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A pair of flintlock duelling pistols by Twigg of London, owned by Captain Jeremiah Coghlan (1774-1844), English, circa 1785
Captain Jeremiah Coghlan (1774-1844) was famous for his extraordinary daring in a series of naval engagements. After going to sea in the Merchant Service, Coghlan attracted the attention of Captain Pellew when he secured a line for the troopship Dutton before the ship sank off Plymouth in 1796. Like the fictional Hornblower, for whom he was the godfather in real life, Coghlan was taken on by Pellew as an ensign on the Indefatigable, where he continued to impress in a series of daring boat actions. After his rapid promotion to lieutenant, Coghlan was given command of the cutter Viper, from which he led the elimination of the Cerbère at Port Louis in Brittany against almost insurmountable odds. He surpassed this exploit when, greatly outnumbered and outgunned on both occasions, when he destroyed General Ernouf off San Domingo and captured the Diligent off Puerto Rico.
Coghlan was also successful on land, leading 200 marines in the capture of the citadel battery at Cassis in southern France in 1813, before forcing the surrender of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, in May 1815, securing the city and its treasures for the restoration of the Bourbon royal family. Having dined with Nelson in 1800, Coghlan was given the double honour of dining with Napoleon when the Emperor was taken to Elba for short-lived exile.
During his career, Coghlan received a number of presentation arms, including a 100 Guinea sword from Admiral Earl St Vincent. Given the date and nature of the weapons, it is likely that his dueling pistols were also a gift, possibly from his patron Admiral Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth.
#naval weapons#duelling flintlock pistols#captain jeremiah coghlan#18th century#age of sail#captain pellew
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Proper Exmouth locals pub loved for its banter and its dog
New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/jeNuc
Proper Exmouth locals pub loved for its banter and its dog
If you have ever walked past popular locals pub The Exmouth Arms, it’s more likely than not that you will have been greeted with the sight of its unmissable golden retriever dog Charlie sitting contentedly looking out of the window. He is now as much of a renowned part of the pub as the banter […]
See full article at https://petn.ws/jeNuc #DogNews
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27.03.23 | The Great Below. HS2 upgrade works at Euston Station, looking towards Cobourg Street and the Exmouth Arms.
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2 minute read
A 30-year-old man has been arrested after a woman was stabbed to death in an apparent random attack.
The woman, 74, was attacked in Ludwell Valley Park, which is popular with dog walkers and families, in the Wonford area of Exeter at about 4pm on Saturday. Bystanders had rushed to help her but she died at the scene.
Police started hunting a suspect seen on CCTV outside a sports centre earlier that afternoon and members of the public were warned not to approach him. Residents who live near the park were told to stay at home and lock their doors.
The suspect was later spotted by an off-duty police officer on Exeter High Street and detained by armed officers at just after 9.30pm. The man, from the Exmouth area, was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.
Devon and Cornwall police do not believe that the victim and suspect knew each other and described it as an “isolated” incident. Officers believe that they have found the knife that was used in the attack.
The victim has not yet been named but her family have been informed.
Chief Superintendent Dan Evans, from Devon and Cornwall police, said: “At this time we do not know the motive for the attack but we do not currently believe that the victim and suspect are known to each other.
“I would like to reassure people that this is an isolated incident but there will be a heightened police presence in the city over the next few days. We are still searching the Wonford area as part of our investigation.
“Whilst this type of incident is very rare, Wonford is a very close community and I know this death will be felt deeply by all who live in the area.
“My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the victim at this tragic time. We will be supporting them over the coming days and weeks with specially trained officers.”
The police have created a Major Incident Public Reporting page as part of the murder investigation. This allows anyone with information to send large files such as doorbell, dashcam and CCTV video directly to detectives.
Evans reassured the community that Exeter was “absolutely” a safe place to live.
Ludwell Valley Park is a public park rich in wildlife owned by Exeter city council and managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust.
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The Exmouth Arms in Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell
#pub#Clerkenwell#London#beer#ale#stout#Exmouth#exmouth market#public house#market#lager#tiles#drink#drinking#alcohol#England#UK
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Helfert, Joachim Murat, Chapter 6, Part 1
Waiting won’t make it any better. Let’s get this over with.
