Catch of Capri

Catch of Capri

Circumstances

When the French troops invade the kingdom of Naples to drive out Ferdinand IV and his wife Marie-Caroline, the sister of Marie-Antoinette, the latter took refuge in Sicily, protected by a British fleet , whose detachment seized the island of Capri.

The island, old den of the emperor Tibère, is a true fortress defended by the British general Hudson Lowe, the future governor of Sainte-Hélène and its 2000 men.

The catch of Capri has, for Joachim Murat, two objectives. First of all, it is a question of releasing part of its territory and of thus ensuring the safety of the maritime trade between the north of the kingdom and the south.

The other objective is symbolic system: to show on its subjects which he is their single sovereign and who the Bourbon S of Naples truly “ceased reigning”.

As of the October 4th 1808, i.e. less than one month after the arrival of the new king, 2000 men ordered by the general Jean-Maximilien Lamarque unload on the island which capitulates the 17. To celebrate this supposed victory to confirm the unit of Neapolitan, Murat amnesties the exiled political ones.

Ordering forwarding against Capri (new Gibraltar) which ordered to sir Hudson Lowe, the future geôlier of Sainte-Hélène.

Spéronare

We find an account of this forwarding in Spéronare of Alexandre Dumas; it is an account eloquent and dramatic, as all that leaves the feather of this writer.

“For two years already the French had been Masters of the Royaume of Naples, for fifteen days Murat had been king, and however Caprée still belonged to the English. Twice its predecessor Joseph Bonaparte had tried the conquest of it, and twice the storm, this eternal allied of the England, had dispersed its vessels.

“It was a terrible sight for Murat that of this island which closed to him its roads as with an iron chain; also the morning, when the sun rose behind Sorrente, it was this island which attracted its eyes first of all; and the evening, when the sun lay down behind Procida, it was still this island which fixed its glance.

“Has each hour of the day, Murat, questioned those which surrounded it at the place of this island, and he learned on the precautions taken by Hudson Lowe, its commander, of the almost fabulous things. Indeed, Hudson Lowe had not trusted this inaccessible belt of rocks with peak which surrounds it, and which sufficed for Tibère; four new forts had been added by him to the forts which existed already; it had made erase by the pickaxe and break by the mine the paths which curved around the chasms, and where the chevriers themselves dared to pass only barefeet; finally it granted a premium of Guinea to each man who arrived, in spite of the monitoring of the sentinels, to be introduced into the island by some voie' which had been still open to others only him.

“As for the material forces of the island, Hudson Lowe had at its disposal 2.000 soldiers and 40 pieces of ordnance, who, igniting, were going to carry alarm in the island of Ponza, where the English had with the anchor five frigates always ready to run where the gun called them.

“Of similar difficulties had rejected other very that Murat, but Murat was the man of the impossible things. Murat had sworn that it would take Caprée, and though it had made this oath only for three days, it already believed to have missed with its word, when, the Lamarque general arrived. Lamarque had just taken Gaëte and Maratea; Lamarque had just delivered eleven engagements and to subject three provinces, Lamarque was well the man who it was necessary for Murat; also, without anything to say to him, Murat led it to the window, gave to him glasses between the hands and the island showed him.

“Lamarque looked at one moment, saw the English flag which floated on the forts of San Salvador and Saint-Michel, one in another recessed with the palm of its hand the four tubes of the glasses, and known as: Yes, I include/understand; it would have to be taken. “- Eh well? murât began again. “- Eh well! answered Lamarque, one will take it. Here all. “- And when that? asked Murât. “- Tomorrow, if your majesty wants it. “- Per good hour, known as the king, here one of these answers as I like them. And how much men do you want? “- How much are they? asked Lamarque. “- Two thousand, about. “- Eh well! that your majesty gives me 15 to 1.800 men; that it enables me to choose them among those which I bring him: they know me; I know them. We will be done all to kill until the last, or we will take the island.

