This was granted, but when he arrived at Naples he found all the aristocracy and educated middle classes infatuated with the French revolutionary ideas, and he himself was received with great enthusiasm.

[1] He seems at first to have intended to live a retired life; but, finding that he must either join the Republican party or escape to Procida, then under British control, in which case his Neapolitan colleagues would regard him as a traitor and his property would have been confiscated, he was induced to adhere to the new order of things and took command of the republic's naval forces.

Moreover, the admiral's fate was decided even before his capture; this is known because on 27 June, the British minister, Sir William Hamilton, had communicated to Nelson Mary Caroline's wish that Caracciolo should be hanged.

[1] Caracciolo was charged with high treason; he had asked to be judged by British officers, which was refused, nor was he allowed to summon witnesses in his defence.

He was condemned to death by three votes to two, and as soon as the sentence was communicated to Nelson, the latter ordered that he should be hanged at the yard-arm of the Minerva the next morning, and his body thrown into the sea at sundown.

His epitaph reads, Francesco Caracciolo, Admiral of the Republic of Naples, who fell victim of the hatred and the lack of mercy of his enemies.