were. They nullified the vision of the unwholesome task he was set to
carry out until his whole being revolted against the indignity of it,
when he would pour out his wrath to Lady Hamilton as he did at the
time when Troubridge would report to him his own trials. No doubt this
caused him to realize the chaotic condition of public affairs, for he
writes to the lady that "politics are hateful to him, and that
Ministers of Kings are the greatest scoundrels that ever lived." The
King of Naples is, he suspects, to be superseded by a prince who has
married a Russian Archduchess. This, presumably, had been arranged by
the "great political scoundrels." He stands loyally by Ferdinand, but
soon all the work of that part of his life that gave him socially so
much pleasure and professionally so much misery is to be left for
evermore, and his great talents used in other and higher spheres.

He had retaken Naples from the French, who had set up the Parthenopean
Republic in 1799, and placed the tyrant King on his throne again;
after a few more chequered years a treaty of neutrality was signed
between France and Naples, which was treacherously broken by Naples.
Ferdinand had to fly to Sicily, the French troops entered the capital,
and Bonaparte, who had been marching from one victory to another,
cleared out deep-rooted abuses and introduced reforms wherever he
could. He had become the terror and the enemy of the misgoverning
monarchs of that period, and the French nation had proclaimed him
Emperor in 1804. He placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Naples
in February 1806; Joseph ruled with marked moderation and
distinction, sweeping away much of the foul canker of corruption and
introducing many beneficent reforms during his two years of kingship.
He then, much against his own wishes, became King of Spain, and was
succeeded by his brother-in-law, Prince Joachim Murat, the dashing
cavalry officer, whose decorative exterior awed friend and foe, and