the service of His Sicilian Majesty, stands accused of
rebellion against his lawful sovereign, and for firing at his colours
hoisted on board his Frigate, the Minerva." The court assembled at
once, sitting from 10 A.M. to noon. The charges being found proved,
sentence of death was pronounced; and Caracciolo, who had been brought
on board at 9 A.M., was at 5 P.M., by Nelson's orders, hanged at the
foreyard-arm of the "Minerva." He was forty-seven years old at the
time of his death.

The proceedings of the court-martial were open, but the record, if any
was drawn up, has not been preserved. It is impossible, therefore, now
to say whether the evidence sustained the charges; but the acts
alleged were so simple and so notorious, that there can be little
doubt Caracciolo had fairly incurred his fate. Even in our milder age,
no officer of an army or navy would expect to escape the like
punishment for the same offence; if he did, it would be because mercy
prevailed over justice. As regards the technicalities of the
procedure, it would seem probable that Nelson's full powers,
especially when committed to a military man, included by fair
inference, if not expressly, the right of ordering courts-martial;
whereas he had not at hand the machinery of judges and civil courts,
for proceeding against the civilians who had joined in the
insurrection. Despite his fearlessness of responsibility, he was
always careful not to overpass the legal limits of his authority,
except when able to justify his action by what at least appeared to
himself adequate reasons. The Portuguese squadron, for instance, was
absolutely under his orders, so far as its movements went; but, when a
case of flagrant misconduct occurred, he confined himself to
regretting that he had not power to order a court. Anomalous as his
position was in the Bay of Naples, before the arrival of the King, and
regrettably uncertain as is the commission under which he acted, there
is no ground for disputing that he had authority to order a
court-martial, and to carry its sentence into execution, nor that
Caracciolo came within the jurisdiction of a court-martial properly
constituted. Having regard, therefore, to the unsettled conditions of
things prevailing, no fatal irregularity can be shown either in the
trial or execution of this prisoner.

But, while all this is true, the instinctive aversion with which this
act of Nelson's has been regarded generally is well founded. It was
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