Neapolitan General Pépé, who served Murat during his reign in Naples, relates the following anecdote of the King:

One day he was returning from the Campo di Morte, when a woman in tears, and holding a petition in her hand, stood forward to present it to him. His horse, frightened at the sight of the paper, began to kick and rear, and ended by throwing his Majesty some distance from the spot. After swearing roundly in the French fashion, Joachim took the paper and granted its petition, which was the life of the woman’s husband, who was to have been executed the following day.

Source: Memoirs of General Pepe, by Guglielmo Pepe, Vol. 1; English translation published in London, 1846. Page 236.