DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0124
86 NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
make his earthly life beautiful from his point of view, he
sought a gain in no wise dependent on death. No viceroy
at Naples had assumed such state and magnificence as did
he from his first appearance at her gates. He frequently
drove through the city in a carriage drawn by six horses;
it was covered with black velvet ornamented in silver with-
out and gold within; two hundred pounds of silver in
addition to the gold and jewels on the sideposts increased
the price of this chariot to three or four thousand scudi.
Besides being showered with petitions which were thrown
into his carriage, he actually gave audiences in the street,
while crowds collected to admire and criticise his assump-
tion of super-regal splendor.
He professed himself greatly interested in the cause of
justice, and had a habit of going about the city late at
night, when he carefully noted everything irregular and
severely punished the offenders. In public he was all
generosity, and scattered coins among the people who
flattered him. With the unthinking rabble he gained a
certain popularity, so that when he made a feint of resign-
ing his office they petitioned him to remain their viceroy.
The more intelligent of his subjects were not surprised
by his gradual assumption of illegal power, as they had
doubted him from the beginning. He soon showed himself
a cruel tyrant, and did not hesitate to condemn men to the
galleys for life, or even to death itself, without a trial; and
this for trifling offences which were oftentimes personal to
himself, as when a dentist, who had broken a tooth of
Ossuna’s some years previously, was sent to the galleys.
He paid small deference to official position, and even had
a member of the finance department flogged through the
town for an idle word. Some of his so-called acts of jus-
tice were such that one wonders that he was not murdered
once a day, at least, if that were possible.
On one occasion the presidents of the exchequer failed
make his earthly life beautiful from his point of view, he
sought a gain in no wise dependent on death. No viceroy
at Naples had assumed such state and magnificence as did
he from his first appearance at her gates. He frequently
drove through the city in a carriage drawn by six horses;
it was covered with black velvet ornamented in silver with-
out and gold within; two hundred pounds of silver in
addition to the gold and jewels on the sideposts increased
the price of this chariot to three or four thousand scudi.
Besides being showered with petitions which were thrown
into his carriage, he actually gave audiences in the street,
while crowds collected to admire and criticise his assump-
tion of super-regal splendor.
He professed himself greatly interested in the cause of
justice, and had a habit of going about the city late at
night, when he carefully noted everything irregular and
severely punished the offenders. In public he was all
generosity, and scattered coins among the people who
flattered him. With the unthinking rabble he gained a
certain popularity, so that when he made a feint of resign-
ing his office they petitioned him to remain their viceroy.
The more intelligent of his subjects were not surprised
by his gradual assumption of illegal power, as they had
doubted him from the beginning. He soon showed himself
a cruel tyrant, and did not hesitate to condemn men to the
galleys for life, or even to death itself, without a trial; and
this for trifling offences which were oftentimes personal to
himself, as when a dentist, who had broken a tooth of
Ossuna’s some years previously, was sent to the galleys.
He paid small deference to official position, and even had
a member of the finance department flogged through the
town for an idle word. Some of his so-called acts of jus-
tice were such that one wonders that he was not murdered
once a day, at least, if that were possible.
On one occasion the presidents of the exchequer failed