6. The tragedy of Pizzo.
October 1815.
Ferdinand's unfortunate adversary had landed in the gulf of Frejus on May 28th, had stayed a few days in Cannes, then had gone to Toulon and had taken up residence nearby in a country house belonging to General l'Allemand. He had lived here as a simple private, but some of his followers had started to join him: in addition to his travelling companions Bonafour and Roccaromana, General Rosetti, all three of his former adjutants, the naval officers Blancard, Donnadieu, Langlade, one of his former orderly officers Obrist Maceroni, and finally a Corse named Galvani, whom Joachim later appointed as his confidential secretary.
It seems that Murat wrote to his imperial brother-in-law soon after the catastrophe at Tolentino, asking him for permission to come to Paris; Napoleon, however, had Monsieur de Baudus tell him that he was to choose a place to stay between Sisteron and Grenoble until the people of Paris were sufficiently prepared to see him again in their midst; it would also be advisable for the queen to appear before him "so that the public might become accustomed to his obscurity".
Here the author inserts a footnote in which he doubts the date of the letter he has just quoted from, April 19, 1815, and suggests dating the letter later, to April 29 or even May 19. Napoleon's current correspondence still lists the letter under the old date:
Paris, April 19, 1815. Note for the Minister of Foreign Affairs Baudus is to leave at once to go to the Gulf of Juan. He will tell the King of Naples that His Majesty wishes him to choose a suitable place between Grenoble and Sisteron to live in until the arrival of the Queen and until the news from Naples is determined. He will testify to him in honest and reserved terms the regrets the Emperor feels because the King attacked without any consultation, without treaty, without any measure taken to be able to instruct the faithful subjects of Italy of what they should do, nor to direct them in the direction of the common interest. The king decided last year the fate of France by paralysing the army of Italy, since it resulted in a difference of 60,000 men to our disadvantage. It is not very suitable that the king comes to Paris. The queen must come there before him, so that the public becomes accustomed to his disgrace. Baudus will console him and assure him that the Emperor forgets all his wrongs, however serious they may be, to see only his misfortunes. But he does not want him to come to Paris until everything that concerns him has been decided. Baudus is charged with this mission of confidence, because it is known that he is very agreeable to the king. He will correspond directly with the minister. He can tell everything about the private and political conduct of the king. Baudus, agent of the Emperor, must make him feel: That, if the Emperor had wanted him to enter Italy; he would have made known to him his understandings; That proclamations dated from Paris would have produced a completely different effect; That he lost France in 1814; in 1815 he compromised it and lost himself; That his conduct in 1814 lost him in the minds of the Italians, because they saw that he was abandoning the Emperor's cause.
This is, if the date is indeed correct, only four days after he ordered an investigation into Murat’s conduct in 1814. The tone seems to be somewhat friendlier. So, did Napoleon have a change of heart? Helfert continues:
From Toulon, Murat had sent a courier to Fouché to offer the Emperor his arm and his sword, but he had received a cool, evasive reply. In the meantime the ex-king's stay had grown more uneasy with each passing day, until at last the news of the event of Waterloo, June 18, brought the whole of south-eastern France into arms against Napoleonic rule. Murat had to find a hiding place, wrote to the departmental authorities, to whom he pledged calm behaviour, and wrote to King Louis XVIII, whose magnanimity and generosity he invoked. He turned again to Fouché, who might procure him a passport to England, where he would live quietly and subject to the laws as a private citizen while waiting to see what the sovereigns would decide about him. For the same purpose he sent Colonel Maceroni to the Duke of Wellington in Paris and approached Lord Exmouth with the request to take him under the protection of his flag. But Maceroni was arrested in Paris, and word came from the Admiral that he could only receive the ex-king on board his ship as a prisoner.
