The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-08 00:00:00

weighei anchlr, and geared for Sapri, in the Bby
of Salerno. Hale the plot failed again, for it had
boon imagined by the oonspirAtors that the prisons
of Ponza were filled with political offenders who
would eag Tly embrace their cause ; but instead of
of
that they found murderers, assassins, and the very
worst sort of criaiinal' offenders ; all very willing
to be set at liberty, but having little inclination to,
rally round the standard of Italy's &min'''.
"Any person may imagine what a ship we had,
with 300 of the most vicious convicts on board,
and without subordination.

" From Ponza we steered for Sapri in the Gulf
of Salerno, and upon nearing the same we passed
another steamer, when all our convicts were ordered
to lie down on deck, in order to avoid raising
suspicion by their great number.
"At last we reached the place of destination, and
we were happy to see the lawless gang of revolu-
tionists and felons leave our decks, to embark on
their perilous enterprise, and for the first moment
we felt ourselves free agents, which we instantly
took advantage of to set sail, and so part company
with our late masters.

" What course the insurgents took after leaving
us does not properly appertain to my story, but in a
few words it may be related. Many of the convicts
dispersed immediately upon landing, and set to
work plundering the population ; and even some
charges of murder are brought against them.
Others deserted as root' as conveeient, and the
revolutionists and remainder having penetrated
iuto the interior, expecting to find 600 msn in
arms to join them, met instead with the soldiers
sent after them, and, being- without ammunition,
were soon overpowered, and partly slain, partly
taken prisoners.
"To return, however, to ourselves. As soon
as we got rid of our self-constituted captain, and
were our own masters, we steamed off, and
our Captain shaped his course towards Naples,
thinking it the wiser plan to proceed thither,
and make a declaration of what had occurred.
Upon our way, we were met by two
Neapolitan war steamers, that had been
sent in our pursuit (at which time we, were
sonic 12 miles from slice e), when we were brought
up by one of them firing a shot across u 4, and the
captain was ordered to go on board with his ship's
papers. Hereupon our ship was taken possession
of, and we were escorted back to Sapri, where we
lay several days ; the officers of the war steamers
telling us that they would give us coal to take
ua on to Cagliari, whither we were bound before
the act of piracy took place. At last orders came
that we were to go to Naples, and upon our arrival
there were much sympathised with by the man-of-
war officers, who expressed themselves very sorry
to see us in such an unpleasant piece of business.
At last they said we would have to go ou shore for
a few days, and that then the ship would be set at
liberty, we should have coals given to us, and we
could depart. We, taking all these fair words for
truth, and never suspecting what was in the wind,
consented to everything, and went on shore with
the captain, crew, and passengers, when we were
put into carriages, and immediately handcuffed,
and, escorted by military, were conducted to the
Vicaria poison. I mu.t not forget to state that a
gentleman belonging to the arsenal, seeing myself
and fellow-engineer handcuffed together, told who
we were, and the handcuffs were taken off, on the
road to the prison.
" You know that the Vicaria is the worst of the
pris sus in Naples, and it richly merits its notoriety,
for it is beyond belief that in a European country
such an abominable den should exist, or that a
Government laying claim to being a Christian one
should dare to offend the dignity of human nature
by confining human beings in such damp and filthy
places.
"The first proceeding upon arrival at the prison
was to unclothe us entirely, and .search our clothes
and persons, even to the hair on our heads. We
were then conducted by a dark passage through a
numb r of massive doors, each of which was un-
locked and locked again as we passed, until we
arrived at a cell into which eight of us were put.
This cell was so small that our mattresses placed
round the walls were touching each other ; we
had no chairs, but sat on the beds ; and the
only light was furnished by a window strongly
grated, and which we were prevented looking
out of, as a sentry (a Swiss mercenary), who paced
'the courtyard, had orders to shoot any prisoner
who might stand at .tbe window. Besides our cell
was horribly damp, so that we nearly all suffered
from its effects in pains in the legs ; and it was so
infested by rats, that in one night shortly after our
arrival I caught seven large ones, having made a
trap of one of my boots. But the worst evils were
the bad air and bad water. There was no ventila-
tion, and a large wooden tub, which served us for
the most necessary wants, emitted such effluvia that
we lived in a constant state of nausea. This was
heightened by the turnkeys neglecting sometimes
to empry it, in order to force a bribe from us, and
in which they were generally successful. Thewater, too, was served to us in a wooden pall,
which was so dirty that it gave a taste to the water,
which made it unfit to drink. This was also made
a source of eineluine.nt to the gaolers, for they
served us with drinkable water for one halfpenny
a glass.
" The King of Naples allows his prisoners straw
and a damp floor to sleep on, vermin and rats
for bedfellows, a small loaf of black bread and a
plate of soup for food, a pestiferous atmosphere to
inhale, and musty stale water to drink ; but he also
allows Lis gaolers to sell victuals and drink, and to
let beds to such prisoners as are so fortuutve as to
have friends with money to pay for them.
" Upon our entrance into the gaol, the first ques-
tion we were asked by the al ten lauts was, e If we
wanted beds ?' as we could have them by paying 4d.
per night. Of course we asked for beds, and re-
ceived each a low bedstock and mattress, which lat-
ter was, however, extremely uncomfortable, owing
toits being made of unpicked oakum. - Siill the
greatest evil of the beds' was one which discovered
itself afterwards—namely, their being full of ver-
min,with which we found ourselves soon covered.

