Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/637

Rh MASANIELLO 007 fruit should pay the tax. Finally the owner of the fruit (said to have been a kinsman of Masaniello) upset his basket, saying he would sooner let the people have it for nothing than pay the tax. Masaniello came up ; the tax collectors were pelted with fruit and then with stones, and the toll-house was burnt with cries of&quot; The king of Spain and plenty ; down with misgovernment and taxes.&quot; The viceroy attempted without effect to quiet the people by promises ; his carriage was surrounded, and he escaped with difficulty to St Elmo. Meanwhile the populace broke open the prisons, and released all charged with offences against the customs. In the evening, by advice of Genovino, a meeting elected officers, and decided on their demands. Masaniello was chosen captain, with one Perrone, who had been in the service of Maddaloni, and at another time a captain of banditti, as his lieutenant. Next day the people went in search of arms ; many houses of persons who had made themselves obnoxious to the people, and especially of tax farmers, were sacked, and their contents burnt ; but most of the historians of the time state that there were few attempts to appropriate anything, and those few were immediately punished. The duke of Maddaloni, a man of lawless life, but a decided opponent of the viceroy, was selected as a likely intermediary with the people. The latter demanded the original charter granted by Charles V., which was said to have wrongfully come into the viceroy s own hands, the removal of all taxes imposed since Charles V. s death, and that the elect of the people should have as many votes as the representatives of the nobles. All was granted ; but the viceroy made entrenchments to guard the approaches to the castle. Next day the sacking of tax farmers houses went on. The viceroy attempted to cheat the people by sending documents simply drawn up by himself ; and then their rage burst out. Maddaloni was seized and given into custody, but escaped in the night by Perrone s connivance. The people were summoned to arms. The cardinal archbishop Filomarino, who did his best to mediate between the parties all through, came to them from the viceroy, and it was arranged that he should bring them the document. The seizure of arms went on, and Masaniello marching out of the city disarmed and took prisoners four hundred soldiers, while another body of people did the same with six hundred German mercenaries. On Wednesday Perrone made his appearance at the head of three hundred bandits partly mounted, and fired upon Masaniello, but without injuring him. The people rushed upon them, and they were killed almost without exception. Some confessed to having been instigated by Maddaloni, and a price was set upon his head. His brother Giuseppe Caraffa was found in a monastery and killed, and his head and foot were set upon pikes. A new elect of the people was chosen, Arpaia, who had been a partisan of Genovino s in the duke of Osuna s time, and had been condemned to the galleys. On Thursday Maddaloni s house was plundered and his property placed in a heap in the market under guard. The castle being short of provisions, Masaniello sent some as a present to the viceroy. The Neapolitan galleys, under Gianettino Doria, arrived the same day, and Masaniello refused permission to land or to come nearer than a mile to the shore, but sent provisions on board. In fact he was now undisputed master of the city, not only organizing the military force in it with surprising ability, but dispensing strict though severe justice. Often he sat inside his little house on the market, sword or loaded gun in hand, while petitions and complaints were handed to him on the end of a pike through the window ; yet he still went barefoot, dressed as a simple fisherman. The people having assembled consulted together on the terms of agreement; it was settled by the advice of Genovino that Masaniello should show the articles agreed on to the duke at the palace (he would not risk himself in the castle), and that the viceroy should afterwards swear to them in the cathedral. Towards evening the procession set out, Masaniello in a dress of cloth of silver pressed upon him by the archbishop. An immense concourse of armed men, estimated at one hundred and forty thousand, lined the way or accompanied him. Before them went a trumpet proclaiming Viva il re di Spayna ed il fedelissimo popolo di Napoli. Before enter ing the palace he exhibited the charter brought by the archbishop, and charged them not to lay down their arms till they had received the confirmation of their rights from the king of Spain. &quot;If I do not return in an hour,&quot; he added, &quot; wreck the city.&quot; He was received by the viceroy as an equal. All the conditions were agreed to, the chief being that the elect of the people should have as many votes as the nobles; that all taxes should be removed except those already existing in Charles V. s time ; that the viceroy should get the articles ratified by the king within three months ; that no punishment should be inflicted on those who had taken part in the rising ; and that the people should keep their arms till the ratification. On the Friday Masaniello dismissed most of his followers to their work, keeping a patrol of four men and a corporal in each street. N-ext day the ceremony in the cathedral took place; the duke of Canjano read the articles, Masaniello meanwhile correcting and explaining, and the viceroy solemnly swore to observe them. Then Masaniello tore off his rich dress ; it was time, he said, to return to his fish. And indeed from this time began his ruin. For a week the care of a city, with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, had rested upon him ; lie had been general, judge, legislator, and during the whole time he had hardly slept or eaten, the latter through dread of poison ; no wonder if the fisherman s brain reeled under all this. His justice had been severe, but hitherto it had struck men who deserved punishment, the oppressor, the robber, the hired cut-throat ; henceforth every one who ventured to contradict him risked his life, and the only man who could persuade him to mercy was the good archbishop. Five hundred in all, it is said, were put to death by his order; though it is probable that they were few compared to the lives taken a short time afterwards by the viceroy in defiance of his plighted word. Next day in fact the duke set to work ; Genovino was made president of the chamber in order to detach him from Masaniello, for which he was the more ready as Masaniello was no longer the tool he wanted. Genovino had already prevented the demand for the surrender of St Elmo, which could easily have been enforced, as the fort was not provisioned. Carlo and Sal va tore Cataneo with two others offered to the viceroy to murder Masaniello, and he welcomed their services. On Sunday Masaniello gave orders for laying down arms and submitting to the viceroy, which were obeyed in some quarters of the city before they could be recalled. He tried in vain to get the viceroy to accompany him to Posilippo, where he drank deeply, and in reckless extra vagance threw gold into the water to be dived for. Next day his violence continued ; he struck his followers in the street, and condemned several of his officers to death for not immediately executing his orders. He cut out the head from a picture of Maddaloni and set it on a pike. Vitale his secretary, sent on a message to the viceroy, talked of his intention to raise a million ducats for the king by means of forced gifts from the rich ; Vitale was detained in the castle on some pretext, and on leaving next morning was killed by the people of the quarter, who had returned to their allegiance. On Tuesday the 16th, the feast_of S. Maria del Carmine, Masaniello went up into the pulpit, and in a wild harangue recapitulated his services. He knew, ho