ushered them in himself and returnd in half an hour to ask what they would have for supper; when to his great astonishment and mortification, they referred him for the arrangement of the supper to the vetturino, saying that they were spesati.  He then began to curse and swear, said that they should not have that room, and wanted to turn them out of it forcibly; but my friend Major G——­ took up one of his pistols, which were lying on the table, and told the innkeeper that if he did not cease to molest them and instantly quit the room, he would blow out his brains.  This threat had the desired effect, and he withdrew.  It appears that this fellow has in the end outwitted himself, for most people now, who travel on this road in their own carriage, chuse to travel with a vetturino and his horses and are spesati, solely in order to avoid the extortion practised upon them.

We arrived at Naples on the 29th October without accident.  A buona grazia of a scudo at the frontier obviated the delay which would otherwise have occurred in examining our baggage by the douaniers.  I put up at No 1 Largo St Anna di Palazzo, near the Strada di Toledo, at the house of one Berlier, who had been a domestic of poor Murat’s.  The Austrian troops being now withdrawn, the military cordon of sentinels from the frontier to Naples is kept up by the Neapolitan troops; but what a contrast between the vigilance of the Austrian sentinels, and the negligence of the Neapolitans!  The last time I travelled on this road, I never failed, after dusk, to hear the shout of Wer da? of the Austrian sentries, long before I came up to them, and I always found them alert.  Now that the cordon was Neapolitan, I always found the sentries either asleep, or playing at cards with their companion (the sentries being double), both having left their arms at the place where they were posted.  At night I have no doubt they all fall asleep, so that three or four active banditti might come and cut the throats of the whole chain of sentries in detail.

30th October, 1818.

I have begun my course of water drinking at the fountain of Sta Lucia.  Since I was here the last time, the theatre of St Carlo has been finished and I went to visit it the second night after my arrival.  It is a noble theatre and of immense size, larger it is said than the Scala at Milan, tho’ it does not appear so.  The profusion of ornament and gilding serves to diminish the appearance of its magnitude.  It is probably now the most magnificent theatre in Europe.  The performance was Il Babiere di Siviglia by Rossini, and afterwards a superb Ballo taken closely from Coleman’s Blue-Beard and arranged as a Ballo by Vestris.  The only difference lies in the costume and the scenery; for here the Barbe Bleue, instead of being a Turkish Pacha, as in Coleman’s piece, is a Chinese Mandarin, and the decorations are all Chinese.