“Murat, for any answer, tightened the hand with Lamarque. It was what he would have said being general; it was what it was ready to make being king. Then both separated, Lamarque to choose its men, Murat to join together the boats.

“As of the following day, October 1808, all was ready, soldiers and vessels. In the evening, forwarding left the roads. Some precaution which one had taken to keep the secrecy, the secrecy had been spread: all the city was on the port, greeting voice this small fleet. who left gaîment and full with carefree woman confidence to achieve a thing which one looked like impossible.

“Soon the wind, favorable initially, started to weaken: the small fleet had not made ten miles which it fell completely. One walked to the oar; but the oar is slow, and the day appeared that one was still with two miles of Caprée. Then, as if it had been necessary to still fight against all impossibilities, came the storm. The floods broke with such an amount of violence against the rocks with peak which surround the island, that it did not have average there, during all the morning to approach some. At two hours the sea was calmed. At three hours the first blows of gun were exchanged between bombard Neapolitan and the batteries of the port; the cries of the 400.000 hearts, widespread since Mergellina until Portici, answered them.

“Indeed, it was a marvellous spectacle which the new king gave to his new capital: itself, with a long sight, was held on the terrace of the palate. Boats one saw all this crowd staged with the various steps of the immense circus whose sea was the arena. César, Auguste, Néron, had given on their subjects only huntings, fights of gladiators or naumachies, Murat gave to his a true battle.

“The sea had returned quiet like a lake. Lamarque left its bombard and its launches drain-holes with the catches with the batteries of the fort, and with its boats of soldiers it skirted the island: everywhere rocks with peak bathed in water their gigantic walls; nowhere a point where to approach. The flotilla made the turn of the island without recognizing a place where to put the foot. A body of 1.200 English, following eyes all its movements, made the turn at the same time as it.

“One moment it was believed that all was finished and that it would be necessary to turn over to Naples without anything to undertake. The soldiers offered to attack the fort; but Lamarque shook the head: it was a foolish attempt. Consequently, it gave the order to make one second time the turn of the island, to see whether some point would not be found accessible and who had escaped with the first glance.

“There was in one returning, with the foot of strong Holy-Bores, a place where the granitic rampart had only 40 to 45 feet of rise. Below this wall, smooth like a marble polished, extended a so fast slope, that in the first sight one had certainly not believed that men could climb it. Above this slope, with 300 feet of the rock, was a species of ravine, and 200 feet higher still, the strong one Holy-Bores, whose batteries beat the slope while passing over the ravine in which the balls could not plunge.

“Lamarque stopped opposite returning, called with him the Thomas adjudant-general and the major Livron. All three held council one moment; then they asked scales.

“One drew up the first scale against the rock: it hardly reached with the third its height, one added one second scale to the first, one ensured it with cords, and one drew up them again both: it was lacking some twelve or fifteen feet, though joined together one with the other; that they reached the slope; one added a third of it; one fixes it to both others with the same precaution that one had taken for the second, then one measured the height again: this time the last levels touched with the peak of the wall. LesAnglais looked at making all these preparations with an air of amazement which stated clearly that a similar attempt seemed to them foolish. As for the soldiers, they exchanged between them a smile which meant: good, it will be hot presently.

“A soldier put the foot on the scale: You are quite in a hurry tells him the Lamarque general in behind drawing breadth, and it took its place. The very whole flotilla beat hands. The Lamarque general assembled the first, and all those which were in the same boat followed it. Six men held the foot of the scale, which wavered with each flood that the sea came to break against the rock. One had said an immense snake which drew up its ondiileux rings against the wall.

