France, declaring, upon the faith and word of a king, that he had never
infringed, even in the slightest degree, the treaties which he had made
with the French republic. Tuscany was soon occupied by French troops--a
fate which bolder policy might, perhaps, have failed to avert, but which
its weak and timid neutrality rendered inevitable. Nelson began to
fear even for Sicily. "Oh, my dear sir," said he, writing to Commodore
Duckworth, "one thousand English troops would save Messina; and I fear
General Stuart cannot give me men to save this most important island!"
But his representations were not lost upon Sir Charles Stuart. This
officer hastened immediately from Minorca with 1000 men, assisted in the
measures of defence which were taken, and did not return before he
had satisfied himself that, if the Neapolitans were excluded from
the management of affairs, and the spirit of the peasantry properly
directed, Sicily was safe. Before his coming, Nelson had offered the
king, if no resources should arrive, to defend Messina with the ship's
company of an English man-of-war.

Russia had now entered into the war. Corfu, surrendered to a Russian and
Turkish fleet, acting now, for the first time, in strange confederacy
yet against a power which was certainly the common and worst enemy
of both. Troubridge having given up the blockade of Alexandria to Sir
Sidney Smith, joined Nelson, bringing with him a considerable addition
of strength; and in himself what Nelson valued more, a man, upon whose
sagacity, indefatigable zeal, and inexhaustible resources, he could
place full reliance. Troubridge was intrusted to commence the operations
against the French in the bay of Naples. Meantime Cardinal Ruffo, a man
of questionable character, but of a temper fitted for such times, having
landed in Calabria, raised what he called a Christian army, composed of
the best and the vilest materials--loyal peasants, enthusiastic priests
and friars, galley slaves, the emptying of the jails, and banditti.