Murat's situation became increasingly dangerous. The royal commissary in Toulon, Marquis de la Rivière, whose life he had saved years before when he was one of Cadoudal's co-conspirators, but who now could not show himself sufficiently devoted to the old dynasty, ordered a police officer, Joly-Claire, to seize the person of the he-king; the latter, however, refused to carry out such a spiteful measure, for which he later lost his job. Even a price was offered on Murat's head, and the idea was spread among the populace that he was carrying immense treasure, in order to incite them still more against him. It was now decided by Murat's followers that the "king" should remain hidden on the lonely coast nearby, while they themselves would find an opportunity to bring him to Havre-de-Grace, from where he should return to Paris and place himself under the protection of the allies. The pursued man now wandered about for two days and two nights without a morsel of food, until he found lodgings with poor people, who recognised him, but did not betray him; for patrols passed through the whole region. He stayed in a hole in the ground, the entrance to which was covered by his protectors with wood and dry leaves.
In the meantime, his aides had managed to hire a merchant ship in Toulon, while the three naval officers were supposed to scout out his hiding place with Galvani and bring him to the beach. However, due to a misunderstanding, the rendezvous failed; by the time Murat arrived at the appointed spot, his men had long since set sail again and could no longer see the man wandering on the shore, who was now forced to return to his good-natured lodgers. Finally, on the 22nd of August, on the same day that Murat sent a new letter to Fouché from his deep concealment "du fond de son ténébreux asyle", the three naval officers succeeded in providing him with a small vehicle from Toulon, on which he entrusted himself to the waves with them. The waves were very high, however, so that the journey was fraught with danger. Then they discovered a merchant ship sailing for Toulon, towards which they drifted, calling to the captain to take them on board and, for good money, to set sail for Corsica instead of France. But they were not heeded and the ship brushed against them as it sailed past, so close that their frail craft was about to tip over and bury them in the waves. The daring sailors were already beginning to despair when, towards evening, they spotted the Balancelle, which provided the regular mail service between the French south coast and Bastia. The captain seems to have been in agreement or at least to have known that the Muratists were seeking passage to Corsica, had them approached and took them on board while the vessel they were leaving was sinking before their eyes.
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Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship @secretsandspies (ian)
Eve got Ian to start watching Bake Off with her and he loves it, though he still claims he only watches it because of her. She’s had less success with getting him to watch Strictly Come Dancing with her.
The first time they visit his parents is for drinks with a bunch of his parents’ social circle. Eve and Ian end up sneaking off to his bedroom simply to escape and have a cigarette together out his window. His brother eventually finds them and tells them off, but it’s the most fun they have all evening.
Conversely, the first time they visit her dad in Exmouth after they get back together Ian and her dad stay up and share a beer long after Eve’s gone to bed. When he eventually comes to bed it’s the first of many times that Eve jokes she’s worried he’ll leave her for her dad.
At their wedding Eve’s uni friends surprise them with an album of pictures of them back at university. Eve got rid of all those pictures after he ghosted her so it’s a truly heartwarming surprise. It’s easily one of Eve’s favourite possessions.
Although they’re never a defined thing at university, they still have evenings that (to everyone else) are clearly date nights. It quickly moves beyond a friends with benefits even if neither of them explicitly acknowledged it, to the point where Ian splurges his parents’ money on taking her to a fancy restaurant more than once.
They’re both so besotted with Charlie after she’s born that they have more than one night where they fall asleep on the sofa with Eve in Ian’s arms and Charlie in Eve’s.
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John Parry Backstory Headcanons
We don’t know much about John Parry aside from the fact he was a Colonel in the Royal Marines at the time of his disappearance, and that he knew enough science to pass as a scientist when he got stuck in Lyra’s world. I really realised this when I started writing about him. HOWEVER, my brother is a war studies student and friends with a bunch of soldiers so knows a lot about the British military. We had a massive headcanoning session. I did a stupid amount of research. I thought it might be useful to share on here for anyone who is interested.
This is based on the series chronology rather than the books, so a world in which he heads off for that last expedition around 2006/7.
By the time you’re a colonel, you’re going to be in your late thirties / early forties. Here is a handy chart of data about career progression in the Royal Marines. Also here’s a chart of ranks in different parts of the armed forces for comparison – the Marines are part of the Navy, not the Army.
This means that he probably joins up around 1993, after university (as I believe many people in British officer training programmes do uni first). In my brain, he does physics at university in Cambridge but idk – could be anything, really.
