gonshom coii&m 
 


r bo s 9avidsor v Pinx Lyre & Spott^wood 
 
 ON ftOJSTILE' GROUND. 
 
 The 
 
 landing of NELSON at 
 
 Copenhagen 
 
 after’ l"be 
 
 bat'd e. 
 
NELSON 
 
 ^ ND MIS TIMES 
 
 BY 
 
 Rear-Admiral LORD CHARLES BERESFORD 
 
 C.B., M.P. 
 
 AND 
 
 H. W. WILSON 
 
 Author of “Ironclads in Action ” 
 
 LUUtb fll>an\> 
 
 Mostly from Contemporary 
 and Annotated by 
 
 Jllustrattons 
 
 Sketches, Selected, Arranged, 
 Edward H. Fitchew 
 
 Xionboit: 
 
 Printed by EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, Her Majesty’s Printers 
 Published by HARMSWORTH BROTHERS, Limited, 24, Tudor Street, E.C. 
 
 [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED } 
 
GETTY CENTER 
 UEHAiTY 
 

 
 ANY similar Works have preceded “ Nelson and His Times,” and the authors 
 might naturally have demurred to the adding to the list of those traversing such 
 well-known ground. Yet, numerous as are the biographies of the great seaman, 
 there are always fresh phases of character to be revealed, and newer side-lights to be 
 thrown on the history of so surpassing a figure in the life of a nation as that of the 
 hero of St. Vincent, Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. .Some explanation is, however, necessary 
 
 as to the raison d'etre of this Work. It is in no sense intended to compete for public favour with the 
 brilliant and thoughtful volumes lately published by the gifted American naval officer, Captain Mahan. 
 It does not profess to vie with those other standard works on Nelson which are familiar to all who 
 love to cultivate the memory of the great British admiral. The object which the writers have had 
 before them is to appeal to a wider constituency — to that vast majority of our countrymen and 
 countrywomen to whom the incomparable works of Captain Mahan are inaccessible. 
 
 This Work is, in fact, addressed to the millions of the great British democracy, for whose 
 prosperity and freedom, as for that of generations yet unborn, Nelson fought and died. The democracy 
 of Nelson’s day was neither powerful nor influential; but that freedom which he won for Britannia’s 
 sons, that genius of his which so successfully opposed and stopped the triumphant progress of the 
 great French conqueror, have now borne fruit. To-day the descendants of the people, to whom Nelson 
 was the popular hero, are a gigantic force in the land. The sceptre of uncontrolled power has passed 
 from the hands of Monarchs and of Ministers. Democracy rules in their stead. It is important, 
 therefore, that the masses who now hold the power, should realise what Nelson’s victories really meant 
 for our country. Nelson was the originator and the embodiment of that idea of “ Sea Power,” which 
 has moulded our national life, and kept us in the position of a first-rate Power, wielding a mightv 
 influence in the interests of peace, civilisation, and progress in the councils of the world. 
 
 The conquering arms of the great Napoleon had swept the continent of Europe, overthrowing 
 kingdoms and setting up new rulers. It was a time of fear and disquietude, filled with anticipations 
 of horror, when Nelson came upon the stage, and struck the first blow to free the world from 
 Napoleon’s dominating influence. The French Revolution began with an upheaval of democracy 
 against the curse of luxury and indolence, which sacrificed a nation’s happiness at the shrine of wealth 
 and pleasure. It ended, as too often great democratic movements have ended, in the substitution 
 of a worse tyranny for that which had gone before. The idolatrous worship of “ Liberty ” produced 
 a despot who would have enslaved all the world. A man of stupendous genius, of far-seeing sagacity 
 and unbridled ambition, Napoleon bewitched the French democrats by the glory of his victories, and 
 the prestige of his arms. His career remained unchecked until there came the Man, and the Hour. 
 Nelson, with all the disadvantages of bad health, false friends, secret enemies, and in many cases 
 incompetent superiors ; in addition to being viewed coldly by the Court, and as a rule snubbed by 
 
 authority, steadily fought his way up to a position where his magnificent courage, matchless ability, 
 
 and transcendent genius enabled him to inflict the checks which first weakened his great adversary's 
 
 power, then ultimately led to his downfall. He did more than this. He taught the lesson which all 
 
 our people should take to heart, that while the British Empire maintains its naval strength, the freedom 
 of its people and the security of its borders may be successfully preserved against any hostile com¬ 
 bination of the military powers. 
 
 Napoleon and Nelson were very different in their methods, as well as in their character. Both 
 were masters of the art of war. Both were great leaders of men, and had that power of imbuing their 
 
IV 
 
 Preface. 
 
 subordinates with their own spirit and enthusiasm, which contributed no little to their successes in a 
 campaign. Napoleon with his unique master-mind, however, possessed only the aims of an ambitious 
 conqueror. He fought for personal power and glory 'rather than for the permanent advancement of 
 his country. Nelson was more single-minded. He was conscious of his own abilities, not unaware of 
 his own genius, naturally irritable under the restraints imposed by the inferior minds of some of those 
 under whom he served. He would not have been great if he had not possessed all of these character¬ 
 istics. The truly great man must be a good judge of himself, or he is not wise enough to command 
 others: but in Nelson there was a glow of patriotism, a desire for the honour of his own country and 
 the glory of his nation, which was not so all-engrossing in Napoleon’s character. Napoleon was always 
 cool and calculating. If his schemes in one direction were upset, he had something to fall back upon. 
 Nelson was more simple, more natural. His was the ardent daring which made him resolve in every 
 undertaking “ to do or die.” The same tenacity of purpose and singleness of aim which brought him 
 to grief at Teneriffe was exemplified in the long chase of the French fleet which ended in the glorious 
 victory of the Nile. 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable in Nelson’s life than his fortitude under trials which would have 
 crushed many men of far stronger physique. Time after time he was the victim of mean and unworthy 
 official jealousy and spite. The traditions of the Admiralty were faithfully followed in his case, and 
 over and over again he was snubbed by authority for his zealous and successful work ; again and again 
 the credit which was Nelson’s due was given to those who had done their best to prevent success 
 being obtained. 
 
 Court influence in those days was all-powerful. The King (George III.) was an amiable sovereign, 
 whose object in life was the good of his subjects and the benefit of his country. His Court was pure 
 and moral, but there is no doubt that His Majesty was influenced against Nelson by the false repre¬ 
 sentations of those powerful and wealthy contractors and their friends whom the hero had brought to 
 book for robbing the country of £2,000,000. To us who live now, it must seem a national disgrace 
 that a man like Nelson, who held the honour and interests of England as the dearest objects of his 
 heart, should only have been made a Baron for the victory of the Nile, while a tutor (Lord Bruce) 
 of the dissolute Prince of Wales was made an Earl when discharged for an error in his teaching. 
 
