Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar13100
port » 2 Neapolitan tartans , and 16 Genoese brigs loaded with wine and provisions , of which he took possession . Two days afterwards ( Dec . 17 ) the detachment of the army commanded by General Hilarion Point , driving before them the Neapolitans who had risen in a mass , appeared before Aquila , capital of the province of Abruzzo ; and being refused entrance , burst open the gates . The citadel surrendered at discretion . In it were found large quantities of ammunition . Leaving a
strong garrison there , and relieving those who had been confined for democratic opinions , the army proceeded on its march toward- * Naples . In the mean time , General Keilerman , who had been sent against Viterbo , to punish those who had been guilty of cruelties to the French sick who were there , found the walls of that city covered by revolters anil thickly planted with cannon . Refusing to surrender at the first summons , the General sent a message , that unless it immediately . opened its gates , Viterbo should be reduced to ashes . It braved this menace , and sustained a siege of six days .
The capture of this place , however , being at length effected , after a considerable loss on the side of the Neapolitans , the French General pursued the rapid course of his success . He drove . the enemy from all . the positions where they had entrenched themselves to recover their disasters . Terracina submitted to the laws of the French Nation , and the Republican flames were floating on the Stangliano . Tenor and dismay pervaeled the ranks of " the Neapolitan Army , froin which even the superior officers were not exempt .
Unskilled in military discipline , and insubordinate to command , the enemy either laid down their arms or fled in every direction at the approach of the French . Arrived within a few miles of Naples , the King and his family thought it no longer safe to remain in . that capital . They therefore , with a number of the nobility , & c . and carrying off with them the royal jewels , regalia , and many articles of value , embarked on board Lord Nelson ' s ship , the Vanguard , and sailed for Messina , in the Island of . Sicily . In the . arsenals ¦ the French found gieat quantities of naval and military stores , & c . & c .
HAVING now carried up the proceedings of the French Army of Rome against the Neapolitans to th . e beginning of the year 1799 , it is necessary , for the complete illustration of what we already narrated , that we should recur to what passed in another quarter , although of an anterior date . The Fiench Directory , if we can give credit to their own a : seilions , some time ago intercepted a correspondence carried on between the Courts of Turin ° Naplesand Viennafor ' forming with England , Turkey , and the
, , , Northern Powers , a combined league to stop the progress of the French revolutionary and aggrandizing system . By this correspondence it would appear that the Kings of Naples and Sardinia were appointed to commence hostilities—the former on Rome , and the latter on the French troops spread throughout Piedmont , expecting to be seconded by the Imperial troops who had lately taken possession of the Grison country , on the on : hand ; and by those at Venice and its vicinity , on the other .
These letters ( too horrid to believe !) state that the priests had succeeded in persuading the Piedmontese troops and peasantry , each in one night to assassinate a French soldier , till they were all either subdued or destroyed ; and that , to make this measure of destruction more certain ,, a number of miscreants were provided with large quantities of poison , to infuse into the waters by which the garrisons were supplied . For the truth of these measures we do not p ledge ourselves : it is enough
that we state them . Let our readers form their own opinions . In possession of such unequivocal testimony of the sentiments of the Court of Turin , the French couhl no longer conceal their intentions . On the 6 th pf December the Directory sent a message to the two Councils , directing them
OVER . THH . OW OF THE MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT IN PIEDMONT . '
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar13100
port » 2 Neapolitan tartans , and 16 Genoese brigs loaded with wine and provisions , of which he took possession . Two days afterwards ( Dec . 17 ) the detachment of the army commanded by General Hilarion Point , driving before them the Neapolitans who had risen in a mass , appeared before Aquila , capital of the province of Abruzzo ; and being refused entrance , burst open the gates . The citadel surrendered at discretion . In it were found large quantities of ammunition . Leaving a
strong garrison there , and relieving those who had been confined for democratic opinions , the army proceeded on its march toward- * Naples . In the mean time , General Keilerman , who had been sent against Viterbo , to punish those who had been guilty of cruelties to the French sick who were there , found the walls of that city covered by revolters anil thickly planted with cannon . Refusing to surrender at the first summons , the General sent a message , that unless it immediately . opened its gates , Viterbo should be reduced to ashes . It braved this menace , and sustained a siege of six days .
The capture of this place , however , being at length effected , after a considerable loss on the side of the Neapolitans , the French General pursued the rapid course of his success . He drove . the enemy from all . the positions where they had entrenched themselves to recover their disasters . Terracina submitted to the laws of the French Nation , and the Republican flames were floating on the Stangliano . Tenor and dismay pervaeled the ranks of " the Neapolitan Army , froin which even the superior officers were not exempt .
Unskilled in military discipline , and insubordinate to command , the enemy either laid down their arms or fled in every direction at the approach of the French . Arrived within a few miles of Naples , the King and his family thought it no longer safe to remain in . that capital . They therefore , with a number of the nobility , & c . and carrying off with them the royal jewels , regalia , and many articles of value , embarked on board Lord Nelson ' s ship , the Vanguard , and sailed for Messina , in the Island of . Sicily . In the . arsenals ¦ the French found gieat quantities of naval and military stores , & c . & c .
HAVING now carried up the proceedings of the French Army of Rome against the Neapolitans to th . e beginning of the year 1799 , it is necessary , for the complete illustration of what we already narrated , that we should recur to what passed in another quarter , although of an anterior date . The Fiench Directory , if we can give credit to their own a : seilions , some time ago intercepted a correspondence carried on between the Courts of Turin ° Naplesand Viennafor ' forming with England , Turkey , and the
, , , Northern Powers , a combined league to stop the progress of the French revolutionary and aggrandizing system . By this correspondence it would appear that the Kings of Naples and Sardinia were appointed to commence hostilities—the former on Rome , and the latter on the French troops spread throughout Piedmont , expecting to be seconded by the Imperial troops who had lately taken possession of the Grison country , on the on : hand ; and by those at Venice and its vicinity , on the other .
These letters ( too horrid to believe !) state that the priests had succeeded in persuading the Piedmontese troops and peasantry , each in one night to assassinate a French soldier , till they were all either subdued or destroyed ; and that , to make this measure of destruction more certain ,, a number of miscreants were provided with large quantities of poison , to infuse into the waters by which the garrisons were supplied . For the truth of these measures we do not p ledge ourselves : it is enough
that we state them . Let our readers form their own opinions . In possession of such unequivocal testimony of the sentiments of the Court of Turin , the French couhl no longer conceal their intentions . On the 6 th pf December the Directory sent a message to the two Councils , directing them
OVER . THH . OW OF THE MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT IN PIEDMONT . '