" I must not forget to mention another sort of
companions which were sufficiently nronetous—
namely, flat lizards, which ran up and down the
walls and added not a little to the repulsiveness of
the place.
" As we two (the English engineers) had some GO
francs on us when we enter: d, and as we lelieved
we were only going to stop a few days, we spent it
pretty freely (getting at the same time very little
for our money), but as day after day came and no
signs of liberty, we began to get rather anxious for
our future condition, more pirticularly as we had
fully expected to have been visited by the English
Consul, or some one in his name. But no consul,
no friend, and we were just on the verge of being
obliged to content ourselves with the black loaf
and plate of bean water yclept soup, and to see our
beds taken away, and substituted by the truss of
straw and the damp floor of our cell, when succour
arrived by the kind exertions of some private in,li
viduals resident in Naples, who, aware of our des-
perate condition if left without help, bad succeeded
in bribing the turnkeys to take us money i©, so
that we were thereby enabled to avoid the miser-
able lot of the Sardinian crew, who were put into
large filthy dungeons, end obliged to sleep on the
floor without covers, and upon a straw litter that
was dirtier than any farmer would allow to lie in
stall or stable.

"Thus we two English subjects were kept for
three long months rotting in a filthy dungeon,
awaiting our trial in a town in which resided an
English Consul, and within gun-shot of an English
man-uf-war, whilst the authorities at home were
blandly explaining to the house that the jurisdic-
tion of the government was beyond all doubt.
" I believe (being since informed) that upon
being moved by the aforesaid friends, the English
Consul at Naples had applied at the prison for
admittance, but was refused, so that if we
lain
perished in our prison, the fault would have
alni,
at the door of the government at houvi,.,e,",
perished we certainly should, had we not been° la u
h cou/d
dreadful cowl' l'"
as already explained, by our friends ; for w •t• ~
live three months in such a t up with the
wi font succumbing, ifi ed, and as
p: icon allowance 1 It has
been
obliged to
stoutly denied, that torture was
ertaining to my
prisons ; and, althoughilst
p be not amiss to state
-Per. observation as an inmate
own history, it will
what has come underrro
i was in the
witieiltiwiise ssualwjehetra.
d an attack of paralysitso,
of tl.ljel. prison
prisoner
lervjnigo,_;i
tiou
shaking
his limbs as if
most wretched r u
ttoldtie prison,u he
labourin, tin
arrestedtied by a rope in the way known as
webilBt in bed, conveyed
was interrogated as to his knowledge of
the robbery. b i
A s ho denied all knowledge of it the
pinioned,
ropo was tightened up behind, and the question put
again, followed up by another strain, until his
elbows were brought together ; but still denying
all knowledge, he was after a time taken away, and
confined in a subterraueous cell for 25 days, and
was, when we saw him, upon the point of being set
at liberty upon his promising solemnly that he
would never reveal outside to what u tage he h. d
been subjected.
" This is what the man himself communicated to I