 It is not strange that Nelson had many detractors. All great men have, and will have such to 
 the end of time. Those painful episodes of his private life which are most calculated to offend the 
 moral susceptibilities of the British public have been magnified and distorted. Why not take that 
 which is best and most worthy when dwelling on the life and character of a great man, and not seek 
 to dim the brilliancy of his acts by harping on that which is small, pitiable, and regrettable ? All men 
 have faults. Although it is impossible when narrating the life of a great man to omit private matters 
 which have become of public notoriety, still the reader should separate public from private life. The 
 first is material to the public benefit, or the reverse. The second can be saddled with no such respon¬ 
 sibilities. Nothing in these pages has been written to extenuate or palliate the faults of Nelson ; but an 
 endeavour has been made to render without fear or favour a truthful picture of the regrettable events 
 in his history, setting down nothing in malice, but presenting the simple circumstances surrounding 
 the great hero’s life, and appealing to the dispassionate judgment, yet to the sympathy, of his fellow- 
 countrymen. Let him who is without fault cast the first stone. Nelson started his acquaintance with 
 Lady Hamilton firmly imbued with the idea that she had rendered great services to the country, and 
 this long before his judgment could have been affected by sentiments of affection. These services have 
 been repeatedly denied, but the exact events connected with the circumstances are wrapped in some 
 degree of obscurity after all these years, and the judgment of contemporaries has too often been tinged 
 with prejudice. We must remember that a brilliant leader of men like Nelson, and a keen judge of 
 character as he must, have been, could not (in the earlier stages of his acquaintance with Lady 
 Hamilton) have been so easily duped as is supposed. He began with gratitude, born of that patriotic 
 zeal which marked all his actions. He ended by finding in the person, to whom he believed both 
 he and his country owed much, that sympathy, tenderness, and affection which to a man of his 
 temperament were an absolute necessity. The Great Judge has long since balanced the good and bad 
 
Preface. 
 
 v 
 
 points in Nelson’s life and work. Let us forget the few mistakes of that life in the unbounded 
 admiration, respect, and affection which are due to his glorious deeds. 
 
 The distinguishing trait of Nelson’s genius as a seaman was the unerring judgment which enabled 
 him, even as an officer of inferior rank, to realise in an action what his admiral’s real aim was ; the 
 courage with which, when the occasion warranted, he would accept the responsibility of breaking the 
 letter of an order, so that he might the better carry out what was really its spirit. At St. Vincent he 
 realised that if he did not instantly take the initiative, and break the “order of formation” of the 
 British fleet, the object of his admiral must be defeated, as the Spanish fleet would escape. Under 
 Keith in the Mediterranean he cruised in a direction exactly opposite to that prescribed in his 
 instructions, and by so doing he was able to intercept the French squadron, and so literally carry out 
 his admiral’s wishes. At Copenhagen his foresight and rapidity of decision enabled him to turn into 
 a brilliant success what might otherwise have been an abortive and bloody battle, and so again to 
 realise his admiral’s intentions, though his actions might be opposed to his admiral’s orders. So it 
 was throughout his career. Nelson had the ability to plan, the boldness to execute, and the fearless 
 audacity of youth, combined with that enthusiasm which is so essential in a great commander. 
 
 Another striking point in his character was the thoroughness with which he thought out all his 
 enterprises and left nothing to chance. He matured his plans beforehand, thinking out all possibilities. 
 He confided to his subordinates what those plans were, and the main object that he had in view, thus 
 enabling them to carry out his wishes, no matter what remote or unforeseen contingencies might for 
 the moment stand in the way. 
 
 Nelson’s contempt of prize-money was an admirable trait in his character. He never devoted 
 his energy or thoughts to personal sordid considerations, but on one or two occasions he worked hard 
 for prize-money in the interests of his officers and men. If he had devoted the same energy and 
 forethought to acquiring prize-money as he did to destroying his country’s enemies, he would, pro¬ 
 bably, have become a millionaire. Where his contemporaries took five ships he would doubtless have 
 taken fifty. 
 
 While he did all he could to further the interests and promotion of his officers, he never forgot 
 the interests and welfare of his men. The men throughout the fleet knew this, and reposed in him 
 that confidence, respect, and affection which enabled him, through their aid, to go anywhere and do 
 anything, no matter what the chances were against him. 
 
 One great lesson, it is hoped, will be learnt from the pages of this book by the people of our 
 country. That while Nelson by his incomparable skill as a master of naval warfare won the battles of 
 our country against what seemed overwhelming odds, nothing could be more fallacious or impertinent 
 than to suppose that we in these days are to count upon any racial superiority to give us victory, 
 independently of the state of our preparations for attack and defence. Should the ill-will of foitune 
 ever again bring us into conflict with the gallant French nation, nothing could show greater ignorance 
 than to base our ideas of the ultimate issue of such a death grapple upon the deeds of Nelson. The 
 reason why his task was rendered possible will be found clearly set forth in this Work. It was no 
 lack of gallantry or bravery in our opponents which made our fleets triumphant. It was want ot skill, 
 and want of efficiently-trained officers and men to man their ships. 
 
 Some of Nelson’s letters speak in a disparaging way of French ability, gallantry, and seamanship, 
 but they w r ere private letters, and w 7 hen written were never meant for the public eje. In pii\ate 
 letters people often exaggerate to the verge of misrepresentation. In public Nelson always spoke of 
 his opponents with the courtesy and respect which is inseparable from a great mind. 
 
 The Revolution had sapped the naval strength of France before Nelson swept her vessels from 
 the seas. Things are far different now. That great nation, w'hich since those da}S has fought by 
 our side as an ally, can now boast of many officers possessing skill and merit, besides a well-trained 
 and excellent personnel. In addition to this she has a Naval Reserve to fall back upon, fai superior 
 
VI 
 
 Preface. 
 
 in strength, training, and efficiency to our own. It is no reflection on the courage of our old-time 
 opponents to write so enthusiastically of Nelson’s splendid achievements. The nation which brought 
 forth the officers and men of the Orient lost at the Rattle of the Nile, and the Redoubtable taken at 
 Trafalgar, needs no apologists for its honourable defeats. 
 
 The desire of the writers has been that there shall be no needless wounding of the susceptibilities 
 of nations as proud and brave as our own; no spirit of boastfulness ; but only a strenuous effort to 
 keep alive the new-born enthusiasm and interest in naval defence. 
 
 This book would not be fittingly closed if we failed to drive home the lessons of Nelson’s life. 
 The British Empire can only continue to exist by possessing beyond doubt or criticism a fleet which 
 
 is supreme at sea; and in addition, all of those auxiliaries of defence which enable a fleet to act 
 
 quickly, effectively, and thoroughly in these days of rapid communication, steam, and speed. In 1888 
 the British Navy had sunk to such an alarming condition of weakness, and the want of proper war 
 organisation in all departments was so deplorable, that any great naval coalition against us would have 
 cost us the Empire. Vast strides have been made since that date, and the naval reformers then 
 derided have been proved correct in their statements. We have spent nearly £60,000,000 in less than 
 ten years on new naval construction and auxiliaries for defence, over and above the annual estimate 
 for care and maintenance of the fleet. The press and the people have awakened to the importance 
 of the question, and none too soon. In Europe, or indeed in the world, we have no friends, but many 
 
 bitter enemies. Other people are naturally jealous of our vast possessions. It may be that our 
 
 Empire will have once more to face the troubles, difficulties, and dangers which have accompanied 
 the beginning of each century. 
 
