with from the French commissary who attends him, and others who are appointed to thwart his wishes, and contradict him on frivolous and vexatious pretexts. When the King, three days since, talked of going on his journey to Leghorn, the Commissary Chiboux said to him, ‘Vous ne partirez point, ce n’est pas à vous à commander, c’est à vous à reçevoir nos ordres.’ I am sorry to say his Majesty is not better treated by Venturi, a jacobin nobleman.”
“Feb. 16, 1799.– His Sardinian Majesty proposes sailing to-morrow, or next day at latest, from Leghorn, if the wind permits. His cruel situation could not fail to call forth the feelings of any man who possesses loyalty and honour. I therefore proposed and concerted with a person in H.M. confidence, to secure the Royal family from any future insults on their passage by sea; and the same person was accordingly employed by me, to arrange with Captain Louis a mode of escorting the King and his suite to Cagliari in such a manner that the French commissary should not know an English ship was engaged to attend on the voyage. We had some idea of an intent of the enemy to intercept H.M. on the passage by their privateers; and the noted Franceschi, chief of the French and Corsican marauders in these seas, had been peculiarly active of late in arming and equipping a number of vessels best suited for resistance, apparently in concert with the French commissary and consul. The total impossibility of knowing how events might turn out after the King’s landing in Sardinia, has induced H.M. to negotiate with me for the security of his person, and the protection of the only state which now remains to him. I cannot sufficiently commend Captain Louis for his generous zeal and kind concurrence iu this affair.”
The King of Sardinia was not able to sail from Leghorn until the 23d of February. On his arrival at Cagliaria his Majesty published a protest against the conduct of the French, dated March 3, 1799, in which he declared, “Upon the faith and word of a King, that he not only had never infringed, even in the slightest degree, the treaties that had been made with the French republic; but, on the contrary, had observed them with such scrupulous exactness, and with such demonstrations of amity and condescension, as far exceeded the obligations he had contracted.”
The arrival of the expected convoy, March 14, only served to encrease the alarm of the Tuscan government. Upwards of 1,000 French had already arrived at Pistoia, and other detachments were on their march to that place. A large body of horse and foot, with artillery, had set out from Bologna for Florence; and two frigates were cruising off Genoa, for the purpose of co-operating in an attack on Leghorn.
In the midst of this consternation, intelligence was re-
