Campbell against his highness; for, Lord Nelson observed, "every master
has a right to chuse his own servants." The other articles were not in
any manner to be given up. It was, however, directed to be carefully
pressed on the bashaw, that his Britannic Majesty was not at war with
him; and that his lordship would be happy still to interest himself in
preventing depredations on his highness's coast, provided he should
immediately return to a proper way of thinking and acting.
On the 30th, Lord Nelson writes to the Earl of St. Vincent, that his
friends are doing wonders on the continent: Hood had taken Salerno,
twenty-eight miles from Naples, and garrisoned the small castle with his
marines and loyalists; and had caused Sorento, &c. to Castello a Mare to
rise and massacre the Jacobins. The Swiftsure was anchored at the latter
place, which is opposite Naples, though twelve miles distant by the
round of the bay. These events, so near the capital, with the successes
of the Austrian army both on the Rhine and in Italy, had induced the
French to call in all their out-posts, leave five hundred men in the
castle of St. Elmo, and retire from Naples to Capua; taking with them
all their sick, as well as every description of plunder. The Jacobins,
too, with the traitor Carraccioli among them, were retired to the castle
of St. Elmo. Lord Nelson was preparing to send eight hundred troops,
with three hundred cavalry, but, his lordship observes, the court being
poor, and having no revenue, made things slower than they would
otherwise be: "however," he adds, "we make the best of the slender means
we possess. I own, my dear lord, myself much fitter for the actor than
the counsellor, of proper measures to be pursued in this very critical
situation of public affairs; but, at least, their Sicilian Majesties are
satisfied that my poor opinion is an honest one. Their majesties are
ready to cross the water, whenever Naples is entirely cleansed; when
that happy event arrives, and not till then, a desire will be expressed
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