 To my able and talented collaborator. Mr. H. W. Wilson, I feel is mainly due any credit 
 
 this Work may deserve, for the time and trouble he has taken in verifying all the facts, and the 
 graphic way in which he has committed them to paper. The thanks of both of us are due to 
 Mrs. Nelson Ward, Lord Nelson, Mrs. Alfred Morrison, Mrs. Salmon (editress of the Morrison Papers) 
 and Mr. C. Wykeham Martin for their kind and valuable assistance. A debt is also due to Nicolas 
 for his zeal and affection for the hero, to Captain Mahan for his insight and able vindication of 
 Nelson, to Professor Laughton for his professional judgment and accuracy, to Southey (of whose 
 
 “Life” we have used Mr. Hannay's excellent edition) for his admirable fire and spirit, to 
 
 De la Graviere for his able appreciation, and to the Naval Chronicle for its accumulation of facts and 
 illustrations. The illustrations in this book have been under the efficient control of Mr. Edward H. 
 Fitchew, and thanks are due both on his behalf, and from the writers themselves for the kindness of 
 the Admiralty in allowing them every facility for investigating facts or reproducing illustrations. Only 
 the kind assistance of so many friends, and the existence of such excellent authorities could have 
 rendered the task now completed so easy of accomplishment. 
 
 The Work has been read in proof by Earl Nelson, from whom we have received many valuable 
 hints, and by Mrs. Nelson Ward, who not only placed at our disposal her transcripts of many valuable 
 unpublished letters, but also assisted us right through the Work. No one knows more fully both the 
 inner and outer history of Nelson. It is a public misfortune that Mrs. Nelson Ward cannot be 
 
 persuaded to give to the world her knowledge. 
 
 The objects of the book will have been fully realised if it helps the great mass of our fellow- 
 countrymen to truly appreciate the vital issues which depend on the maintenance of our naval 
 superiority—the preservation intact of the heritage of Nelson. His memory lives ever fresh in the 
 heart of a free nation, whose children of to-dav have learnt from the lips of their fathers and their 
 fathers’ fathers his deeds of splendid and unselfish heroism. It will be handed down radiantly bright 
 from generation to generation—the greatest, perhaps, of all Britain’s glories. 
 
 
The asterisk (*) 
 
 Aboukir, Battle of. See Nile. 
 
 Acre, *121. 
 
 Agamemnon, H.M.S., 32, *41, 48, 66, *76, 
 145, 221. 
 
 Alexandria, 87, *88, *89, *93, *183. 
 American Colonies, revolt of, 19. 
 
 Antigua, *27, *190. 
 
 Argonaut , honest tars of, *65. 
 
 Baltic, map, *143 ; Nelson in, 140-158. 
 
 “ Band of Brothers,” 44, *84. 
 
 Barham, Lord, *192, 194. 
 
 Bastia, *36 ; capture of, 37. 
 
 Bath, comforts of, *23. 
 
 Beatty, Dr., *220, 222, *223, *224. 
 Bellerophon, H.M.S., 93, *94, 218, 219. 
 Berry, Sir Edward, *57, *85, J03, 207, 221. 
 Bettesworth, Captain, 193, 194. 
 
 Blackwood, Captain, 199, *203, 210, 211, 
 219. 
 
 Boulogne, *161, 199, 232 ; boat action off, 
 * 163 ; flotilla, *177. 
 
 Bounty, Mutiny of, *13. 
 
 Brereton, General, 190, 195. 
 
 Brest, *49, *122, *186, 199. 
 
 British Lion, *63 ; British Plenty, *63 ; 
 
 British Tar, *180. 
 
 Bronte, *106, 128, 129. 
 
 Brueys, French admiral, *80, 87. 
 
 Bruix, French admiral, *122. 
 
 Bucentaure, French ship, 220. 
 
 Bull, John, taking luncheon, *111. 
 Burnham Thorpe, *3, *5, *6, *7, 29, *31, 
 102, *168. 
 
 Byng, Admiral, execution of, *4. 
 
 Cabin, a snug, *68. 
 
 Cadiz, *32, 62, 84, 181, 198-200, 201, *206, 
 209-12, 217, 229, 230; action off, 
 ♦Frontispiece, 66. 
 
 Ca-Ira, capture of, *41, *42. 
 
 Cairo, *79. 
 
 Calder, Sir R., *52, 54, *58, 60, *194-196, 
 204, 216. 
 
 Calvi, *38, *39. 
 
 Camperdovvn, victory of, *64, *73, *74, 99. 
 Captain , H.M.S., 45, 53-60, 62, 75, *76. 
 Caracciolo, 124. 
 
 Carcass, H.M.S., *15. 
 
 Chatham Dockyard, *33. 
 
 Chatham, Earl of, *4, 5, 19. 
 
 Chevrette, La, cutting out of, *162. 
 Clarence, H.R.H. the Duke of, *17, *24, 
 *83. 
 
 Cochrane, Admiral Sir Alex., *189. 
 Collingwood, Cuthbert, Lord, 27, 55, *58, 
 59, 66, 103. 192, 195, 201, *202-232. 
 
 denotes an Illustration or the footnote beneat) 
 
 Copenhagen, *143, *144, *153 ; Nelson at, 
 ♦Coloured Frontispiece, 141, *145; 
 Battle of, 145-158. 
 
 Corfu, *183. 
 
 Cornwallis, Admiral Sir W., 174, *175, 179, 
 186, 196, 199. 
 
 Corsica, *36, 45 ; evacuated, 47. 
 
 Cruiser, first-class, *40. 
 
 Culloden, H.M.S., 51, 59, 91. 100, *105. 
 Cutters, *46. 
 
 Denmark, Crown Prince of, 147, *152. 
 
 Dog collar, *125. 
 
 Dresden, *132. 
 
 Duncan, Admiral, *64. 
 
 Dunkirk, *161. 
 
 Egypt, 77, *78, *79» 85, *88, *89, *93, 183 ; 
 
 British in, *139, *140. 
 
 Elba, *47, *170; seizure of, 45 ; evacuated, 
 48, 62. 
 
 Elephant, H.M.S., *76, 143, *145, 146, 
 151. 
 
 Elliot, Gilbert, Lord Minto, 59, *83, 103, 
 
 114, 121, 197, 200. 
 
 Embroidery of Lady Hamilton’s dress,*131. 
 
 Farmer, Captain G., *16. 
 
 Flag, French, captured at Calvi, 39. 
 Flogging in the Navy, 10, *ii. 
 
 Foley, Captain, *84, 91, *148, 149. 
 
 Fonthill Abbey, 134, *135. 
 
 Foote, Captain (Sir E. J.), *124. 
 Fotidroyant, H.M.S., *125. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, *173. 
 
