wonderful spirit. They pushed the siege of Bastia with ardour, in the midst of which a felucca set on shore, at Aleria, two "officers of the Royal Corsican Guard," one of whom was the Garibaldi ancestor, Giovan Battista Sinabaldi, who brought the humiliating news of their chief being at that moment in the Amsterdam debtors' prison. The Genoese in Bastia heard of it too, and their commander caused a message to be sent in to the rebels' camp, offering pardon and peace on condition of submission. Rivarola, from his walls, could see them collecting in knots to discuss this tempting proposition, and had great hopes. Still those wonderful Corsicans only answered by a great shout of" Ŏh, long live King Theodore, our father!"

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The fight went on. The Genoese were straightened for supplies, whereas the rebels abounded in all things. Strange vessels appeared hovering off the coast, and set stores on shore; one specially brought the welcome cargo of 500 pairs of shoes, and took in oils and salt. On the 5th of January, a vessel without colours was seen to stand in close, and landed substantial supplies; a great many chests" of arms, both mounted and unmounted; 100 tons of lead, powder, &c.; six foreign officers also came, who brought letters from Theodore to his deputies. They were so delighted with their contents that Te Deums were ordered to be sung everywhere, and bonfires lighted over the island. It did look symptomatic of relief, when some of the king's "confidents and domestics" were said to be among those that arrived. A week later another vessel came with more accommodation. Emboldened by this assistance, they made a desperate attempt on a fortress in the Isola, and captured it. Their prisoners they treated well; but a lieutenant of the party, who was a deserter, and who had fled on being detected in a conspiracy against Theodore, was allowed but a quarter of an hour to live, and put to death with great cruelty. His tongue was cut out, and he was then tied to a stake and burned. The Genoese officer was obliged to look on at this spectacle, and wrote an account of it to his principal.

But now, at last, with everything

apparently in his favour, the chances of the travelling king were never so low. The King of France had determined to interfere, and it was felt from that moment that further struggle was idle. It was different dealing with the impotent little republic, now dying out in its socket, and with the great king. And, accordingly, news soon even reached them of a convention signed at Versailles, and of the arrival of a French force at Bastia, under M. de Boisseux. With him was a young M. de Contades, afterwards to turn up as marshal, and command at the battle of Minden.

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The skilful Frenchman managed things better than the clumsy Genoese. He treated with the Corsicans, showed them the final hopelessness of their struggle. Conferences were held with the chiefs, proclamations published, and there did seem some likelihood of an accommodation. The plan of the French was, as Mr. Boswell heard, to force them back under the yoke of their odious masters. The people remonstrated in what he calls a very affecting memorial," which, however, was thought too bold at Versailles; so it proved ineffectual; and Giafferi and Paoli, issuing a spirited manifesto, which finished with the well known words of Macabeeus, "It is better to die than to see the misfortunes of our country," this brave people began the fight once more-this time against two powerful foes. Their exertions with the famous Paoli attracted more conspicuous public attention, but for their earlier struggles the heroic little island deserves almost greater credit.

De Boisseux adapted his strategy to the irregular character of the war; for Mr. Boswell heard that he had actually dressed up French soldiers like natives, and thus artfully drew the islanders into all manner of fatal ambuscades. More troops arrived from France, but some of the vessels that brought them were wrecked, and furnished spoils and arms to the patriots." Finally, in 1739, De Boisseux died at Bastia, and a Marquis de Maillebois, an officer, says Boswell, in his odd way, "of great penetration and uncommon fire," arrived from France to succeed him; with his coming the whole face of the war changed.

IV.

BUT the indefatigable Theodore was all this time at work. He had managed to restore his credit-had talked round the Jews of Amsterdam, had raised moneys, and had actually chartered and freighted four vessels with cannon and other stores. He flitted through Paris, got down to Marseilles, joined his vessels in the Mediterranean, and soon Europe heard with amazement that he was again off the Corsican coast with his vessels. 'Special advices from the island," said one journal, announce positively that he had succeeded in landing on the twenty-first of the month."

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But he never went ashore. The French had made themselves felt. They had succeeded in turning the crowd against him. A price, too, was on his head; and it is a little against a true adventurer's character that he had not the boldness to cast his fortunes on the island once more. He hovered about the coast doubtfully for some days, finally saw all was lost, landed his supplies, and sailed away. The Jews had sent a supercargo of their own to look after their property; and Mr. Boswell heard in the island that Theodore had put this officer to death on the voyage to get rid of an awkward restraint upon his plans.

