CHAPTER VIII.

PASQUALE PAOLI.

Il cittadin non la città son io.

ALFIERI'S Timoleon.

WHEN Pasquale Paoli, with his brother Clement and his friends, had left Corsica, the French easily made themselves masters of the whole island. Only some single bands of guerilla carried on the struggle on the mountains. Among these, one noble champion of freedom especially deserves the love and admiration of posterity; I mean the poor priest of Guagno, Domenica Leca, of the ancient family of Giampolo. He had sworn upon the gospel to remain true to the cause of freedom, and to die rather than leave off the contest. So when the country was all subjected, and the enemy called upon him to lay down his arms, he declared that he could not break his vow. He let go those of his congregation who would not follow him any longer, and dashed to the mountains with his brave men and true. For months he kept up the contest there, fighting however only when assailed; and whenever wounded enemies fell into his hands, he cared for them with Christian compassion. He never hurt any one but in honourable fight. The French vainly urged him to come down, giving him assurances that he should live without molestation in his own village: the priest of Guagno still roved over the mountains, for he would not lose his freedom. When all his followers had forsaken him, the goatherds sustained him in life, but one day he was found dead in a cave, whence he had passed into the presence of his Lord, worn out and full of sorrows, and as a free man. Giuseppe Ottaviano Savelli, a kinsman of Paoli, and friend of Alfieri, has celebrated the memory of the priest of Guagno in a Latin poem entitled Vir nemoris, the man of the forest.

Other Corsicans also, who had gone into exile in Italy, landed here and there, and endeavoured, as their forefathers Vincentello, Renuccio, Giampolo, and Sampiero had done in the olden times, to deliver the island; but they were never successful. Many wero barbarously thrown into dungeons, and many were con

demned to the galleys of Toulon, as if they had been Helots rising against their masters. Abbatucci, one of the last to lay down arms, being convicted of high treason by false accusations, was sentenced at Bastia to be branded and sent to the galleys. But when Abbatucci was on the scaffold, the hangman had not the heart to apply the redhot iron. "Do thy duty!" cried a French judge; and the hangman turned and stretched out the iron towards the latter, as if he would fain brand the judge. Abbatucci was subsequently acquitted.

In the mean time Count de Vaux had been succeeded in the command of Corsica by Count Marbœuf. His administration was in the main beneficial; the old Corsican civil laws and statutes were retained; the committee of Twelve instituted anew, and steps taken to ensure a better jurisdiction. He also endeavoured to raise the manufactures and agriculture of the totally impoverished island. After governing Corsica for sixteen years, he died at Bastia in the year 1786.

As soon as ever the French Revolution broke out, that immense movement swallowed up all special Corsican interests; and these lovers of freedom threw themselves enthusiastically into the current of the new age. The Corsican deputy, Saliceti, made a proposal of incorporating the island of Corsica with France, that it might take part in the French constitution. This took place by virtue of a decree of the Legislative Assembly of November 30, 1789, and there was general rejoicing in Corsica on the event. This was an extraordinary reversal of the posture of events: the same France who, twenty years before, had sent out her armies to annihilate the freedom and the constitution of the Corsicans, now raised this very constitution to the throne.

The revolution recalled Pasquale Paoli from exile. He had been first to Tuscany, and thence to London, where the court and the ministers had received him with honour. He lived in London in complete retirement, and little was known of his life and his occupation. Paoli came to England quite noiselessly; the great man, who had pioneered the new career of Europe, relapsed into obscurity in his house in Oxford Street. He held no pompous declamations. He knew only how to act as a man, and how to keep a dignified silence when he could no longer act. Indeed, a school-boy of Corte had said in his presence, "If freedom were to be gained by mere speeches, all the world would be free." We may learn something from the wisdom of

R

this school-boy. When Napoleon, on board the Bellerophon, implored the hospitality of England-he, as a true Corsican, finding hospitality his last resource and hope-he compared himself to Themistocles when seeking protection: but he had no right to compare himself to the great Athenian citizen; Pasquale Paolo alone was the banished Themistocles.

Here are a couple of letters of that period.

cr

PAOLI TO HIS BROTHER CLEMENT,

(Who had remained behind in Tuscany.)