He trains at Lympstone in Devon, which is on the Devonshire Coast. Fun fact: it has a train station called Lympstone Commando which is a request stop on the line between Exeter St Davids and Exmouth. She says, totally not taking detail and accuracy to really stupid levels. You can dm me if you want to know more about the trains.
The Royal Marines Officer training programme lasts about 60 weeks. It is intense (think hiking 30 miles in full gear in under 7 hours as part of your final exam). You can read about it here. There is also an award called the King’s Badge which is given to the best recruit in a troop (but it isn’t given to all troops). I don’t know if it applies to those in officer training, but I’d imagine John might have been awarded it.
He passes out of training, and I think he joins 45 Commando as a lieutenant. This is based at RM Condor in Scotland. It is made up of six companies and is part of 3 Commando Brigade.
The Royal Marines are specialists in (especially) amphibious landings. You can see a clip from Top Gear showing a Royal Marines practise landing here – take out the yellow car with Jeremy Clarkson in it and you’ve got a good sense of what happens.
In 1994, the unit deploys to Kuwait to reinforce the border between it and Iraq (possibly Operation Vigilant Warrior – at least, that was the US mission in the same time/space).
In 1998, they are on exercise in the Caribbean with HMS Ocean when Hurricane Mitch hits central America. They are involved in the aid efforts in Honduras and Nicaragua.
Sometime in the 1990s – maybe 1997/8/9, he is training in the Arctic (not strictly true this bit, but it’s a thing that easily could have happened, considering a team of female soldiers skied across Antarctica the other year and the Marines do polar training). They hike to somewhere near the magnetic north pole on an exercise.
In late 1999/early 2000, he’s a captain, an executive officer (XO – second in command) of a company of 103 soldiers. His company have been deployed to Kosovo as part of KFOR, the peacekeeping arm of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). KFOR is operating under the umbrella of LANDSOUTH, the NATO Command which operates out of a base near Verona.
In my mind, this is when and where he meets Elaine, who is spending a year as an au-pair in Verona after her mother died.
He is part of Operation Jacana, Britain’s initial conventional deployment to Afghanistan from April – June 2002; most of 45 Commando are sent on sweeps through the countryside; limited contact with the enemy, little accomplished. Operation commanded by General Roger Lane, who was relieved mid-operation – some allege due to lack of results.
John is promoted to Major after he gets back from Afghanistan and is now in command of a company of 103 soldiers.
In March 2003, he commands a company from 45 Commando in operations on the Al Faw Peninsula alongside US and Polish marines. This is part of the invasion of Iraq.
Unit go on to Northern Ireland in 2004, but John is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and gets a PhD funded for him on a physics topic (that in my mind involves travelling to go use a lot of telescopes and things because road trip) at the University of Oxford. He comes back and moves in with Elaine and they are very happy together.
Does his PhD, he and Elaine spend some time travelling together. When it’s done, he agrees to go on this mission to the North Pole as a joint Army/University of Oxford project. Before he goes they realise that Elaine is pregnant, and he’s able to stay for Will’s birth and the first few months of his life. He and Elaine agree that he has to do this trip because he can’t back out now and he really does love the Arctic, despite the fact that all he wants to do is hunker down in Oxford and look after the baby with Elaine. But then he says he’ll see if he can take a staff job with the Marines and if not, he’ll retire and go into academia instead. When he comes back, he’s not going out again.
And then we all know what happens instead. Sobs.
#hdm#his dark materials#john parry#john parry headcanons#headcanons#writing and research resource#john parry backstory#elaine parry#hdm headcanons
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Ruination and Hipsterfication in Clerkenwell

We arrived at King’s Cross just after 3 p.m. on a grey Thursday and embarked on a walk through Clerkenwell. Starting down Grays Inn Road for a short stretch, we soon turned left onto Acton Street. The Prince Albert gave the aspect of a traditional pub, unlike others we encountered further down. At the corner we turned right onto King’s Cross Road where a historic courthouse now housed the…
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#Acton Street#cannon Street Stattion#church#City#Clink 78#courts#England#Exmouth Arms#Exmouth Market#Farringdon Lane#Farringdon Road#Grays Inn Road#Greyfriars#hipsters#Holborn#King&039;s Cross#King&039;s Cross Road#London#Mount Pleasant#peabody Trust#Phoenix Yard#police stattion#post office#postal museum#Pret a Manger#pub#Saint Pauls#Smithfield Market#The Old Bailey#The Prince Albert
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International Emergency Medicine
My friend Annie is squeezed beside me in a booth at the Exmouth Arms in Clerkenwell (north-central London). She and I used to work together at a coffee house in New Jersey, but we last saw each other in Chicago. Now, she’s telling me about a recent visit to her Dutch girlfriend.
