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being now withdrawn, the military cordon of sentinels from the frontier to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.
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