LONDON, Oct. 3, 1769.—I have received no letters from you; I fear they have been intercepted, for our enemies are on the alert. I have been well received by the king and queen. The ministers have visited me. This reception has given displeasure to some of the foreign ministers; I hear that they have complained of it to this court. I have promised to go down to the country next Sunday, to visit the Duke of Gloucester, who is very favourable to our cause. I hope to obtain something here for the support of our friends, if Vienna will do nothing. These people's eyes are now opened, and they see the importance of Corsica. The king has spoken urgently with me on the subject; with regard to my own person, his kindness quite bewildered me. My reception at court has almost drawn down upon me the anger of the opposition, so that a few of them have begun to hurl satires at me. Our enemies endeavoured to stimulate them by throwing out mysteriously, that I sold my country; that I bought an estate in Switzerland with French gold; that our estates were not meddled with by the French; that we are on terms of good understanding with the present ministers, because they too have sold themselves to France. But I think every one will now be enlightened on the subject; and every one approved my resolution to meddle with no party dealings,.but to further the principles which I approve, and in which all may combine without any sacrifice of their individual views.

"Send me an exact list of all our people who have gone into exile; we must not fear expense; and send me news of Corsica. Letters must go under the address of private friends, or they will not reach me. I enjoy perfect health. This climate seems to me as yet very mild.

"The country is always quite green.

No one who has not

seen it can have any idea of spring and loveliness. The ground of England is undulating, like the sea when raised by the wind into gentle ripples. People here, though excited by political faction, live, as regards private quarrels, as if they were the closest friends; they are philanthropic, intelligent, and generous in all their dealings; and they are happy under a constitution which could not be better. This city is a world of itself, and it is undoubtedly the finest of all cities. A whole fleet seems to be sailing up the river every minute; I believe Rome was neither larger nor richer. But what we reckon by pauls, they reckon here by guineas, that is louis d'ors. I have written for money; I would not hear of any contributions for my own support, till I know what they have decided about the other exiles; but I know they have good intentions. In case they should be unable, and we should have to tack about, they will be prepared on the outbreak of the first war. I greet you all heartily; live happily, and think not of me."

CATHERINE OF RUSSIA TO PASQUALE PAOLI.

"M. le Général de Paoli,

"ST. PETERSBURG, April 27,1770,-I have received your letter of Feb. 15, from London. All that Count Alexis Orloff has given you to understand of my good intentions towards you, is a consequence of the feelings inspired in me by your greatness of soul, and the noble manner in which you defended your country. The details of your residence at Pisa are known to me. They contain among other things the expressed respect of all who had an opportunity of knowing you. This is the reward of virtue, in whatever situation she may be placed. Be assured that I shall ever feel the most lively sympathy with your virtues.

"The impulse that occasioned your journey to England, was a natural consequence of your sentiments towards your country. Nothing is wanting to your good cause but propitious circumstances. The natural interests of our empire, closely united as they are to those of Great Britain, and the mutual amity of the two nations consequent thereon-the reception that my fleets have therefore met with, and that which both my ships in the Mediterranean and the Russian commerce may expect from a free nation standing in a friendly relation to mine-these are 80 many momenta that can only be favourable to you. So you may be assured, Sir, that I shall not leave unimproved

the opportunities which may offer for rendering you all the good services that the conjuncture may permit.

"The Turks have declared against me perhaps the unjustest war that ever was declared. I can only defend myself at the present crisis. The blessing of Heaven, which has hitherto accompanied my good cause, and which I pray God to preserve to me, shows sufficiently that justice is not defeated for long, and that perseverance, hope, and courage in the end reach their goal in this world full of trying situations. I accept with pleasure, Sir, the assurances of the attachment you are willing to bestow on me, and I entreat you to be assured of the esteem with which I remain CATHERINE."

Paoli had lived in London as an exile for twenty years, when he was recalled to his country. The Corsicans sent a deputation to him, and the French National Assembly invited him by a pompous letter to return.

On the third April, 1790, Paoli entered Paris for the first time. He was fêted here as the Washington of Europe, and Lafayette was constantly at his side. He was received with deafening acclamations and magnificent declamations by the National Assembly. He addressed to the Assembly these words :—

"Gentlemen, this day is the fairest and happiest of my life. I have passed my life in struggles for freedom; and the noblest spectacle of freedom I find here. I left my fatherland in slavery; I now find it in freedom. What have I to desire more? After an absence of twenty years, I know not what changes oppression will have wrought upon my countrymen; it cannot, alas! have been other than deleterious, since oppression always degrades its victims. But in taking the chains off the Corsicans, as you have done, you have given them their old virtues back again. You must not doubt my sentiments on returning to my fatherland. You have been magnanimous towards me, and I was never a slave. My past course of action, which you have honoured by your approval, is a guarantee for my future conduct. My whole life, I may say, has been an unbroken oath of fidelity to freedom; so it is just as if I had sworn to the constitution you have established before it existed. But it remains for me to perform this oath to the nation that adopts me, and the monarch, whom I now acknowledge. That is the favour that I demand from this august assembly."