 France, enmity of, 19, 122, 169 : Navy of, 
 30, 3L 209. 
 
 Fremantle, Captain, 70, *147, 203. 
 
 Frigate, English, *40. 
 
 Ginereux, French ship, *99, 101, *129. 
 Genoa, *44 ; blockade of, 45. 
 
 George III., King, *134; treatment of 
 Nelson, 29, 82, 135. 
 
 George IV. (as Prince of Wales), 132, 135, 
 137- 
 
 Gibraltar, *20, 79, 180, 185, 194, 195, 207. 
 Gillespie, Dr. Leonard, *176. 
 
 Gillray, caricatures by, *77, * 111, *160, 
 *165, *170, *177, *191. 
 
 Graves, Admiral Sir Thos., 149, *152. 
 Greenwich Hospital. *228, *229. 
 
 Greville, Hon. Charles Francis, 111, *113. 
 Guillaume Tell, French ship, 130. 
 
 Guns, naval, *17, *41, *45, *66, *209. 
 
 Hallowell, Captain (Sir B. Hallowell- 
 Carew), 38, 83, *84, *123, 203. 
 
 an Illustration. 
 
 Hamilton, Emma, Lady, 35, *49, *85, 
 *107, *108, *109, *111, *113, *H4> 1! 9> 
 *131, 132, 135, *137, *166, *171, *196, 
 *198, 199, 200, *205, *207, 211, 215, 
 222, 225, 226, 232 ; early life, 111 ; 
 attitudes, *115. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir W., 34, *85, *112; death, 
 167. 
 
 Handwriting on the Wall, *170. 
 
 Hardy, Sir Thomas M., 48, *49, *202, 203, 
 213 to end. 
 
 Hood, Admiral Viscount, 23, *24, 36, 37, 
 • 43 , io 3- 
 
 Horalia, 137, *169. *197, 200, 211, 215, 
 222, 226, 232. 
 
 Hotham, Admiral Lord, 39, 42. 
 
 Hotham House, *167. 
 
 Howe, Earl, victory of 1st June, *43. 
 
 Hughes, Admiral, and Lady, 26. 28. 
 
 Invasion of England threatened, *77, 78, 
 *159, *162, 191. 
 
 Jervis, Admiral Sir John (Earl of St. Vin¬ 
 cent), 44, 5°, *5b *52, 64, 72, 82, 135, 
 161, 163, 166, *180. 
 
 Keith, Admiral Viscount, *127, 128, 129. 
 
 Keppel, Admiral Viscount, *19. 
 
 Kingston, *190. 
 
 Kronborg, 140, *143, *151. 
 
 Latouche-Treville, *175, 179- 
 
 Leander, H.M.S., 86, 93, 94 ; action with 
 Genereux, *99, 101. 
 
 Leghorn, capture of, *118. 129. 
 
 Lisbon, *51, 61, *62. 
 
 Locker, Captain William, *22, 103. 
 
 Louis, Admiral Sir Thomas, 83, *84, *203, 
 207, 210. 
 
 Lucas, Captain, of the Redoubtable, *219. 
 
 Lutwidge, Captain, 15. 
 
 Mack, General, 118, *122. 
 
 Maddalena, *182. 
 
 Malta, *86, *118, 121, 129, 169. 
 
 Medals, *59, *98, 103, *172, *226. 
 
 Mediterranean, map, *87 ; Nelson in, 31- 
 
 47, 48, 75, 79- 
 
 Merton Place, *166, 197-200, 205. 
 
 Miller, Captain, *58, 66, 83, *84. *136. 
 
 Minerve, La, capture of, *48, 49, 51. 
 
 Minorca, *127. 
 
 Minto, Earl of. See Elliot. 
 
 Moutray* Mrs., 26, 28. 
 
 Murray, Captain (Admiral Sir G.), *147- 
 
 Mu tine, H.M.S., *84, 101, *105, *202. 
 
 Mutinies in the Navy, *13. 63. 
 
Vlll 
 
 Index . 
 
 Naples, *110, *ii 6, 117, 118, *120, 121, 
 *123, *124 ; Nelson at, 34, 85, 105, 
 117, I 2 4 ; King of, 103, *117, 122; 
 Queen of, *49, 85, 115, *117. 
 
 Napoleon Buonaparte, 35, 76, *77, 78, 79, 
 87, 105, *121, *160, 169, 173, 181, 
 *191, 198, 199, 228, 230; birthplace 
 of, *7. 
 
 Navy, state of in 1757, 3, 4 ; in 1770, 10, 
 *14 ; French.. See France, Navy of, 
 
 Nelson, Rev. Edmund, *5,60, *134 ; death, 
 167. 
 
 Nelson, Frances, Lady (Mrs. Nisbet), 28, 
 29, *37, 60, 72, 73, 117, 133, 232. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, his birth and family, 5 ; 
 childhood, 7 ; school-days, 8 ; enters 
 the Navy, 8 ; voyage to West Indies, 
 14; Arctic adventures, 15; in the 
 Seahorse, 16; returns to England, 
 16; in the Worcester, 20; in the 
 Lowestoft, 20 ; promotions, 21; boards 
 a prize in a gale, *21 ; in th & Badger, 
 22 ; in the Hinchinbroke, 22 ; at San 
 Juan, 22 ; returns invalided, 22 ; in 
 the Albemarle, 23; in American 
 waters, 23; appearance, 24; with 
 Hood, 24 ; meets future Duke of 
 Clarence, 24; travels in France,-25 ; 
 in the Boreas, 26 ; in the West 
 Indies, 27 ; marriage, 28 ; returns to 
 England, 29; in the Agamemtion, 
 32 ; Mediterranean service, 33 ; 
 wounded at Calvi, *39 ; in the Cap¬ 
 tain. 45 ; rescues garrison of Elba, 
 48, 62 ; Battle of St. Vincent, 52; 
 attacks Teneriffe, 68 ; loses his 
 arm, 71 ; returns home, 73 ; rejoins 
 St. Vincent, 75 ; in the Mediterranean, 
 79, 83 ; off Naples, 85 ; sails for Egypt, 
 85 ; Battle of the Nile, 92 ; wounded, 
 *94, *96; honours, 102 ; relations 
 with Lady Hamilton, 107 ; disobedi¬ 
 ence, 109; at Palermo, 119; annuls 
 capitulation of Naples forts, 124; 
 travels home, 131 ; lands, *131, 132; 
 separates from his wife, 134 ; at Font- 
 hill, 135; in the Baltic, 140-158; 
 lands at Yarmouth. 159; in the 
 Channel, 160; at Merton, 166, 167; 
 in the Victory, 1 73, &c. ; blockades 
 Toulon, 175; daily life, 176; chases 
 Villeneuve, 185, 188 ; heads for 
 Europe, 193 ; reception in England, 
 197 ; at Merton, 197-200 ; leaves for 
 Cadiz, 200 ; explains his plan, *203, 
 *208 ; last letters to Lady Hamilton, 
 *210, 211 ; Battle of Trafalgar, 212 to 
 end; prayer, 215 ; famous signal, 
 216; wounded, 221, *223; death, 
 
 226; funeral, *227-9 ; character, 227 ; 
 honours, 231 ; tomb and monuments, 
 *230, *231, *232. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, autographs, *7, *18, *70-1, 
 *74-5, *164, *193, *205, *207, *210, 
 *211; arms, *104. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, flagships, *76. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, portraits, *10, *26, *32, 
 *80, *101, *107, *141, *142, *155, 
 *157, *167, *169, *171, *176, *193, 
 *198, *199, *206, *215, *227, *228; 
 busts, *136, *181 ; death-mask, *222. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, relics, *15, *19, *59, *68, 
 *75, *98, *101, *102, *103, *105, *110, 
 *125, *151, *154, *156, *158, *I 7 B 
 
 *175, *176, *187, *196, *198, *204, 
 
 *210, *211, *212, *214, *220, *222, 
 
 *227. 
 
