enabled her to instal, as Minister of Marine, the astute political adventurer, Sir John Acton.

These same two years mark the turning-point, not only in the history of the reign, but also in the life of Eleonora Fonseca. In 1777, at the age of twenty-five, she was married to an officer in the Neapolitan army, Pasquale Tria de Solis. Beyond the facts that he was her equal in rank and her senior by fifteen years, we have no positive information concerning him. There is no outside testimony as to the happiness or otherwise of the union. Yet the true poetic note is struck, and all conventional phraseology discarded, in the sequence of five sonnets, in which Eleonora pours out her grief for the death of her infant son in 1779. No other child came to take the place of the little lad who had evoked this passion of motherhood. Casting about for some new centre of interest, hard study seemed the likeliest means of keeping at bay the haunting sense of sorrow that threatened to overwhelm her. Thus she came to be more and more attracted to the University circle, to become more and more affected, albeit at first unconsciously, by its liberalising atmosphere.

Few and brief are the references to her life during the ensuing period of fourteen years, in the course of which her intellectual powers attained their full maturity. With the breaking of the spell of Metastasio, the poets of the Roman Empire resumed their sway. To Eleonora, as to Dante, Virgil became in very truth 'master and guide.' When her father procured a patent of nobility in the country of his adoption, she became a Neapolitan citizen. But Virgil claimed her for the wider world of Italy, set his seal on her outlook on nature, and communicated to her his own sense of the grandeur and sanctity of the human race. Penetrated by the spirit of Virgil, Eleonora found in the study of economics and political history not only fresh channels of thought, but also possibilities of service and an outlet for patriotism. Count Joseph Gorani, a sojourner in Naples between 1786 and 1788, comments on one of her vanished prose works, a dissertation on the project of establishing a national bank. Again, when Ferdinand IV abolished the humiliating custom of paying tribute for his kingdom as a fief of the Papal

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See and was fiercely attacked in consequence, his supporters found their most convincing arguments in Eleonora's translation of Caravita's Latin History of the Pontificate in the Two Sicilies.' This was published in 1790 with a dedication to Ferdinand. The preface and copious notes bear witness to exceptionally wide reading on the part of the translator.

While 1790 was still a new year, she was fêted at Court and awarded a State pension. It was the last time that Ferdinand and his consort figured as patrons of learning and literature. Horrified at the course of events in Paris, they contemplated a journey to Vienna to devise in concert with the Queen's brother, the Emperor Leopold II, some means of overthrowing the Revolutionary Government of France. In good hope of the ultimate success of his efforts, they at length recrossed the boundary between Austria and Italy. All might have gone well but for an unfortunate break of journey in Rome, which enabled the travellers to hold supplementary consultations with the aunts of the French King and other titled emigrants. Their tales of woe sent Marie-Caroline home in a frenzy of wrath and terror. She was persuaded that only stern repression could save the Neapolitan branch of the Bourbons from the experiences of the royal family of France.

A more enlightened despot might have perceived that the elements of a successful revolution were utterly lacking in Naples. At one end of the social scale there was indeed a progressive group, more intent on Rousseau's 'Émile' than his 'Social Contract,' and sanguine about schemes of education and legal and economic reform. At the other extreme were the toilers of the sea and the hosts of the Lazzaroni, who toiled not at all, since begging and enforced exactions supplied their every need. 6 King of the Lazzaroni' was a fitting name for Ferdinand, who understood their speech and had no illusions as to their amenability to social uplift. He might perchance have bridged the gulf between the populace and the apostles of progress, had he not been disqualified for playing any effective part by want of education and of training in the duties and responsibilities of kingship. So it fell out that the course of events was determined by the sinister influence of Vol. 235.-No. 467.

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Caroline. She insisted on immediate preparation for war on France by land and sea, and on a vastly augmented police force endowed with inquisitorial powers; and she took into her direct service an army of spies, who were instructed to keep a sharp outlook on all who had formerly shown any interest in French literature or politics. A word was enough to send the most respected citizen to prison.' The harassed professors, artists, writers, staunch royalists of earlier days, were forced into opposition to the Government,

Among the strong minds of Naples must be reckoned that of Eleonora Fonseca. The scholarship, which in bygone days had brought her into favour at Court, now rendered her an object of profound suspicion. Still, it was not apparently until the winter of 1794-1795 that, as a frequenter of Jacobin clubs, she was definitely placed on the Queen's black-list. The date is very significant. By the death of her husband, early in 1795, Eleonora was left with no home ties. Thenceforward, in accordance with Italian custom, she resumed her family name; but her older relatives seem to have finished their course, while those of the younger genera tion were military officers, none of them as yet openly numbered amongst the friends of liberty.