“As long as these strange escaladeurs had not reached the slope, they were protected against fire from the English by the perpendicularity even of the wall which they climbed; but hardly the Lamarque general had it reaches the peak of the rock, that the shooting and the gun burst at the same time: on the first fifteen men who approached, ten fell precipitated. With these fifteen men twenty others succeeded, followed from forty, followed from one hundred. The English had made a movement for les' well to push back with the bayonet; but the slope that the attackers climbed was so fast, which they did not dare to venture there. It resulted from it that the Lamarque general and a hundred men, in the middle of a rain of grapeshot and balls gained the ravine, and there, with the shelter as behind a shoulder, were formed in group. Then the English charged on them to flush out them; but they were accepted by such a shooting that they were withdrawn in disorder. During this time the rise continued and five hundred men about had already taken ground.

“It was four hours and half evening. The Lamarque general ordered to cease the rise: he was enough strong to be maintained where he was, and, frightened devastation which the artillery and the shooting made among its men, he wanted to wait harms it to complete the perilous unloading. The order was carried by the Thomas adjudant-general, who crossed one second time the slope under the fire of the enemy, gained against any hope the scale without accident no, and went down again towards the flotilla of which it took the command, and which it put safe from any danger in the small bay which formed returning it of the rock.

“Then the enemy joins together all his efforts against the small troop cut off in the ravine. Five times thirteen or fourteen hundred English broke against Lamarque and its five hundred men. On these entrefaites the night arrived: it was the moment agreed upon to start again the rise. This time, like had envisaged it the general Lamarque, it took place more easily than the first. The English continued well to draw, but the darkness prevented them from drawing with the same accuracy. To the great astonishment of the soldiers, this time the Thomas adjudant-general assembled the last; but one did not delay to have the explanation of this control: arrived at the top of the rock, it reversed the scale behind him, at once the boats gained the broad one and took again the road of Naples. Lamarque, to secure the victory, had been just removed any means of retirement.

“The two troops were of equal number, the attackers having lost three hundred men about: also Lamarque did not hesitate, and, putting the small army battles about it in greatest silence, it went right to the enemy without allowing that only one rifle shot answered the fire of the English.

“The two troops ran up, the bayonets crossed, one shaped with body; the guns of strong Holy-Bores died out, because French and English had mixed so much that one could not draw on the ones without drawing at the same time on the others. The fight lasted three hours; during three hours one stabbed oneself with bearing end. At the end of three hours, the colonel Hansell was killed, five hundred English had fallen with him, the remainder was wrapped. A regiment was made entire: it was the Royal-Malta. Last nine hundred men were made prisoners by eleven hundreds. They were disarmed, one threw their sabers and their rifles with the sea; three hundred men remained to keep them, the eight hundred others walked against the fort.

This time there were not even more scales. Fortunately the walls were low; besieging on the shoulders from/to each other went up. After a two hours defense, the fort was taken: one made there enter the prisoners and one locked up them there.

“The crowd which furnished the quays, the windows and the terraces of Naples, curious and avid, had remained in spite of the night: in the middle of darkness, she had seen the mountain then igniting like a volcano; but over the two hours of the morning, the flames were extinct, without one knowing who victorious or was overcome. Then concern did what curiosity had done; crowd remained until the day. At the day, one saw the Neapolitan flag floating on the strong one Holy-Bores. An immense acclamation, pushed by four hundred and thousand people resounds of Sorrente to Misène, and the gun of the Château Saint-Elme, dominating of his deep ringing voice all these human voices, brought to Lamarque the first thanks of its king.

However the work was only with made half; for being gone up it was necessary to go down, and this operation was less difficult than the first. Of all the paths which led Anacapri to Capri, Hudson-Lowe had let remain only one staircase: however, this staircase, that the chasms border constantly, broad hardly so that two men can descend it from face, unrolled its four hundred and eighty steps with half-range of gun of twelve parts the thirty-six one and twenty launches drain-holes.

Nevertheless time ago to lose, and this Lamarque time could not wait the night; one discovered at the horizon all the English fleet that the noise of the gun had attracted out of the port of Ponza. It was necessary to seize the shore before the arrival of this fleet, or without that it as many threw in the island three times men as that had some which had come to take it, and obliged, in front of the so higher forces, to contain itself in the strong one Holy-Bores, the winners were forced to go or to die there of hunger.

