i

The viceroy stood ready at the top of the ftair-cafe to receive them. As foon as Mafaniello saw him, he threw himself at his feet, and having kiffed them, and thanked his Excellency, in the name of all the people, for his gracious approbation of the treaty, he told him he was come there to receive whatever sentence his Excellency fhould think fit to pass upon him. The viceroy, with the diffimulation of a true courtier, raised him up, and embracing him, answered, "That he was happy to fee him there; and fo far from thinking him criminal, that he would certainly give him daily proofs of his favour and esteem." To this Mafaniello replied, "that God could witnefs for him, that the only scope and end of all his defigns was the service of the King and his Excellency."

Thefe mutual falutations being ended, the viceroy, the archbishop, and Masaniello, retired into a private apartment, in order to confult what were the beft measures to be pursued in the present posture of affairs.

During this conference, an incident happened which fufficiently gave the Spaniards to understand how much Mafaniello was efteemed by the people, and how anxious they

were

Such were the effects of the viceroy's illtimed lenity; and alike fatal will the confequences most affuredly be, whenever the mob, through the instigation of the designing or the defperate, are excited to tumult, and fuffered to get the upperhand. Better were a few worthlefs lives loft at first, through a firm and manly exertion of the governing powers, than that the fober and peaceable should be fubject to the horrible depredations and maffacres that attend an extinction of that due fubordination which can alone enfure peace and happiness.

On the morning of the 10th of July, Mafaniello made a general review of thofe under his command, and found them to amount to one hundred and fourteen thousand men, armed and embodied, befides a great number of citizens that were not inrolled.

While this was going on, the archbishop exerted himself with the viceroy to bring about the wifhed-for accommodation; and the original charters of Ferdinand and Charles being now found, things were in a good train, and there appeared a probability of feeing the distractions which reigned, at an end. The rabble, fatisfied with the vengeance they had

had taken, and dazzled by the profpect of fo many immunities and privileges as they were on the point of enjoying, abated of their former fury, and even fighed after peace: but a fatal and unexpected accident entirely ruined thefe good difpofitions, and blew up the flames of difcord to a greater height than ever.

Juft at the very time when the marketplace, as well as the church and convent of Carmine, were crowded with an infinite number of people, who all waited with impatience to learn the fuccefs of the pending negociation; about five hundred banditti, well armed and mounted, came into the marketplace, where they were received with demonftrations of joy, upon their giving out, "that they had been fent for by Dominico Perrone, (the perfon mentioned before as the third in command), and were come for the service of the most faithful people; which was the denomination the rabble gave themselves.

As foon as Mafaniello faw the new comers, he thanked them for their good will, and, telling them to alight, appointed them different quarters of the city, where they fhould expect his further orders, on foot: upon which Perrone, who was by, told him, that he judged

tending to restore order and tranquillity, and at the fame time to eftablish the rights he had obtained for the people upon a solid foundation. Thefe proclamations, which were fubfcribed Thomas Aniello d'Amalphi, head and captain-general of the most faithful people of Naples, were obeyed with wonderful exactness, by perfons of every rank and quality.

We now fee this extraordinary man arrived at the highest pitch of his glory. We fee him exalted from the ftate of a poor fisherman, to an eminence that has immortalized his name, and which has procured him a place among our inftances of the mutability of fortune.

Sunday the 13th of July was the great day in which the treaty that had been entered into between the viceroy and the people was to be ratified in the cathedral. Mafaniello fpent the morning in hearing caufes, redreffing grievances, and making regulations relative to the affairs of the city, both civil and military.

Immediately after dinner, the viceroy having fent a pair of very fine horfes, richly

caparifoned,

caparifoned, for the General and his brother to appear on at the cavalcade; they mounted, both dreffed in cloth of filver tiffue, and moved flowly towards the caftle; the former bearing a drawn fword in his hand, the latter the articles of capitulation. From thence, after being joined by the viceroy and his whole court, they proceeded to the church, where his Excellency, and all the great officers of state, swore upon the holy evangelists to obferve inviolably the conditions of the treaty.

All the time the articles were reading, Mafaniello ftood up, with his fword drawn in his hand, and was very bufy in explaining fome of them to the people, and enlarging upon others. others. As soon as the oath had been administered, and the Te Deum fung, he made a long harangue, fometimes addreffing himself to the viceroy, and fometimes to the multitude, and confounding several good things with many fenfelefs and impertinent

ones.

Having finished his difcourfe, he began to tear in pieces the rich drefs he had on, and defired the archbishop and viceroy to help him off with it, faying, "That as he had only