[1]
#Diana Please# Born _circa_ 1770.
[2]
#scapegoat admiral# The unhappy patriot Caracciolo, whose hurried
execution at the yardarm of the _Minerva_ raised such a storm of
mingled protest and justification at the time. Madame Please’s
insinuation must be accepted, if at all, as characteristic; yet there
is no denying that Caracciolo’s court-martial (on a charge of
deserting his king; to which the culprit pleaded very reasonably that
it was his king who had deserted him), conviction by a narrow margin
of votes, vindictive sentence, and hasty despatch thereon, afforded
the great captain’s enemies the means to as unpleasant an indictment
as any they could bring against his conduct of this unhappy Naples
business.