y to be unbound, and to be treated with all those attentions
which he felt due to a man who, when last on board the FOUDROYANT, had
been received as an admiral and a prince. Sir William and Lady Hamilton
were in the ship; but Nelson, it is affirmed, saw no one except his
own officers during the tragedy which ensued. His own determination was
made; and he issued an order to the Neapolitan commodore, Count Thurn,
to assemble a court-martial of Neapolitan officers, on board the British
flag-ship, proceed immediately to try the prisoner, and report to him,
if the charges were proved, what punishment he ought to suffer. These
proceedings were as rapid as possible; Caraccioli was brought on board
at nine in the forenoon, and the trial began at ten. It lasted two
hours: he averred in his defence that he had acted under compulsion,
having been compelled to serve as a common soldier, till he consented to
take command of the fleet. This, the apologists of Lord Nelson say, he
failed in proving. They forget that the possibility of proving it was
not allowed him, for he was brought to trial within an hour after he
was legally in arrest; and how, in that time, was he to collect his
witnesses? He was found guilty, and sentenced to death; and Nelson gave
orders that the sentence should be carried into effect that evening, at
five o'clock, on board the Sicilian frigate, LA MINERVA, by hanging him
at the fore-yard-arm till sunset; when the body was to be cut down and
thrown into the sea. Caraccioli requested Lieut. Parkinson, under
whose custody he was placed, to intercede with Lord Nelson for a second
trial--for this, among other reasons, that Count Thurn, who presided
at the court-martial, was notoriously his personal enemy. Nelson made
answer, that the prisoner had been fairly tried by the officers of his
own country, and he could not interfere; forgetting that, if he felt
himself justified in ordering the trial and the execution, no human
being could ever have questioned the propriety of his interfering on the
side of mercy. Caraccioli then entreated that he might be shot. "I am an
old man, sir," said he: "I leave no family to lament me, and therefore
cannot be supposed to be very anxious about prolonging my life; but the
disgrace of being hanged is dreadful to me." When this was repeated
to Nelson, he only told the lieutenant, with much agitation, to go and
attend his duty. As a last hope, Caraccioli asked the lieutenant if he
thought