Carac'ciolo

Carac'ciolo, PRINCE FRANCESCO, was born in 1752 of a noble Neapolitan family, and had risen to the supreme command of King Ferdinand's navy, when in December 1798 he fled with him before the French from Naples to Palermo. Learning, however, of the intended confiscation of the estates of all absentees, he obtained permission to return to Naples, and there entered the service of the 'Parrthenopeian Republic,' in April being placed at the head of its marine. For two months he ably directed the operations of the revolutionists, and not till their cause seemed hopeless, though before the capitulation, did he quit the capital. He was captured in peasant disguise, and on 29th June 1799 was brought on board Nelson's flag-ship, tried by a court-martial of Neapolitan officers, and hanged from the yard-arm of a Neapolitan frigate. See NELSON; J. Paget's Paradoxes and Puzzles (1874); and J. C. Jeaffreson's Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson (1888).