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at Messina, about a fortnight after General

Fox.

Previous to their arrival, the Queen, desirous of returning to her palace at Naples, to enjoy there her wonted amusements, had positively assured Sir John Stuart, that there were only three or four thousand French troops in Calabria, and no reinforcement nearer than Naples. That many thousand Calabrians were in arms headed by brave chiefs, and the whole Neapolitan nation were loyal and ready to rise, to exterminate the French, if they had only the countenance of a small British force. This fallacious representation was in every particular confirmed by her ministers: which induced Sir John Stuart to embark nearly five thousand men, with whom he landed in the bay of St. Euphemia, on the 1st of July. But he had hardly disembarked his guns and stores, when an army of seven thousand five hundred French infantry, and three hundred cavalry appeared on some heights in his front. General Regnier, the French com

mander, had got early intelligence, and probably had suggested this invasion. He had chosen a strong position, yet Sir John Stuart resolved to storm it; when Regnier, only apprehensive that the British would reimbark, abandoned the heights to attack them. He was so confident of the superiority of his skill and numbers, that he invited all the neighbourhood to a feast to be given on the capture of the British troops.

The French moved forward in an oblique line, so that their left wing and the British right were first engaged. The French drums beat the charge, and the soldiers advanced, without firing, resolutely on their enemies, who were also marching forward to encounter them. But when both lines approached within a few yards of each other, the French turned about, and that wing, by the fire and bayonets of the British light infantry, commanded by Colonel Kempt,* were almost entirely destroyed. The other wing and

* Afterwards Sir James Kempt, Master-General of the Ord

nance.

centre were also defeated, and driven across

the plain with great slaughter.

The Calabrians, who gave not the least aid in the action, followed the French in their flight, and cut off numbers of the wounded and stragglers.

Above two-thirds of the French army were lost in this action at Maida, and in the subsequent retreat; whereas the killed and wounded of the British did not exceed two hundred and fifty.

After this brilliant victory, the magazines and ordnance, collected in the towns on the coast at great expense, all fell into the hands of the British, and the citadel of Reggio was taken. Regnier retired as far as Cassano, where reinforcements from Naples joined him; and Sir John Stuart returned to Palermo, a few days before General Fox arrived. Before this new commander took any important step, he wished to inform himself of the real state of affairs; for the reports he received from different quarters were various, irreconcilable, and conse

VOL. II.

D

quently perplexing. He therefore requested Sir John Moore to go to the bay of Salerno to see Sir Sidney Smith, the Admiral of the station, and land in Calabria, in order to obtain all the information possible.

Moore embarked in a frigate; he saw and conversed with the Admiral; he then went to Capri, opposite to Naples, to learn from the commander the disposition of the Neapolitans. He next visited a number of towns on the coast, and conversed with the magistrates, and other respectable people, collecting much information. He found that the inhabitants were terrified and dejected; and hoisted either the Royal or Republican flag, as danger threatened; although the landed proprietors in general favoured the French. The magistrates had no authority, and never thought of making the smallest resistance. They and the inhabitants only wished not to be molested; yet they entertained a far greater aversion to the Calabrese brigands, who murdered and plundered indiscriminately, than to the French. Indeed, every.

account of the Calabrese in arms was highly unfavourable; as most of their chiefs were foreign adventurers, or felons, who had escaped from the galleys.

There is, perhaps, no part of the world so destitute of public spirit as Naples, and the adjoining districts; whose inhabitants have preserved a softness of character from remote antiquity. In the fabulous ages, Naples had the emblematic name Parthenope, from one of the Syrens; and there are many passages in the Latin poets alluding to the effeminacy and indolence of the natives. After the fall of the Roman empire, Naples was easily and successively subdued by Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, and French. It might have been expected that these warlike nations would have infused some hardihood into the people; but nothing has altered this Syren race, who continue to the present day devoted to music, to gallantry, and sloth.

Moore found two British regiments on the coast, under Brigadier Auckland, who had

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