Murat himself escaped to France, where his offer of service was contemptuously refused by Napoleon. He hid for a while near Toulon, with a price upon his head, then, after Waterloo, refusing an asylum in England, he sailed for Corsica, where he was joined by a few rash spirits who urged him to attempt to recover his kingdom. Refusing Metternich's offer to allow him to join his wife at Trieste and to secure him a position and a pension, Murat sailed for Calabria on Sept. 28, with a flotilla of six vessels and about 25o men. Four of his ships were scattered by storm, one deserted him, and on Oct. 8, he landed at Pizzo with only 3o men. Captured almost immediately, he was imprisoned at Pizzo, and on Oct. .13 was court-martialled and shot.
He was the most dashing cavalry leader of the age. Rash, hot-tempered and brave, he was adored by the troops, who fol lowed him against the most terrible odds. Napoleon lived to regret his refusal to accept his services during the Hundred Days, declaring that Murat's presence at Waterloo would have inspired the cavalry charges and might have changed defeat into victory.
By his wife Maria Annunciata Carolina, Murat had two sons. The elder, NAPOLEON ACHILLE MURAT (1801-1847), during his father's reign prince royal of the Two Sicilies, emigrated about 1821 to America, and settled in Florida, being postmaster at Li pona, Jefferson county, 1828-31. In 1826 he married a great-niece of Washington. He published Lettres d'un citoyen des Etats-Unis un de ses,amis d'Europe (Paris, 1830) ; Esquisse morale et poli tique des Etats-Unis (ibid., 1832) ; and Exposition des principes du gouvernement republicain tel veil a ete perfectionne en Amerique (ibid., 1833). He died in Florida, on April 15, The second son, NAPOLEON LUCIEN CHARLES MURAT (1803 1878), created prince of Ponte Corvo in 1813, lived with his mother in Austria after 1815, and in 1824 started to join his brother in America, but was shipwrecked on the coast of Spain and held for a while a prisoner. Arriving in 1825, two years later he married in Baltimore a rich American, Georgina Frazer (d.
1879) ; but her fortune was lost, and for some years his wife supported herself and him by keeping a girls' school. After sev eral abortive attempts to return to France, the revolution of 1848 at last gave him his opportunity. He was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly and of the Legislative Assembly was minister plenipotentiary at Turin from October 1849 to March 1850, and after the coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 1851, was made a member of the consultative commission. On the proclamation of the empire, he was recognized by Napoleon III. as a prince of the blood royal, with the title of Prince Murat. He died on April Io, 1878, leaving three sons and two daughters, (I) Joachim, Prince Murat (1834-1901) in 1854 married Maley Berthier, daughter of the Prince de Wagram, who bore him a son Joachim (1856-1932) who succeeded him as head of the family, and two daughters, of whom the younger, Anna (b. 1863), became the wife of the Austrian minister Count Goluchowski. (2) Achille (1847-1895) married Princess Dadian of Mingrelia. (3) Louis (1851-1912), married in 1873 to the widowed Princess Eudoxia Orbeliani (née Somov), was for a time orderly officer to Charles XV. of Sweden. (4) Caroline (1833-1902) married in 185o Baron Charles de Chassiron and in 1872 John Garden (d. 1885). (5) Anna (1841-1924), married in 1865 Antoine de Noailles, duc de Mouchy.