Murat became engaged in hostilities with Austria, then in alliance with England.  Macirone was furnished with a passport for himself as envoy of the Allied Powers, and provided with another passport for Murat, under the name of Count Lipona, to be used by him in case he abandoned his claim to the throne of Naples.  Murat indignantly declined the proposal, and took refuge in Corsica.  Yet Macirone delivered to Murat the passport.  Not only so, but he deliberately misled Captain Bastard, the commander of a small English squadron which had been stationed at Bastia to intercept Murat in the event of his embarking for the purpose of regaining his throne at Naples.  Murat embarked, landed in Italy without interruption, and was soon after defeated and taken prisoner.  He thereupon endeavoured to use the passport which Macirone had given him, to secure his release, but it was too late; he was tried and shot at Pizzo.  The reviewer spoke of Colonel Macirone in no very measured terms.  “For Murat,” he said, “we cannot feel respect, but we feel very considerable pity.  Of Mr. Macirone we are tempted to predict that he has little reason to apprehend the honourable mode of death which was inflicted on his master. His vocation seems to be another kind of exit.”

Macirone gave notice of an action for damages, and claimed no less than L10,000.  Serjeant Copley (afterwards Lord Lyndhurst), then Solicitor-General, and Mr. Gurney, were retained for Mr. Murray by his legal adviser Mr. Sharon Turner.

The case came on, and on the Bench were seated the Duke of Wellington, Lord Liverpool, and other leading statesmen, who had been subpoenaed as witnesses for the defence.  One of the Ridgways, publishers, had also been subpoenaed with an accredited copy of Macirone’s book; but it was not necessary to produce him as a witness, as Mr. Ball, the counsel for Macirone, quoted passages from it, and thus made the entire book available as evidence for the defendant, a proceeding of which Serjeant Copley availed himself with telling effect.  He substantiated the facts stated in the Quarterly article by passages quoted from Colonel Macirone’s own “Memoirs.”  Before he had concluded his speech, it became obvious that the Jury had arrived at the conclusion to which he wished to lead them; but he went on to drive the conclusion home by a splendid peroration. [Footnote:  Given in Sir Theodore Martin’s “Life of Lord Lyudhurst,” p. 170.] The Jury intimated that they were all agreed; but the Judge, as a matter of precaution, proceeded to charge them on the evidence placed before them; and as soon as he had concluded, the Jury, without retiring from the box, at once returned their verdict for the defendant.

Although Mr. Murray had now a house in the country, he was almost invariably to be found at Albemarle Street.  We find, in one of his letters to Blackwood, dated Wimbledon, May 22, 1819, the following:  “I have been unwell with bile and rheumatism, and have come to a little place here, which I have bought lately, for a few days to recruit.”