, has succeeded to that from which their distant regions were so completely divided.* Adieu.

* The Island of Caprea, mentioned above, lies between Posilipo and the extremity of the promontory of Sorrento. Thither it was that Tiberius retired from the inconvenient observation of the people of Rome. When Murat began his reign at Naples, this rock was in possession of the English : and so anxious were they to defend it, that the English commander is reported to have offered one guinea reward to whoever should discover an unguarded path up its cliffs. Murat, however, fitted out an expedition; and, by ladders resting on the unsteady bottoms of their floating boats and reaching to the summit of the rocks, his men ascended, one by one, under the fire of the English troops, and gained possession of the Island.

LETTER XXVI.

Naples, Dec. 6, 1824.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

On the 3d inst. three separate parties of English, after having visited the ruins of Pæstum, left the place, nearly at the same time, to return to Naples. The first carriage, containing Mrs., her two daughters, and servant, was stopped about a quarter of a mile from the tavern of Pæstum: the ladies were robbed of the money and trinkets they had with them, and then permitted to proceed. second carriage left Pæstum soon after the first, and, a short time after it, the third, in which were three young officers belonging to the English vessel then in the port of Naples. These had

The

vant.

advanced but a short distance when they met the second carriage returning at a slow pace. This carriage was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. H.-a lately married, very young couple—and their serArrived at the spot where the first party had been pillaged, they had been ordered to stop by four armed men: a great quantity of clothes and a valuable silver chest which they had with them, for what reason is not known, as well as their ready money, was taken from them. The servant was ordered to give up his purse; he offered one piastre-all he had. The men,

who, from his being well-drest, took him for a padrone-a master, cried out that no English gentleman ever travelled with only one piastre in his pocket: an altercation ensued; Mr. H. interfered; guns were pointed; Mrs. H. frightened, clung to her husband; the brigands threatened to shoot him; he replied, "you dare "not" a gun was fired by the banditti on each side of the carriage, and both the man and wife were shot through the lungs. The assassins immediately fled; leaving, by the road side, all they had collected. Mr. H. who was the more séverely wounded, was carried to the tavern of Pæstum; his wife, whom he thought but slightly

hurt, was taken to a neighbouring house. Both were attended by the English officers and by an English physician, whom an express called from Naples. But, on his arriving, he found Mr. H. already dead, after five hours suffering, during which he frequently exclaimed that it was all his fault. His wife expired after two days; having given a clear account of the whole transaction. It is her account, received from one of the officers present, that I now send you. The Neapolitans wish rather to palliate the murder, by saying that, during the altercation, Mr. H. had called to his servant for his pistols. It is, in fact, generally supposed, that it was his manner or language that exasperated them, and impelled them to fire. A German officer simply said to me, "if people will travel without taking "escorts, they must expect as much." And this

travelling" is to a distance of sixty miles from the capital of a country they have possessed since three years! The bodies were transported to Naples by sea, and quietly interred in the English burying-place; a guard, the English Minister, and a few others attending.

Mrs. H. seems to have had a strong presentiment of her fate: at a party, a few days before, she

had replied to those who remarked that she was low in spirits, "that she did not like the in"tended journey, and wished it was over." On the next morning she called at an English shop, asked for her bill-a very trifling oneand paid it, saying, "she did not know what "might happen on her journey."

The assassins seem not to have been robbers by profession, and not to have intended murder; since, having fired, they fled, terrified at the deed they had committed. They were afterwards all taken. I have heard-from some English, observe-that one of them had been dismissed from the prisons of Sicily to hold some command in Cardinal Ruffo's band; that he was, at this time, a garde champêtre in the service of the King, to whom he was personally known, and who, as he said on being taken, would, when he should hear of his adventure, "throw his arms round "his neck, call him his dear friend, and dis"charge him." The following circumstance makes me readily believe the first part of this information; the death of the King hindered the remainder from being refuted. A few days after the arrest of the murderers, Cardinal Ruffo, the general, whom we had not seen for