 Nevis, island of, *18, *27, *29. 
 
 Nile, Battle of, 90, 100; celebrating, *100, 
 *138 ; captains at, *84. 
 
 Nisbet, Josiah, 35, 69, 72, 118. 
 
 North Walsham school, Nelson at, *8, *9. 
 
 Norwich, 7, *60, *61. 
 
 Old Commodore, the, *172. 
 
 Orde, Admiral Sir J., *180, 1S1, 185, 186. 
 
 Orders, insignia of, *62, *103, *104, *211, 
 215. 
 
 Orient, French ship, *95, *97, *98, 167. 
 
 Palermo, 119, *120, *126, 130, 183. 
 
 Parker, Admiral Sir Hyde, 138-158. 
 
 Parker, Admiral Sir Peter, *23, 231. 
 
 Parker, Richard, mutineer, 63, *64. 
 
 Parker, Captain W., 138, 159, 161, 163, 
 164. 
 
 Paul, John, *20. 
 
 Pasco, Lieutenant, *158, 216. 
 
 Peace, proclamation of, *165 ; end of, 168. 
 
 Pitt, William, the younger, 25, *173. 
 
 Pole, Admiral Sir Morice, *158. 
 
 Portsmouth, Victory at, *31, 173 ; prizes 
 at, *159; Nelson embarks at, 173, 
 200. 
 
 Powerful, H.M.S., *40. 
 
 Press-gang, *10. 
 
 Prince William Henry. See Clarence, 
 Duke of. 
 
 Prince George, H.M.S., *12. 
 
 Racehorse, H.M.S., *15- 
 
 Raissonnab/e, H.M.S., 9, 14. 
 
 Redoubtable, French ship, 220-229. 
 
 Relics, Nelson. See under Nelson, 
 Horatio. 
 
 Riou, Captain Edward, *147. 
 
 Rodney, Admiral, action off Dominica, *25. 
 
 Romney, George, hi, *112; portraits of 
 Lady Hamilton, *85, *107, *108, *109, 
 *114, *137. 
 
 Rosetta Stone, *89. 
 
 Rowlandson, T., caricatures by, *23, *41, 
 *65, *100, *195. 
 
 Royal Sovereign, H.M.S., 207, 212-225. 
 
 Russia, Czars of, 103, *141, *155, *183. 
 
 Sailors, distressed, *65 ; in argument, * 117 ; 
 “All alive at Portsmouth,” *130; 
 British tar, *180; farewell of, *186; 
 carousing, *195. 
 
 St. Vincent, Battle of, *52, 53-*6o. 
 
 St. Vincent, Lord. See Jervis. 
 
 San Josef, 57, *58, *59, *68. 
 
 San Juan, Nicaragua, *22. 
 
 San Remo, *44. 
 
 Santissima Trinidad, 55, *217, 219, 221, 
 * 222 . 
 
 Sardinia, 80, 81, 182 ; King of, 103. 
 
 Scott, Rev. Alex. John, D.D., Nelson’s 
 Private Secretary and Chaplain of the 
 Victory, 222, 226. 
 
 Scott, John, Nelson’s Public Secretary, 
 219. 
 
 Scylla, *86. 
 
 Seahorse, H.M.S., 16, 69, *124. 
 
 Ships, types of, *14, *40, *46, *192 ; sec 
 tion, *138 ; Nelson’s, *76. 
 
 Signal, Nelson’s famous, 216. 
 
 Smith, Sir W. Sidney, *121, *139. 
 
 Soldiers recruiting, *172. 
 
 Spain, war with, *Frontispiece, 46, 51, 
 *179, 229. 
 
 Spanish dollar, *62. 
 
 Spencer, Earl, 83, *100, 101, 102, 130. 
 
 Squadrons, British, positions of, *194. 
 
 Stage Coach, *9. 
 
 Strachan, Sir R., action after Trafalgar, 
 *226. 
 
 Success, H.M.S., *129. 
 
 Suckling, Captain Maurice, 5, *9, 1 4 > 2I2 - 
 
 Suwarrow, Field-Marshal Count, *130. 
 
 Swords, *15, *19, *59, *101, *102, *104, 
 * 222 . 
 
 Syracuse, *128. 
 
 Talleyrand, 169, *170. 
 
 Temeraire, H.M.S., *214, 222-229. 
 
 Teneriffe, *69, *70, *71, *72 ; attack on, 
 69. 
 
 -Theseus, H.M.S., 62, 69, 92, 134. 
 
 Toulon, *34, *47, 77, 82, 127, *171, *178, 
 181 ; capture of, *35 ; map of, 
 * 35 - 
 
 Trafalgar, Battle of, 212 to end; plans, 
 *208, *213 ; model, *216. 
 
 Troubridge, Sir Thomas, 51, 53, *58, *69, 
 83, *84, 85, 122, 161, 165, 166. 
 
 Turkey, Sultan of, gifts from, *102, 103. 
 
 Uniforms, Naval, *17, *67, *119. 
 
 United States lost to England, 25. 
 
 Vanguard, H.M.S., 75, *76, *81, 90, 92, 
 105, 115, 119. 
 
 Vase, the Trafalgar, *208. 
 
 Victory, H.M.S., *14, *17, *30, *55, *76. 
 *174, *184, *185, *200, *209, *212 to 
 end; her anchor, *198. 
 
 Villeneuve, French admiral, 182, 198, 212, 
 214, 230; chase of, *188. 
 
 Walpole Family, connected with Nelson, 5 ; 
 Robert, *6. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 198, *199. 
 
 West Indies, 14, 25, 1 Si, 186, *189, *190 ; 
 map, *25 ; map of voyage to, *188. 
 
 ! Yarmouth, Nelson lands at, *131, 133, 
 
 *i 35 , 1 59 - 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Title of illustration on p. 12 should read “Forecastle Scene on board H.M.S. Prince George 
 
 p. 79, footnote to illustration of Cairo, after “1798.” read “The city is the modern representative of settlements 
 dating back at least five centuries B. C. ” 
 p. 89, line 8, should read “sandy spit, which bounded the west of the Bay.” 
 p. 194, plan : The five ships between Brest and Ferrol should be French. 
 
