But, from Paoli's point of view, the acquisition of the island by France was a piece of rank treachery; and his allegiance to France was technically at an end when the king was forcibly dethroned and the Republic was proclaimed.

The use of the appellation "traitor" in such a case is merely a piece of childish abuse.

It can be justified neither by reference to law, equity, nor to the popular sentiment of the time.

Facts were soon to show that the islanders were bitterly opposed to the party then dominant in France.

This hostility of a clannish, religious, and conservative populace against the bloodthirsty and atheistical innovators who then lorded it over France was not diminished by the action of some six thousand French volunteers, the off-scourings of the southern ports, who were landed at Ajaccio for an expedition against Sardinia.