“The general left hundred men of garrison in the strong one Holy-Bores, and with the thousand men who remained to him, the descent tried. It was ten hours of the morning, Lamarque did not have average anything to hide with the enemy; it was necessary to complete as one had started, through audacity. It divided its small troop into three bodies, took the command of the first, gave the second to the Thomas adjudant-general and the third with the major Lérion; then, with the step of load and beating drum, it started to go down.

“This had to be something of alarming to see that this avalanche of men ruant itself by this staircase thrown on the abyss, and that under the fire from sixty to eighty parts of gun. Two hundreds were precipitated which was only wounded perhaps, and which was crushed in their fall; eight hundreds arrived at bottom and were spread in what is called the Grande Navy . There one was with the shelter of fire, but all was to be still started again, or rather nothing was completed: it was necessary to take Capri, the principal fortress, and strong the Saint-Michel and San-El Salvador.

“Then, and after the work of courage, work came from patience: four hundred men are reflected with work; in front of the thermal baths of Tibère, whose powerful ruins protected them from artillery from the fortress, they started to dig a small port, while the four hundred others, finding in their embrasures the enemy guns, turned the ones towards the city and prepared batteries of breach, turned the others towards the vessels which one saw arriving fighting against the head wind, and prepared teeth and nail.

“The port was completed around the two hours of the afternoon; then one saw to advance point of Campanetta the returned boats the day before and which returned charged with vivres, of ammunition and artillery. The Lamarque general chooses twelve parts of 24.400 men harnessed himself there, and through the rocks, by paths which they cut through themselves without the knowledge of the enemy, trailed them at the top of the mount Salaro which dominates the city and the two forts. The evening, at six hours, the twelve parts were out of battery. Sixty to eighty men remained to serve them; the others went down and joined their companions.

“But, during this time, a strange thing took place. In spite of the head wind, the fleet had arrived at range of gun and had begun fire. Six frigates, five brigs, twelve bombard and sixteen launches drain-holes besieged besieging them which, at the same time, were defended against the fleet and attacked the city. On these entrefaites, the darkness came; force was to stop the combat; Naples looked in vain of all its eyes, this night the volcano was extinguished or rested.

“In spite of the sea, the storm, the wind, the English managed during the night to throw in the island 200 gunners and 500 men of infantry. Besieged were thus then nearly a third stronger than besieging them. “The day came: with the day the cannonade woke up between the fleet and the coast, enters, the coast and the ground. The three forts answered of their better this attack which, divided, was less dangerous for them, when suddenly something as a storm burst above their heads: an iron rain crushed with half-range the gunners on their parts. In fact the twelve parts of 24 thundered at the same time.

“In less than one hour, the fire of the three forts was extinct; at the end of two hours, the battery of the coast had practiced a breach. The Lamarque general left 100 men to serve the parts which were to hold, the fleet in respect, put himself at the head of the 600 others and ordered the attack.

“In this moment, a white house was hoisted on the fortress. Hudson Lowe required to capitulate. 1.300 men, supported by a fleet of forty with forty-five veils, offered to go to 700, reserving themselves that the retirement with weapons and luggage. Hudson Lowe was committed moreover making return the fleet in the port of Ponza. The capitulation was too advantageous to be refused; the 900 prisoners of strong Holy-Bores were brought together with their 1.300 companions. At midday, the 2.200 men of Hudson-Lowe left the Island, giving up in Lamarque and its 800 soldiers the place, the artillery and the ammunition.

“Twelve years later, Hudson Lowe ordered in another island, not this time as governor, but of geôlier, and its prisoner, as an insult which was to compensate for all tortures that it had made him suffer, threw to him to the face this ashamed rendering of Caprée. ”

The forwarding of Caprée had lasted thirteen days, the capitulation having taken place only the October 17th.

Source

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