NELSON AND HIS TIMES 
 
 BY 
 
 REAR-ADMIRAL LORD CHARLES BERESLORD 
 
 AND 
 
 H. W. WILSON 
 
 (Author of “ Ironclads in Action ") 
 
J\. Wes tally R.A. From the original in the Fainted Hally Greenwich .] [By permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON’S CONFLICT WITH A SPANISH LAUNCH, JULY 3, 1797. 
 
 While making a night attack upon some Spanish gun-boats. Nelson’s barge was engaged by an armed launch carrying twenty-six men, under the Spanish 
 Commander, Don Miguel Tyrason. Nelson had with him only his ten bargemen, Captain Fremantle, and his faithful old coxswain, John Sykes, who twice parried 
 blows intended for Nelson, and at last iuterposed his own head to screen that of his admiral. After a desperate hand-to-hand encounter eighteen of the enemy were 
 killed, all the rest wounded, and the launch taken. Nelson always regarded this as the occasion on which his personal courage was most severely tested and most 
 conspicuously proved. 
 
BURNHAM THORPE CHURCH AND VILLAGE GREEN. 
 
 NELSON AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND EARLY SERVICE, 1758-1776. 
 
 The Navy in 1757— Execution of Byng—Cowardice before the Enemy—Birth of Nelson—Family—The Walpoles—Brothers 
 and Sisters—Nelson and his Rival—Childhood—Indications of Greatness—At School—Stories of School Days— 
 Chooses the Navy — A Midshipman — Journey to London — In the Raisonnable — The Navy in 1770— Articles of War — 
 Punishments — Flogging round the Fleet — Bullying — Food—The Midshipmen — The Seaman’s Life — Prize-money 
 —Mutinies—Ships and Guns—Nelson’s Early Service—Voyage to the West Indies—Joins the Arctic Expedition— 
 His Adventures —Under Captain Farmer—Return to England—His Dejection—The Dawn of Genius. 
 
 N a raw and gusty morning of March 1757, the year before Horatio Nelson, England’s 
 
 greatest naval hero, was born, Portsmouth saw a singular sight. A fleet of line-of- 
 
 battle ships lay at Spithead, tossing to and fro in the heavy swell, 
 The Navy in 1757 . , , . J , , . ’ & , . . J , 
 
 and threatening to break loose from their moorings. d he yards and 
 
 all the tops of the ships in the harbour, save one, were crowded with seamen, whose 
 
 attention was fixed upon the quarter-deck of a seventy-four. Boats laden with officers in their bright 
 
 blue uniforms were constantly going alongside to disembark their passengers. Around her, in spite cf 
 
 the roughness of the weather, had gathered an immense concourse of small craft, crammed with 
 
 spectators. These were every now and then driven back from too close proximity to the seventy-four 
 
 by guard-boats. 
 
 On the quarter-deck of the line-of-battle ship was an even more remarkable spectacle. On the 
 one side lav an open coffin and a heap of sawdust, upon which was placed a cushion. Facing these 
 
4 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [ I 757- 
 
 From a contemporary Engraving ] 
 
 [in the British Museum. 
 
 THE EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG. 
 
 Cowardice before 
 the enemy. 
 
 dismal paraphernalia stood a file of nine marines with loaded muskets. The deck was crowded with 
 
 officers and men, whose countenances showed that they expected some mournful 
 Execution of Byng. eyenL Presently there came up from the admiral’s cabin to the quarter-deck a 
 group of four men. One was a chaplain ; two more were talking earnestly to the fourth on whom all 
 
 eyes were riveted. He w'ore a grey 
 coat, white waistcoat and stockings, 
 and a large white w r ig; in one hand he 
 carried a folded handkerchief. With 
 firm even step he walked to the 
 cushion, knelt down, tied the hand¬ 
 kerchief over his eyes, and taking 
 another from his pocket, held it up 
 whilst he continued on his knees in 
 silent prayer. Six of the nine marines 
 stepped forward and presented arms, 
 and there was a silence as of death. 
 The kneeling figure dropped the hand¬ 
 kerchief, a volley instantly rang out, 
 and as the smoke cleared away, what had been a man lay prone and motionless. A seaman who had 
 been watching, turned away with tears in his eyes, and exclaimed, “ There lies the bravest and best 
 officer in the Navy.” 
 
 This “bravest and best officer in the Navy” in its very darkest hour w'as Admiral Byng. The 
 crime for which he had suffered was disobedience to the twelfth Article of War w'hich ordains that 
 
 “every person who in time of action shall withdraw, keep back, or not come into 
 fight, or who shall not do his utmost 
 to take or destroy every ship which it 
 shall be his duty to engage, through motive of cowardice, 
 negligence, or disaffection, shall suffer death.” Sent out to 
 relieve Minorca, he had met and declined to fight a French 
 fleet of strength equal to his own. And now he had been 
 shot; not because he was a coward, for his bravery before 
 the firing party disproved that, but because he had not 
 done his duty in the face of the enemy. His death was 
 to “ encourage the others,” as a Frenchman wittily said, 
 and to teach British admirals that if from any motive they 
 flinched from the foe, they would have to pay the penalty 
 with their life. “ They make a precedent of me,” said the 
 unhappy man himself, “such as admirals hereafter may feel 
 the effects of.” Byng’s action was inspired by constitutional 
 timidity of head. He was not a coward, and he was 
 sent out with a miserably-equipped fleet ; but all the 
 same, he shrank from responsibility and from the risks 
 which must be run in war to win success. The country 
 was excited; it saw dangers ahead. The Ministry of the 
 day wanted a scapegoat, and therefore the unsuccessful 
 admiral suffered. At that moment there was no naval 
 officer with a master-mind commanding the respect and 
 attention of the country. It was, however, before the days 
 of grim Boscawen and tough old Hawke, before the glories 
 of the Seven Years’ War and the struggle with Napoleon, 
 and before Nelson had become the pattern and patron 
 saint of our seamen. 
 
 IV. Ho arc, R.A .] 
 
 [From the Engraving by R. Houston. 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT (AFTERWARDS 
 EARL OF CHATHAM), 1708-1778. 
 
 “The Great Commoner” was a Comishman, born Novem¬ 
 ber 15, 1708, and educated at Eton and Trinity. Entered Parlia¬ 
 ment in 1735 for Old Sarurn, and became Joint Vice-Treasurer 
 of Ireland 1744, Paymaster-General 1746-55, Secretary of State 
 1756, Leader of the House of Commons and First Minister with 
 the Duke of Newcastle 1757-61, created Earl of Chatham 1766, 
 Lord Privy Seal and First Minister 1766-8. He was seized with 
 sudden illness whilst speaking in the House of Lords, April 7, 1778. 
 and died at Hayes, Kent, May 11. ihe portrait reproduced was 
 painted about 1750. 
 
1758.] 
 
 Nelson s Birth and Ancestry. 
 
