Unable to get through the easily defended defile, some French troops passed down the coast road, along the ancient Via Flacca, from Terracina to capture Sperlonga. The weather was foul, very cold with incessant rains that turned to ice. From Sperlonga, the French began working their way overland across the mountains, to outflank the Neapolitans at the old villa, and by dawn on the 2. But the French movement had been detected by Pezzas irregulars, who were patrolling the hills, and they guided the Neapolitan troops safely out of the encirclement, so that they could fall back on the great fortress of Gaeta, about 1. The French pressed on, and over the next few weeks, despite unusually cold and icy weather, overran the rest of Naples, capturing the city itself on 2. January 1. 79. 9 and proclaiming the Parthenopaean Republic. For Pezza, the most critical event of this period occurred on 3. December, when French and Polish troops captured Itri. A band of peasants from the vicinity attempted to resist, but were rapidly overcome. The invaders then shot their prisoners, plundered the town a bit, proclaimed a new age of freedom, erected a Liberty Tree, and held a ball. Resistance to French rule 1. Edit. Fra Diavolo Bands of the Holy Faith. Though many reform minded nobles and some intellectuals backed it, the French puppet regime in Naples, the Parthenopaean Republic, had little popular support. In addition, French and Polish troops acted abominably looting and rape were common. French atrocities were so blatant that their commander in Naples, General Jean tienne Championnet, was sacked by Guillaume Charles Faipoult, one of the government representatives on mission, and subsequently imprisoned. Irregular resistance had begun almost as soon as the invaders entered the country, and French atrocities only served to send more young men into the hills to join the insurgency. Attacks on French soldiers became common. The French retaliated swiftly and brutally, which only made matters worse. The experience of Itri was typical. On 1. 5 January two French soldiers were killed while patrolling the Appian Way near the town. The next day a mixed force of French and Polish troops inflicted severe reprisals on the town, looting, raping, and murdering, leaving 6. Michele Pezzas 6. Meanwhile, although in exile in Sicily, the Neapolitan government, effectively controlled by Queen Maria Carolina, wife of King Ferdinand IV of Naples, appointed Fabrizio Ruffo, a progressive government minister and one of the last laymen to hold the dignity of cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, to organize a resistance movement. On 8 February 1. 79. British and Neapolitan ships landed 5,0. Ruffos command in Calabria. This force soon expanded into an unruly army of laymen and clerics, nobles and peasants, rich and poor, men, women, and children. Dubbed la Armata cristiana della Santa Fede the Christian Army of the Holy Faith, this horde made up for its lack of training and equipment with enthusiasm, ferocity, and suicidal courage. Pezza had already organized a small band of irregulars in the northern part of the Terra di Lavoro, and soon became one of Ruffos principal subordinate commanders. His massa band quickly grew to some 4,0. Itri, such as Pasquale Maria Nofi, who served as his adjutant with the rank of lieutenant. With these men, he raided French outposts far and wide. On one occasion he slipped into heavily occupied Fondi in the guise of a priest thus becoming once again Fra Diavolo to cut down the Liberty Tree which the French had planted there, replacing it with a cross that still stands. He even harassed French forces holding Gaeta, the great fortress dominating the northwestern route into the Kingdom of Naples, ambushing supply trains he once made off with 1,4. Pezza made the Fortino di San Andrea his base of operations, and spread terror against French supporters over a wide area. He soon had a substantial price on his head. The city of Naples was liberated from the French in June, Gaeta was recaptured at the end of July by royal troops and Pezzas men, aided by the British fleet. By late September the French had largely been driven out of the kingdom, and a Neapolitan army had gone on to liberate Rome. The Neapolitan insurrection had probably cost the lives of 5. A hard, tough leader, Pezza gave no quarter. His men committed most monstrous misdeeds, torturing and murdering hundreds of prisoners of war, including a French general. He was so ferocious that for a time Cardinal Ruffo placed him under arrest for his many atrocities. Nevertheless, for his services, Pezza was made a colonel in the army, ennobled as the Duke of Cassero, granted an annual pension of 2,5. He settled down near Itri with his wife, Fortunata Rachele Di Franco, a local beauty whom he had married in July 1.