After this failure we again lose sight of him. The French made way. The most patriotic of the islanders gave up the struggle and left the country. Later on, when the greater war on the Emperor's death broke out, he again appeared fluttering for the coast, hoping to make his profit out of the confusion. He was said to have turned up in England, to have half persuaded Ministers of the advantage of helping him back to his island, and actually was taken out in a ship of war to the Mediterranean. Out there he passed to and fro a little wildly, could get no one to "take up" his scheme, was set on shore at Leghorn, "sent dispatches" from this to the Court of London, and finally came back there, baffled and disappointed. That was his last attempt on the Crown of Corsica. His daydream was now finally over. He was to pass out of the history of the island. The air is so misty, as we look back on

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his short but exciting race, that it becomes hard to form a judgment as to whether he is to have true historic dignity, to take rank above a mere vulgar and - unsuccessful-adventurer. A good test is the impression he left behind him, and this Boswell gathered up only a few years after his departure, when it was still fresh. Some," he says, "who had most faith in his fine speeches, still extol him to the skies to support their own judgment; others who looked on him as an impostor represent him as a kind of Wat Tyler, a King of Rabble. But the more moderate, and Paoli himself, were inclined to judge favourably of him, and owned that he had been of great use in stirring up the spirit and courage of the country."

He was now to subside into that secure but humiliating character, the Adventurer in London," about which capital he fluttered hopelessly. He lived in lodgings in Mount-street, Grosvenor-square, which we may be sure were mean lodgings, though even then in a good quarter. He was occasionally asked out, and Mr. Walpole told Boswell that he once met him at a lady's house, but he never opened his mouth, from " dulness or pride," said Mr. Walpole. "But," added Mr. Boswell with more charity and with more probability, "I suppose he had been so dejected and so much hurt by his misfortunes, that he was become sullen and indifferent.' Perhaps, too, he was at that time getting deeply into debt, for presently it was to read in the papers, that

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once

this day" had been cast for a debt of £100. (His son says £450). For this he was arrested and committed to the King's Bench Prison; and this was the issue of the "crowbill cane," and the scarlet robe à la Franque !” Poor adventurer! His son hints plainly that the Genoese minister in London, acting on instructions, had secretly furnished him with credit to this amount, in order to get him thus quietly into confinement-a skilful device, which had its effect.

While there, a few charitable people occasionally sent him aid. Among these were Lord Granville and Lady Yarmouth. His son, Colonel Frederick, the poor "Prince of Caprera," was now in London, with a family, "giving lessons in French, German, and Italian,” ac

cording to the true reduced foreigner's pattern, and he helped his father with what he could spare out of the fruit of the lessons. This son had fought well in the island after his father had gone, but had been obliged to surrender to the French.

V.

FINALLY, Mr. Walpole, hearing of his state, and possibly looking out for something to patronize, wrote a sort of "appeal" for him in the "World," which we would set down as a specimen of exceedingly bad taste and misplaced banter, but that it may be suspected he conceived it was the most effectual tone for making an appeal successful with the public. It appeared in the "World," No. viii. of Thursday, February 22, 1753. In his marshalsea he became a sort of lion, and was treated with mock dignity. His behaviour, indeed, recalls a certain more famous "Father of the marshalsea," who figures only in fiction. He, like Mr. Dorrit, is said "to have maintained a stately port," and to have received "testimonials," sitting in state under the top of " half tester bed." He even used to knight certain persons, and add to the 66 Order of Deliverance;" and there was an old gentleman alive in the year 1800, who had received this honour, and had paid the fees of office. He was always known facetiously among his friends as Sir Michael;" " and a 66 Doctor Miller of Maidstone," who had been kind to the poor adventurer in his jail, had been gratefully presented with the sword with which these distinctions had been conferred.

