with punishment, for having hindered him in the execution of his office. This provoked the villagers, and they drove him away with stones. The Genoese sent troops to support their collector, and the Corsicans assembled in large bodies to defend themselves. The tumult encreased. A spark was sufficient to kindle the generous flame, in a people, who had so often glowed with the enthusiasm of liberty; and in a very short time, the whole island was in motion.
The Corsicans immediately rushed upon the capital, which they took almost without resistance; and they would have been masters of the castle of Corte, had they been a little better regulated.
They saw it was necessary to put themselves under the direction of certain chiefs. They therefore chose Signor Andrea Geccaldi, one of the highest nobility in the kingdom, and Signor Luiggi Giafferi, not indeed of the first rank, but who had a number of relations, a spirit, warm to a degree of fanaticism, against the republick, and the most steady and undaunted resolution. To these was joined, Signor Domenico Raffalii, a worthy and, learned ecclesiastick, as a sort of president of justice, whole wisdom might preserve order in their administration, and whole religion might temper the violence of their measures, by principles of conscience.
