Hesse-Philippsthal gave Pezza command of a band of irregulars who were landed along the coast near the mouth of the Garigliano River, about 20 miles southeast of Gaeta, with instructions to stir up guerrilla resistance in the French rear. Pezza conducted several raids against French outposts, but then undertook an ill-advised attack against a substantial French force. Defeated, he fled back to Gaeta, assuming a disguise so as to trick a French officer into giving him a pass through the siege lines. To Hesse-Philippsthal this smacked of treachery, and he decided that Pezza was secretly in league with the French. Pezza was arrested and sent in chains to Palermo in May 1806. Sir Sidney quickly cleared Pezza's name, however, and for a few weeks he conducted seaborne raids against French outposts along the coast from Ponza and the other islands in the Gulf of Gaeta.