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Mr. Walpole's appeal produced but fifty pounds. "His Majesty's character is so bad," said the great letterwriter, possibly chagrined at the ill success of his appeal in "weekly papers that are much in fashion," and in which Lords Bath and Chesterfield were writing. Dodsly at the Tully's Head was treasurer, and it is said that the poor prisoner was so disappointed that, after receiving the amount, he actually sent a solicitor to threaten the printer for having dared to use his name. "It would, indeed, have made an excellent suit," adds Walpole-"a printer prosecuted suppose for having solicited and obtained charity for a man in prison, and that

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man not mentioned by his right name, but by a mock title, and the man himself not a native of the country! But I have done with countenancing kings!" But though he calls it " dirty knavery," we cannot accept that rather harsh description of what seems to be more the pettishness of one that had known better days, and was sensitive on the score of his position. It fell in, too, very much with that Dorrit character of which there was such a strong leaven in him.

Many people knew him in these straights, and visited him. Dr. Nugent, of the Literary Club, when on his travels, entertained a little foreign Court one evening at dinner, with what he knew personally of the poor prisoner. Voltaire introduced him into his gay, unapproachable satire, Candide, among the four uncrowned kings, or kings that ought to have had crowns, who met by a sort of accident at a coffee-house, and makes the others join in a subscription for Theodore, his case being the hardest of all. His granddaughter had actually the "day-rule," which allowed him to go out upon business, which in itself is a curiosity “BANC. R.—The bearer, Theodore, Baron de Newhoff and de Stein, hath this day a rule of court to go out of the prison of the King'sbench granted to him, to transact his affairs. Dated this 12th day of February, 1753. (Signed), LAW. COTTAM.'

Two years later came the next step -an act of insolvency; and he was actually allowed to carry out the masquerade to the end, by "giving up" his kingdom of Corsica for the benefit of his creditors. A copy of this legal document reads curiously; and it will be seen the law declines to admit the theatrical element, sternly calling a spade a spade—that is, styles him " a German from Westphalia.' "Copy of the Act of Renunciation of the Kingdom of Corsica by Theodore I. in behalf of his Creditors.

About the same time the following advertisement appeared in the public advertiser:-

"An Address to the Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain, in the behalf of Theodore, Baron de Newhoff.

"The Baron, through a long imprisonment, being reduced to very great extremities, his case is earnestly recommended for a contribution to be raised to enable him to return to his own country, having obtained his liberty by the late Act of Parliament. In the late war in Italy the Baron gave manifest proofs of his affection for England; and as the motives of his coming here are so well known, it is hoped all true friends to freedom will be excited to assist a brave, though unfortunate man, who wishes to have an opportunity of testifying his gratitude to the British nation.

"Those who are pleased to contribute on this occasion are desired to deposit their benefactions in the hands of Sir Charles Argyll, Alderman, and Company, bankers, in Lombard-street, or with Messrs. Campbell and Coutts, bankers, in the Strand."

It is to Walpole's credit, that though he had "done with countenancing kings," he was not too proud to make this second appeal; and his behaviour on this occasion should be considered as a fair test of his conduct in the Chatterton episode.

The insolvent ex-king did not, however, at once quit his prison, but lingered on there till the December of that year (1756), when he one day called a chair for a ride, and not having money to pay, bid the men carry him to the Portuguese Minister's in Audley-street. That minister not being at home, he got them to take him to an obscure tailor's at No. 5, Little Chapel-street, Soho, who had known him in days perhaps something better. This man humanely took him in. The wretched king was ill at the time, and died in a few days, on December the eleventh.

There were 66 difficulties about his burial," says one of the accounts, with an ambiguity that is not hard to interpret. But over this last dismal ceremony an air of burlesque was to be cast. A Mr. Wright, "an opulent oilman in Compton-street," announced that he was determined for once in his life to have the honour of burying a king! And Mr. Charron, an artist, whose father and mother lived near Soho, recollected perfectly seeing the corpse lying in state! The whole was an indecent jest, overlaying, perhaps, a little humanity.

The undertaker's bill has been preserved; and it will be seen that the opulent oilman" did not discharge all his liability :

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UNDERTAKER'S BILL (copied from the original).-Joseph Hubbard, coffin-maker, undertaker, and sworn appraiser, at the Four Coffins and Crown in New-street, near Bread-street, Carnaby-market, St. James's, Westminster, performs funerals, both public and private, at reasonable rates, and as cheap as anywhere in London. N.B.Buys and sells all manner of household furniture.

For the Funeral of Baron Newhoff, King of Corsica, interred in St. Ann's Ground, December 15, 1756:

To a large elm coffin, covered with

superfine black cloth, finished with double rows of brass nails, a large plate of inscription, two cup coronets, gilt, four pair of Chinese contrast handles, gilt,