Satisfied with his work, Colonel Peard, who knew that there were Neapolitan troops within four miles of Eboli, and who did not think that things looked entirely reassuring, decided to beat a somewhat precipitous retreat.  He told the Syndic that he was going to reconnoitre in the direction of Salerno, and that his departure must be kept a dead secret, but as soon as he was out of the town he turned the horses’ heads backwards towards the Garibaldian lines.  He was still accompanied by Commander Forbes, to whom, during their midnight drive, he related his performance on the telegraph wires.  ’What on earth is the good of all this?’ said Forbes; ’you don’t imagine they will be fools enough to believe it?’ ‘You will see,’ answered the colonel, ’it will frighten them to death, and to-morrow they will evacuate Salerno.’  And, in fact, at four o’clock in the morning the evacuation was begun in obedience to telegraphic orders from Naples.

The 30,000 men recalled from Salerno and the adjacent districts marched towards Capua.  The river Volturno, which runs by that fortified town, was now chosen as the line of defence of the Bourbon monarchy.

On the 5th of September the King and Queen with the Austrian, Prussian, Bavarian and Spanish ministers, left Naples for Gaeta on board a Spanish man-of-war.  The King issued a proclamation of which the language was dignified and even pathetic:  it is believed to have been written by Liborio Romano, the Prime Minister, who was at the same moment betraying his master.  Be that as it may, the King’s farewell to his subjects and fellow-citizens might have touched hearts of stone could they but have forgotten the record of the hundred and twenty-six years of rule to which he fondly alluded.  As it was, in the vast crowds that watched him go, there was not found a man who said, ‘God bless him;’ not a woman who shed a tear.  Had any one of the bullets aimed at Ferdinand II. taken fatal effect, it would have been a less striking punishment for his political sins than this leaden weight of indifference which descended on his son.

In the Royal Proclamation Francis II. stated that he had adhered to the great principles of Italian nationality, and had irrevocably surrounded his throne with free institutions; nevertheless it is alleged on what seems good authority that in those last days he veered round to the party of the Queen Dowager, who was doing all she could to provoke the lazzaroni to reaction.  It was also believed at Naples that he left orders for Castel Sant’ Elmo to bombard the town if Garibaldi entered.

The Dictator was so much pleased with Colonel Peard’s telegraphic feats at Eboli, that he sent him on to Salerno to repeat the farce.  Peard’s despatches determined the departure of the Court, and it was to him (in the belief that he was Garibaldi) that Liborio Romano, three hours before the King embarked, addressed the celebrated telegram invoking the ‘most desired presence’ of the Dictator in Naples.  With