 5 
 
 Birth of Nelson. 
 
 Stimulated by the fiery genius of William Pitt, in after days Lord Chatham, victory was already 
 returning to our flag when the man was born who was to advance the reputation of our Navy 
 
 and the influence of our sea power to the utmost height. Horatio Nelson saw 
 the light on September 29, 1758, a few months after the tragedy of Byng, 
 at the small Norfolk village of Burnham Thorpe, which stands amidst woods not far from King’s 
 Lynn, on the edge of the vast salt marshes fringing the Wash. Behind it the country rises in 
 soft undulating wolds. Even now this corner of England lies remote and apart; at that time it 
 was further from London than are the Hebrides to-day. In 1760 it positively took six days to go 
 from Edinburgh to London, and coaches only ran once a month. So that Burnham Thorpe might 
 be said, without exaggeration, to have been out of the world. 
 
 Horatio Nelson was the sixth 
 child of the Rev. Edmund Nelson, 
 
 rector of Burn¬ 
 ham Thorpe, 
 who came of a family of parsons. 
 
 The father of Edmund Nelson was 
 an Etonian, and had been educated 
 at Cambridge. He married the 
 daughter of a Cambridge baker of 
 considerable fortune, and oddly 
 enough of fair family, and by his 
 
 Family. 
 
 From an Eng,1 aving ] 
 
 [by W. C. Edwards. 
 
 F. Pocock.\ [From the Engraving by J. Landseer. 
 
 NELSON’S BIRTHPLACE, BURNHAM THORPE RECTORY, NORFOLK. 
 
 marriage acquired some property and the rectory of Hillborough, 
 of which the Rev. Edmund Nelson was for some time incumbent. 
 The grandfather of Edmund Nelson, and the great-grandfather 
 of Horatio, was a considerable landowner. These facts are 
 important, because, in the eighteenth century, the parson was 
 not necessarily of any social standing. He might be, and fre¬ 
 quently was, little better than a peasant. He married the squire’s 
 lady’s maid, and when invited to the squire’s table was usually 
 the butt of after-dinner practical jokes. In those days of hard 
 drinking the topers would paint his face black when he fell 
 under the table after two or three bottles of port, the allowance 
 of each guest. The value of livings was lower then than it is 
 now, and often did not reach £ 5 0 a y ear - f n the noith it 
 was still the fashion for the parson to board for a week with 
 each of the farmers of his parish in turn, receiving food and 
 odging in lieu of a stipend. The Nelsons, however, stood higher in the social scale than these poor 
 ledge priests. 
 
 The Rev. Edmund Nelson married into a powerful family, descended from the Walpoles. Mrs. Nelson, 
 he mother of Horatio, was the great-niece of Sir Robert Walpole, for twenty-one years Prime 
 
 Minister of England, and the author of the saying that “every man has his price 
 The Walpoles. ^ ^ therefore be bought. She was a Miss Suckling, the daughter of Pre¬ 
 bendary Suckling, of Westminster, and the sister of Captain Maurice Suckling, a very distinguished 
 ifficer in the Royal Navy. On October 21, I 757 > a da Y to be afterwards memorable as the anniversary 
 
 NELSON’S FATHER, 
 
 THE REV. EDMUND NELSON, RECTOR 
 OF BURNHAM THORPE, 
 
 T722-l802. 
 
 Born at East Bradenham, Norfolk, the son of a clergy¬ 
 man of the same name, and educated at Caius College, 
 Cambridge. 
 
 I 
 
6 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 U75 8 - 
 
 of Trafalgar, he played a great part in an action between three small British battleships and a 
 greatly superior French force. Up to the hour of his death in 1778 he was the consistent friend 
 
 . %/U V tut T? rtf 4yz ft. /A 
 itiStiQrv*} r/ /yfb. mic-j/' 
 
 /tCji. eb'ofe'r :>/ 
 
 % N/i ] ju/^ 
 
 
 
 ft Cl |3 IvT-'Vn S 
 
 ’ ne # 
 
 jcLni ti Joit. ojTttiOCJy 0iCvrij fttcLtk.J.cv)V- Ij nS/J 
 
 TCtZMflpXLQ!:.. 
 
 i TZ yr~~ ~e * 
 
 i 
 
 '■X 
 
 FACSIMILE (SLIGHTLY REDUCED) OF THE REGISTER OF NELSON’S BAPTISM. 
 
 The entry is in the handw riting of the Rev. Edmund Nelson : of the marginal notes the first was probably made by Nelson’s brother William, afterwards 
 first Earl Nelson, and those below by Mr. Bolton, who married Susannah, sister of Horatio. 
 
 of the Nelsons, and in particular of Horatio. For the last three years of his life he held an official 
 position at the Admiralty—the post of Comptroller—and as such had many opportunities of pushing 
 his nephew’s fortune. To him Nelson owed his quick promotion to captain’s rank. The young 
 Horatio looked up to him with deep affection. Nor did the Walpoles overlook their needy kinsmen. 
 Horatio, second Lord Wolterton, was Nelson’s godfather, and gave him his peculiar name. The 
 Walpoles presented Nelson’s father to the living of Burnham Thorpe. 
 
 Horatio Nelson was one of eleven children, several of whom 
 died very young. His mother died when he was but a boy 
 
 of nine, and many of the family were sickly. 
 No other members of his home attained to 
 
 Sir G. Kneller.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by 
 L . Simon. 
 
 Brothers and 
 sisters. 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT WALPOLE 
 (AFTERWARDS EARL OF ORFORD), 
 1676-1745. 
 
 Born 'it Houghton, Norfolk, pud educated at 
 Eton and King’s College, Cambridge; he became 
 Secretary at War in 1708, and was First Lord of 
 the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 
 17?a to 1742. Upon his reti.ement he w:s created 
 Lari of Orford. 
 
 fame. His father was a good, hard-working, 
 and upright parson, but little more. The Nelsons were poor and 
 
 had to make their way in the world. Horatio’s later letters are 
 
 filled with reference to his poverty; and his gifts of money to his 
 
 father and sisters, and his payments to relieve them of debt, 
 
 whilst they illustrate his noble generosity, leave no doubt as to his 
 family’s pecuniary position. 
 
 Thus Nelson, like his great French rival and antagonist, Napoleon, who was ten years his junior, 
 
 was born of a family of good descent in an out-of-the-way corner of the world; like him and like 
 
 XI , , ,. others of our great admirals, he had to undergo the stern and refining discipline 
 
 Nelson and his c & & r 
 
 °i poverty, which often forms a character; but more fortunate than Napoleon, 
 whose Corsican ancestry was no recommendation in France, he had influence to 
 make an opening for him when the time should come. 
 
 SIR ROBT. WALPOLE 
 
 Horatio, first Lord 
 Wolterton 
 
 Horatio, second 
 Lord Wolterton 
 (Nelson's god¬ 
 father) 
 
 Capt. Maurice Suckling Catherine = Rev. Edmund Nelson 
 
 I 
 
 HORATIO NELSON. 
 