Lydia’s house in the Netherlands is tall and narrow with a winding staircase that wraps along the perimeter to access the floors on each level. One day, Annie slipped when exiting a room on the second floor. She fell hard and slid – rapidly, awkwardly, dangerously. Her head hit steps and wall before her body came to a stop.
The others in the house heard the bangs and came running. Annie, at the bottom of the stairs, was dazed and embarrassed. She assured her friends she was okay and tried to stand up. Then she passed out.
Annie’s friends called emergency services. An ambulance arrived on scene, and EMTs ran tests on the young woman then and there. After determining that she was healthy, not concussed, and in all relevant terms safe from harm, the medical professionals had to address the uncomfortable business of payment for the house call.
“I’m terribly sorry,” said the head EMT, with genuine remorse in her voice, “but since you aren’t a citizen and did not purchase traveler’s insurance, you will have to pay for this medical bill out of pocket.”
My friend braced herself for the number.
The total of the bill poor Annie had to pay for emergency treatment? 44 euros (almost exactly the same amount in USD).
Relaying this story, Annie is so amused that she struggles to convey the ending. Coming from the land of notoriously outrageous medical bills that bankrupt families and destroy lives, we Americans laugh and laugh. We lament the lack of such affordable care in our homeland, but thank goodness we’ve moved to Europe.
#universal healthcare#Americans abroad#international#emt#ambulance#medical bills#emergency#culture shock#Netherlands#house call
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Proper Exmouth locals pub loved for its banter and its dog
New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/EvglI
Proper Exmouth locals pub loved for its banter and its dog
If you have ever walked past popular locals pub The Exmouth Arms, it’s more likely than not that you will have been greeted with the sight of its unmissable golden retriever dog Charlie sitting contentedly looking out of the window. He is now as much of a renowned part of the pub as the banter […]
See full article at https://petn.ws/EvglI #DogNews
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HMS Britannia Entering Portsmouth (1835) by George Hyde Chambers
George Hyde Chambers (23 October 1803 – 29 October 1840) was an English painter. Born in Whitby, Yorkshire, Chambers moved to London in 1825, where he was greatly helped by Christopher Crawford, formerly of Whitby, but then landlord of the Waterman’s Arms at Wapping. His work, hanging in the gentlemen’s parlour of the inn, proved popular with its nautical clientele and won Chambers his early commissions, although he also worked as a scene-painter (1827–28) on Thomas Horner’s Panorama of London at the Regent’s Park Colosseum and at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel (1830–31). In 1829, two of his pictures were purchased by Admiral Thomas Capel who drew his merits to the attention of other officers including Admiral Lord Mark Kerr. The latter in turn secured him the patronage of King William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1831–32 and thereafter Chambers was an established artist. He only showed three works at the Royal Academy 1828–29 and 1838, but many more at the British Institution, 1827–40, the Society of British Artists 1829–38 and the Old Water-colour Society 1834–40, of which he was elected member in 1834. Chambers was a talented draughtsman and watercolourist and an accomplished painter in oils, often working with fluent, colourful bravura in such views as A Fresh Breeze off Cowes and A Dutch Boier in a Fresh Breeze (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), the latter a product of his one substantial artistic tour to Holland in 1837. His most important later ‘set-piece’ commission was The Bombardment of Algiers, 1816 by Lord Exmouth, commissioned by the admiral’s friends for the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital in 1836 (and now in the National Maritime Museum) probably through the agency of E.H Locker of the Hospital, Exmouth’s former secretary. He also painted two other pictures for the Gallery. Chambers’ career was hampered by personal diffidence in promoting himself and, when he began to succeed, cut short by chronic ill health. A voyage to Madeira in the summer of 1840 failed to bring improvements and he died of heart failure at Brighton on 29 October 1840. His son, also George (1829 – after 1870) was a marine and landscape painter.
