ed of the British flag. The Peninsular War had made Portugal almost
a British dependency. Lord Beresford remained in command of the
Portuguese army after the peace, and many other important appointments
were held by English officers. The old monopoly of trade with Brazil
had been broken down in favour of the English, to the ruin of not a
few Portuguese merchants. These grievances, the continued absence of
the Court in Brazil, and the general misgovernment of the country, had
caused widespread discontent. Matters became critical after the
outbreak of the Spanish revolution in January 1820. In the spring of
that year Beresford went out to Brazil to lay the state of affairs
before the king, and to try to induce him to return to Portugal. The
king would neither go himself nor allow his son to go. On August 13,
Beresford sailed from Rio for Lisbon in Maitland's ship, the
_Vengeur_.

While she was crossing the Atlantic, revolution broke out in Portugal.
A military rising took place at Oporto on the 24th of August, and when
the _Vengeur_ reached Lisbon on October 10, Maitland found that the
Regency had been deposed and a provisional Junta installed in the
capital. Beresford was absolutely forbidden to land, even as a private
individual, and was requested to leave the port without delay. The
provisional Government told him plainly that in the existing state of
public feeling they could not be responsible for his safety if he came
on shore. After remaining for nearly a week on board the _Vengeur_ in
the Tagus, he went on to England in a packet-boat.

Maitland had expected to return to England, but at Lisbon he received
orders to proceed immediately to the Mediterranean on secret service.
On October 27 he reached the Bay of Naples, where he found a British
squadron of five ships under Sir Graham Moore.

Serious political trouble had arisen in Naples. After the fall of
Murat, Ferdinand IV. had been restored to his throne by the Congress
of Vienna, and in 1816 had assumed the title of King of the Two
Sicilies. Under the restored monarchy discontent had been steadily
growing. There had been no violent counter-revolution, but the
interests of the country had been sacrificed without scruple to those
of the king's friends, the swarm of courtiers who had shared his
ignoble exile at Palermo. The revolutionary society of the Carbonari
spread rapidly, alike in the army and in civil society. In Naples, as
in Portugal, the Spanish revolut