Memoirs Of The Freemasons Of Naples.

MEMOIRS OF THE FREEMASONS OF NAPLES .

LONDON ; SATURDAY , MARCS 2 , 1801 .

( Continued , from j > . 142 ) . The fatal day was come when the Mood-thirsty Pallante hoped to establish his reputation by his treasonable practices : similar to a drunkard who seizes with eagerness the last bottle , without reflecting that it will deprive him of the small remains of his reason and expose him to

the jests of the by-standers , by reeling him headlong on the earth , fie had sent some one in the morning to the jilace of rendezvous . After dinner he sent for the Pole , to confer with him on the means of accomplishing his project , and anticipate with joy the triumph they were about to experience . These two proceedings served in

the sequel to develope the plot , or Pallante would without doubt easily have concealed it from the public , and not have injured Ms own character . He posted , in the evening , soldiers and archers in ambuscade near the house where the company were to meet . Himself , accompanied by a young domestic , returned to the

neighbourhood , to a house of one of his clients . Pallante had taken this young man into his service when he was eleven years of age ; he was a handsome , agreeable boy , named Denys . Although Pallante was not his father , as some have imagined , he bestowed on him , while he was still a youth , a lucrative establishment , without

being possessed of talents that would justify his elevation . He there waited the issue of this affair . The Ereemasons , on their arrival , found at the gate a black cloth , a death's head , hammers , aprons , and gloves . On seeing this assemblage they viewed one another with astonishment ; nor were they without their suspicions

of some treachery . Peyrol told them , humorously , that st was a- trick they were about to pay on a Polish nobleman . At that instant the soldiers and archers advanced , armed with bayonets and pistols , threatening them in case of resistance ; they then seized the unfortunate Masons , and bound them with ropes and jjocket

handkerchiefs . When they were well secured , Pallante , muffled up in a red cloak-, his little page by his side , entered in the midst of them ; crying out thrice in ah audible voice , and taking his hat off each time , G-od save the King ! ¦ He certainly meant to say , God save the prince , under whose authority I have succeeded in my enterprise . All the company repeated , God save the King ! with voices half choked with terror and dismay . Their faces seemed to

say , God save the King , revenger of oppressed innocence . The hypocrite Pallante contemplated with a well-counterfeited fear the apparatus of Freemasonry : "There needs no farther proof , " cried he ; " one may easily see that great preparations have been made for opening a lodge , or that they have already had one "—though he perfectlknew at the same time that everything had

y been prepared by his order . lie then obliged every one of the company to declare their name and condition . The Pole , whom Peyrol had brought beforehand into a neighbouring apartment , dressed as an Armenian , his eyes blindfolded—which he bad done in order to give him the appearance of one ready to be admitted into the

society—was led to the room door where the others were assembled . Pallante pretended not to observe him , till a soldier of the guard ( unacquainted with the plot ) cried out there was another criminal they had forgot . The number in all were nine- —the Polauder and Peyro ; one Meyar , a Swiss ; Brivtschy , a German ; . Berne , a . Frenchman ; these three last were surgeons in in the SVj ' sa troops ; Bafil . a Neapolitan , and professor

of the Greek language at Naples ; Paccinini , a Roman , and teacher of mathematics ; and Rereuzer , a Swede ; the ninth was a young man of Naples , called SeA'erio Giambarba , the son of a jeweller ; all of them genuine or assumed Ereemasons , except this youth , who was neither the one nor the other .

This last circumstance is sufficient to prove that it could not be a real lodge , where , none but true brethren are accepted ; but , notwithstanding , it was rumoured throughout all Europe that a lodge of Ereemasons had been detected at Naples . They were conducted to prison in the midst of all that horror which criminals against the state naturallinspireand were lodged in the dismal

y , cells allotted for them . The youth Giainbarba , who had more the appearance of a girl , subdued the cruel heart of Pallante ; for while the others were obliged to go on foot , he took him into his coach , and conducted him to prison , accompanied by the little page . This happened the 2 nd of March , 1775 , on a very dark and rainy night . *

Notwithstanding the state of theweather , Pallante said he had been that afternoon at Capo cli Monte , to enjoy the country air . "When the poor prisoners were safely lodged lie set off on the instant for Persano , distant about thirty miles from Naples , with all the pretended apparatus of Freemasonry , by Avay of trophies . The Marquis Tennucci was there at that time , attending the Court . Had Pallante not been hurried away , as it would

seem , by his hatred to the Freemasons , he would naye deferred his expedition till the ensuing day . There appeared a trifling circumstance in this affair , which made even the poor Freemasons smile in the midst of their distress . Pallante had observed , among the movables of the house , a wooden ham , so well

imitated , that at first he took it for a- real one . An intimate friend of the master had introduced it there by way of a joke , and it had been suffered to hang from the ceiling in memory of the artist . Nothing could remove the thought from the mind of Pallante but that it must be one of the symbols of Freemasonry , and he presented

it to the Minister in that light , after he had , no doubt , for a long time puzzled his brain to find out the meaning . It will be seen in the sequel of this history what strange ideas Pallante had formed in his mind in regard to the society of Freemasons . He went himself to the King , and gave his Majestan account cf the transactions

y already mentioned , with a list of the criminals—not the one drawn up on the spot , but another , where the name of the Polander was omitted , according to his promise , as an examination of him at the trial would have

discovered the whole plot . It was then that Pallante was named a commissioner in the process of the Freemasons , either in virtue of his own solicitations , or rather , as we should suppose , by the care of the Minister , who endeavoured to conceal by this commission the imLiAvful steps Pallante had taken in the whole affair . The Polander obtained bis liberty the next morning

, whilst the others were lamenting their fate in all the horrors of a dismal prison . Never were poor victims more to be pitied than these . Their imagination set before their eyes the terrors of the Inquisition and fanaticism . The unfortunate wretches condemned to suffer for doctrines of faith ( and encouraged by the

glory of martyrdom , and the honour of dying on account of their religion ) , cheerfully resign themselves to death in the hopes of a better life hereafter ; but the Freemasons saw themselves oppressed by an arbitrary power against all the rights' of humanity . They were in a moment separated from their wives , families , end friends , and had not even the comfort of dying for a society to which in reality . they , bad no certain connexion ; the horrors of a prison were augmented by the thoughts of