Note 244 — Chapter XII

This does not agree with the authenticated accounts of the war in Corsica. So far from it, Paoli at first succeeded in repelling the attacks of the French, notwithstanding their superiority of numbers. They were worsted in an engagement near Loreto, with great loss, several companies having been drowned in the Golo in the attempt to make their escape. On the 29th of October the corps sent to attack Murato received a signal defeat, their commander being among the slain.—(Sismondi’s Histoire de France, vol. xxix. p. 380.)—The overwhelming force brought over by the Count de Vaux early in 1769 soon dispersed the Corsican levies, and rendered all further resistance on the part of Paoli perfectly vain. Paoli was much respected in England by men of all parties. At the commencement of the Revolution he was invited to France, and after an enthusiastic reception by the National Assembly, placed in the command of Corsica, with the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Island. The troubles that followed led him to offer the Crown to England in 1793; but the English rule proved unfortunate both to the Corsicans and to himself. He soon returned to England, and died in the neighbourhood of London, in his eightieth year. He left a considerable fortune, part of which eventually fell under the administration of the Court of Chancery, and the Lord Chancellor issued a commission to Corsica to ascertain his heirs.—See more of him in Capefigue Diplomates Européens, pp. 123–133—E.