--Text from "Scarborough and Whitby Water-Colourists", Colin Bullamore.
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Come join the band this Saturday @ The Exmouth Arms, Cheltenham to support the Sue Ryder Hospice in Cheltenham…an amazing place and a very worthy cause..!
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Australia calls Chinese spy ship's visibility off west coastline an 'hostile act'
Australia calls Chinese spy ship’s visibility off west coastline an ‘hostile act’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated the navy knowledge ship Haiwangxing’s existence was ‘worrying’ after it cruised near to an armed forces center in Exmouth.

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Fine ales and stout Wandering in a city is the best way to come across new neighbourhoods. I had never been around Clerkenwell and Farringdon and will certainly come back 😊 . . #pub #streetphotography #streetpic #streetclassics @street.classics #city #exmouthmarket #exmouth @theexmoutharms #clerkenwell #farringdon #london @toplondonphoto #toplondonphoto #wheninlondon #thisislondon #londoncalling #england #uk #greatbritain #europe #travel #travelpic #igtravel #picoftheday (à Exmouth Arms) https://www.instagram.com/p/BkcnTvsBdrJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10a5rk104n1fd
#pub#streetphotography#streetpic#streetclassics#city#exmouthmarket#exmouth#clerkenwell#farringdon#london#toplondonphoto#wheninlondon#thisislondon#londoncalling#england#uk#greatbritain#europe#travel#travelpic#igtravel#picoftheday
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Helfert, “Joachim Murat”, Chapter 5, Part 1
(Continuing with the text, as there seem to be no letters or documents for chapter 4. The next document Helfert cites is already Murat’s proclamation from September 1815.)
5. King Ferdinand and Prince Leopold
May to September 1815.
On May 21, Prince Leopold arrived from Teano at Bianchi's main quarter. In an appeal to the Neapolitans he made them aware of his arrival and assured them of the conciliatory and benevolent disposition of his royal father. The Abruzzi, Molise Capitanata, Terra di Lavoro had already declared themselves for their old royal house; there was no doubt about the voluntary adherence of the other provinces, least of all that of the two Calabrias.
In Capua, the agreement of the 20th had scarcely become known when all order broke down in the Carascosa division, which formed the garrison, the only one where a trace of discipline remained. By use of force, they pushed their way out of the city towards Naples. Guglielmo Pepe, otherwise very popular with the army, strove in vain to maintain the soldiers in line of duty; he, like the other officers, had lost their prestige, no order was heeded any more. In the city, which had been evacuated by the troops, the Muratists attempted an uprising and opened the gates of the prisons. Pepe sent an express messenger to the imperial headquarters with the request that he be allowed to move in as soon as possible, and then rode after his fugitive soldiers into the capital. Two squadrons of hussars were ordered from the Austrian camp, and their appearance restored order.
The situation appeared more ominous in the capital, where Caroline Murat, after having renounced the title and functions of a regent, had to seek refuge in the Fort dell'Uovo. All the streets were filled with wild mobs, to whom the numerous military fugitives had to surrender their weapons. Murat's coats of arms, colours, insignia, everything that could recall the rule of the overthrown son of the Revolution, were torn down, the amaranth of the Bourbons and the name of Ferdinand took their place. In between, shrill shouts: "Death to Joachim! Death to the French!" Some of the latter, caught up in these wild mobs, fell victim to the popular fury. The citizen's guard wanted to keep order, but their mere appearance, as a Muratian institution, aroused rage and outbursts of anger; they gave fire to the mutineers, whose savagery was only increased by it. Terrified, the queen, accompanied by Agar, Zurlo, Macdonald and a few other faithful, left the fort to seek shelter on Campbell's ship. The night of the 21st to the 22nd of May was one of the most terrifying that had been experienced in Naples since 1799. A city of 400,000 inhabitants exposed to a mob of 40 to 50,000 heads of the wildest rabble! In addition, as always on such occasions, the criminals rattled at their dungeon doors, the Lazzaroni made efforts to free 600 galley convicts by force. Blood had already been shed on both sides. Deputations of the nobility and the bourgeoisie rushed to Capua to ask the imperial commander-in-chief to occupy the city without delay, although according to the military convention this was not to take place until the 23rd. The same request was made by Mme Murat to the British Commodore, who put several hundred men ashore and ordered them to move into the city, where they were joined by the extremely hard-pressed civil defence. Bianchi also hurriedly ordered General Neipperg to Naples, who set off with two cavalry regiments and a battery on horseback and arrived on the 22nd at two o'clock in the morning, just in time to assist the armed citizens and Campbell's marines, who were defending the royal palace with their last forces against the onslaught of the ravening mob. Order was soon restored and law and order reigned again.