The year 1794 had witnessed the complete disappearance from the Court circle of the gifted men and women who had hitherto been its chief ornament. Distracted by grief for the execution of her sister, craving for vengeance, if not on French revolutionaries, then on any one suspected of sympathy with their tenets, Caroline could no longer be appeased by the imprisonment of her husband's subjects. It was said that the King's first impulses were always right,' and that he was inclined to laugh at the stories of Jacobins and conspiracies which were poured into his ears. But, because he was afraid he might be mistaken,' he sanctioned the setting up of a Junta, nominally to try the prisoners, actually to condemn them. The first victims were three young students, little more than boys. They had no fault beyond aspirations, discourses, and hopes.' Their defence was voluntarily undertaken and ably conducted by Mario Pagano, but all in vain. The great lawyer was himself flung into prison; the youths were hanged.

The

The fate of these lads and the arrest of their defender aroused widespread indignation, and abhorrence of the Queen and all in league with her. Cirillo discontinued his attendance at Court. Eleonora Fonseca became more closely identified with those who could see no way of escape from intolerable tyranny, save by cooperation with the Revolutionary Government of France. The success of Bonaparte's campaign in Northern Italy, in 1797, gave a definite direction to their hopes-hopes which seemed on the verge of fulfilment when, in February 1798, Berthier's victory in Central Italy substituted a Roman Republic for the Temporal Power of the Pope. Great, therefore, was the dismay of the reformers and equally great the jubilation at Court, when Nelson's triumph in the Battle of the Nile (Aug. 1, 1798) left Bonaparte and his army stranded in Egypt. Not till Sept. 5 did the news reach Naples: intensity of the Queen's relief and delight find utterance in a letter sent off on the spur of the moment to the woman she now delighted to honour, the wife of the British ambassador, Sir William Hamilton. To prevent the French from landing troops in the Two Sicilies was, indeed, a primary object of Nelson's operations in the Mediterranean; but it was an evil fate that brought the hero himself to Naples while still suffering in mind and body from the stress of the Nile campaign. Unable to resist the spell of Lady Hamilton, his outlook on continental events ceased to be that of a British admiral; it became, for a time at least, that of a Neapolitan Bourbon.' Hence his failure to protest vigorously against the Queen's demand for an immediate attack on the French army in occupation of the new Roman Republic. The project had not the remotest chance of success, but all the warnings from London and Vienna fell upon deaf ears. The preliminary steps included a further rounding up of suspected Neapolitans. On Oct. 8 Eleonora Fonseca was imprisoned.

The French fell back before the unexpected invasion. On Nov. 29, Ferdinand made a triumphal entry into Rome. It was a short-lived triumph. He was defeated and driven out again, on Dec. 9, by General Championnet. With the victors in pursuit, Ferdinand and the remnant of his host fled back to Naples. The

Lazzaroni rallied to the defence of their popular King, who solemnly promised not to abandon them to the advancing enemy. But Queen Caroline had decreed otherwise. By midnight on Dec. 21, the whole royal family, with the Hamiltons and the chief ministers, had escaped unseen to Nelson's flag-ship. Next morning they set sail for Palermo.

The flight of the despots was followed by the collapse of the whole system of government. The Lazzaroni refused to believe that their idol had been a free agent, and proceeded to denounce as anti-royalists all whose power they feared or whose possessions they coveted. Murder and pillage became the order of the day. On Jan. 15, it fortunately occurred to the rioters to throw open the prisons. Along with the criminals, the reformers also regained their liberty, and, powerless to stay the horrors of mob-rule, sent an urgent appeal to Championnet to come and restore order. The first hint of his approach turned the attention of the rioters to measures for the defence of the city-measures foredoomed to failure, for the fall of Naples was a mere question of time from the moment when the reformers, by a successful stratagem, gained possession of the dominant fortress of St Elmo. The satisfaction of the new garrison was marred by anxiety lest their families should be exposed to the fury of the outwitted mob. But the one woman associated with the enterprise was equal to the occasion. Before the news of the event spread abroad, Eleonora Fonseca had gathered together the imperilled women and children and marched them into the captured stronghold.

Championnet's all-round ability was evident both in the taking of the fiercely defended city and in the skill with which he afterwards handled its turbulent populace. Even the Lazzaroni were won over to the establishment of the Parthenopean Republic, partly by the obvious futility of resistance, partly because Ferdinand's prestige had been eclipsed by the discovery that the absconding monarch had carried off the contents of the Treasury and ordered the destruction of the ships, which might have been sent in pursuit of him and his spoil. By the middle classes and many of the nobles the change was eagerly welcomed. Hence, with promise of well-nigh