: Naples was
cowed, and the court promised neutrality, with reparation for the
insult to the tricolor.

The Corsican expedition was quite as ill-starred as the French. Paoli
accepted Buonaparte's plan, but appointed his nephew, Colonna-Cesari,
to lead, with instructions to see that, if possible, "this unfortunate
expedition shall end in smoke."[31] The disappointed but stubborn
young aspirant remained in his subordinate place as an officer of the
second battalion of the Corsican national guard. It was a month before
the volunteers could be equipped and a French corvette with her
attendant feluccas could be made ready to sail. On February twentieth,
1793, the vessels were finally armed, manned, and provisioned. The
destination of the flotilla was the Magdalena Islands, one of which is
Caprera, since renowned as the home of Garibaldi. The troops embarked
and put to sea. Almost at once the wind fell; there was a two days'
calm, and the ships reached their destination with diminished supplies
and dispirited crews. The first attack, made on St. Stephen, was
successful. Buonaparte and his guns were then landed on that spot to
bombard, across a narrow strait, Magdalena, the chief town on the main
island. The enemy's fire was soon silenced, and nothing remained but
for the corvette to work slowly round the intervening island of
Caprera, and take possession. The vessel had suffered slightly from
the enemy's fire, two of her crew having been killed. On the pretense
that a mutiny was imminent, Colonna-Cesari declared that cooeperation
between the sloop and the shore batteries was no longer possible; the
artillery and their commander were reembarked only with the utmost
difficulty; the unlucky expedition returned on February twenty-seventh
to Bonifacio.

[Footnote 31: Reported by Arrighi and Renucci and given
in Napoleon inconnu, II, 418.]

Both Buonaparte and Quenza were enraged with Paoli's nephew, declaring
him to have acted traitorously. It is significant of the utter anarchy
then prevailing that nobody was punished for the disgraceful fiasco.
Buonaparte, on landing, at once bade farewell to his volunteers. He
reported to the war ministry in Paris--and a copy of the memorial was
sent to Paoli as responsible for his nephew--that the Corsican
volunteers had been destitute of food, clothing, and munitions; but
that nevertheless their gallantry had overcome all difficulties, and
that in the hour of v