But the two days of rampages and fighting had cost about a hundred lives; the number of wounded was much greater. Sent by Leopold, Prince Atajano arrived in the capital and had the proclamations of the king and the prince made known, which caused joy everywhere. The people, quickly transformed, cheered the Austrians wherever they appeared. San Genuaro himself, it was said among the Lazzaroni, had served the cannons of the imperials. In the evening the city was festively illuminated.
On the 23rd, Bianchi's columns set out from Capua. The magnificent road via Aversa to Naples, through the middle of the most luxuriant stretch of land in the old world, was strewn with discarded shotguns, sabres, cartridge bags, etc.; 22 cannons, 97 ammunition carts, 2 field forges, abandoned by their covering, also fell into the hands of the Austrians.
This made me laugh because it almost sounds as if the Austrians had been especially indignant that the Neapolitans had littered the beautiful landscape with all that rubbish. »Now look at that! Pick that up, boys, we’ll return their waste to them and teach’em to dispose of it properly.«
Then, amidst excessive displays of joy by the population, with music and all the pomp of war, Bianchi and Burghersh, in their midst Prince Leopold of Sicily, made their entry into the city. On the 26th the Prince went with a large escort to the cathedral, where a solemn thanksgiving service was held. The streets of the capital were filled with officers from various countries: Sicilian with English uniforms, Neapolitan with French uniforms, British, Tuscan, Modenese, and the first and most numerous of all: Austrian. City and country paid homage to the imperial colours. On 28 May, General Napoletani surrendered the fortress of Pescara, on 29 Montemajor the fort of Ancona. Only in Gaëta, from the bare rock whose battlements crown the old Torre d'Orlando, the French-Napolitan tricolour still flew lonely and deserted. General Begani refused to surrender, and it was necessary to make arrangements for a formal siege.
Caroline Murat was still in the Gulf. From on board the Tremendous, the unfortunate princess had to hear the celebrations, the salvos of the cannons, all the festive noise and hubbub, the city lights, the bonfires on the surrounding heights, with which the son of her victorious rival was greeted by those who had cheered her and her husband a few weeks, even days before. Admiral Exmouth would not hear of the promise Campbell had made to her about a communication to the British Cabinet; he claimed that the Commodore had not been authorised to make such a concession. Caroline asked Count Neipperg, whom she had known personally since January 1814, for an interview, not as a princess but as a person seeking protection. She declared her intention to give herself into the power of Austria, and so, with the consent of Prince Leopold and Lord Burghersh, an agreement was reached according to which Caroline, who took the name of a "Countess of Lipona" (an anagram of "Napoli"), was to be taken with her family for the time being to Trieste to await the resolution of Emperor Francis. She sent for her children from Gaëta; on the Austrian side, Major Baron Sunstenau was to escort the abandoned woman. She still received individual visits from her husband's faithful, to whom she confidently expressed her optimism that not four months would pass and she would return to her throne, for Napoleon would not tolerate the Austrians in Italy.
That last bit is, according to a footnote, from General Pepe’s memoirs (and thus possibly to be taken with a grain of salt):
Pepe I S. 311... From General la Vauguyon, p. 311 f., he learned some details about life at Murat's court, "and especially of the queen, which to me seemed but a dream, and yet very true: that princess thought of nothing else but the crown which she must wear after the death of her husband".
I imagine that of course Caroline would try to console her last followers somehow, even against better judgement.
I had had no idea that things had become so violent in Naples as well. Pretty much the same thing as in Milan in April 1814.
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