 Sir Robt. Walpole, MARY=Sir C. Turner 
 
 Earl of Orford 
 
 I I 
 
 Horace Walpole Anne = Prebendary 
 
 Suckling 
 
7 
 
 1758-68.] 
 
 A 7 c I son and Napoleon. 
 
 Of his childhood we know but little, 
 course, are not wanting in his case. 
 
 „ , grandmother at 
 
 Childhood. b 
 
 wandered off birds’-nesting with 
 another boy, and was lost for hours. At last he was 
 found alone, sitting tranquilly by a stream, which he 
 could not cross. He was taken home to his grand¬ 
 mother, who said to him, “ I wonder, child, that hunger 
 and fear did not drive you home.” “Fear,” answered 
 the young Horatio proudly—in the story—“ never came 
 near me.” There is, however, evidence to show that 
 Nelson was one of those men who have that highest 
 type of courage which feels, but overcomes, fear. Him¬ 
 self he said in after years, “ The bravest man feels an 
 anxiety circa pracordia as he enters the battle.” And 
 on another occasion he refused to be driven in a 
 phaeton by four spirited horses, saying, “ This is too 
 much for me, you must set me down.” Those soldiers 
 and sailors who have seen most of war and of man¬ 
 kind are the most sceptical as to the absence of fear 
 in human beings. What is called fear is often merely 
 a thorough knowledge of the dangers of a position; 
 absence of fear usually means ignorance. 
 
 From the first his father is said to have pro¬ 
 phesied great things of him. He said, in whatever 
 
 station Horatio was placed, he 
 would climb to the top of the tree. 
 The boy’s energy and persever¬ 
 ance, or that indomitable strength of character which 
 in after days enabled him to bear responsibility and 
 
 Legends embellish the youth of all great men, and these, of 
 1 he tale is told that once when a mere child, staying with his 
 Hillborough, he 
 
 Indications of 
 greatness. 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Eyre & Spottisavoode. 
 
 BIRTHPLACE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 
 AJACCIO, CORSICA. 
 
 overcome 
 
 weak and hesitating 
 
 superiors, may 
 
 have impressed him. For these were characteristics which would not attract much attention outside 
 his family, but which at the same time are essential in the great leader of men. 
 
 (The Year i 'jNj ) 
 
 Page 
 
 * M HLa j ,L 1 \ T . k j l.. . U &U: 
 
 flw ty/Vf, o and '/Vt, A, r. ~ / L /d/,A*ns*> of. 
 
 >3 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 Carried in 'this 
 
 tbis fhf r A 
 
 NU _ J p jUY Cjc Ol N 
 
 .1 rt\ I. nx X f j TO' 
 
 jd.cr\n tw Ft, 
 
 t to. A\ C 0 
 
 S' 
 
 m add. pa'the Yexir One Thou [and 
 
 ..... 
 
 _ OIL Mar n agc y ds C _ 
 
 Jblenihized between Us I fJu' fdnJd In a Ifc^O / 
 
 FACSIMILE (SLIGHTLY REDUCED) OF AN ENTRY IN THE PARISH REGISTER OF BURNHAM THORPE. 
 
 The signature of young Nelson, now ten years old, to this entiy suggests that at home he went by the name of “ Horace,” and letters from some 
 members of the family confirm this supposition, 'lhe alteration to “Horatio” is in the handwriting of his father. 
 
 He went to school at Norwich and North Walsham. At the latter place, a brick is still shown 
 in a wall on which can be seen the initials “ H. N.” cut in old fashioned characters with his own 
 
8 
 
 Nelso?i and His Times. 
 
 L 1 77 1 * 
 
 At School. 
 
 Stories of School 
 Days. 
 
 hand. North Walsham was like any other small boys’ school of the time. Nelson sat in the school¬ 
 room “ between the parlour door and the chimney,” the latter to his right. The 
 school had a flogging master named “Classic Jones,” who doubtless made young 
 Horatio acquainted with the birch. Nelson’s class was the second, in which he seems to have been 
 two years. 
 
 Two stories—both probably true—are told about him at this time. He and his brother William 
 were on their wav to school in heavy snow. In those roadless days travelling was both more difficult 
 and dangerous than it is now, and there was usually only a narrow track just broad enough for a 
 
 horse, with a quag¬ 
 mire on either side. 
 Inns and houses 
 were few and far between in that part 
 of Norfolk. The boys were therefore 
 told to come back if the roads were 
 dangerous, but to prevent tricks, they 
 were put upon their honour not to do 
 so without good reason. As the snow 
 was reasonably deep, William was 
 minded to return, but Horatio could 
 not be moved. “ We must go on,” 
 he said, “remember it was left to our 
 
 From a Photograph J [by Eyre Spottisu oode 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NORTH WALSHAM. 
 
 honour.” Again, “ Classic Jones ” re¬ 
 joiced in some very fine pears which— 
 such was their terror of the birch— 
 all the boys coveted but dare not 
 take. Nelson on this, eager to prove 
 his courage, was lowered by a rope of 
 sheets, and returned with the longed- 
 for pears, which he distributed to the 
 other boys, but did not touch himself, 
 remarking, “ I only took them because 
 ever) 7 other boy was afraid.” 
 
 The time had now come for Nel¬ 
 son to leave school and choose a 
 profession. In those days boys were 
 seldom kept at school much bevond 
 fourteen. He was now thirteen, very 
 
 From a Photography f by Eyre Spottiswoode . 
 
 THE SCHOOI ROOM, NORTH WALSHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 
 Chooses the Navy. 
 
 delicate in health and without the constitution or physique for a sailor’s life. Small, 
 
 under-sized and sickly, he was apparently the least fitted of his family for the Navy, 
 though all his brothers seem to have been delicate. The strength and indomitable courage of Nelson’s 
 nature are very greatly enhanced by the fact that this delicacy clung to him throughout his career, and 
 rhat he was always weak and ailing. Every strong man knows how enormously his energy and pluck 
 might be reduced by not feeling well. In these times of strict physical examination Nelson would almost 
 certainly have been rejected. And thus when he asked his father to send him to sea with Captain 
 Suckling, and his father in due course applied to that officer, the reply was most discouraging, “ What 
 has poor little Horatio done, who is so weak, that above all the rest he should be sent to rough it at 
 
9 
 
 1 77 1 •] 
 
 Nelson Enters the Navy. 
 
 sea ? But let him come, and the first time we go into action a cannon-ball may knock off his head 
 and so provide for him.” 
 
 Without any examination, without any fuss or red tape, Captain Suckling turned Horatio Nelson into 
 
 a full-fledged midshipman by the mere 
 
 „ process of enter- 
 
 A Midshipman. 
 
 ing him under that 
 rating on the books of the Raisonnable. 
 
 From a Photograph ] \by Eyre &• Spottiswoode. 
 
 BRICK, BEARING NELSON’S INITIALS, CUT BY HIS OWN HAND, AT 
 NORTH WALSHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 
 |B 
 
 life 
 
 From the Engraving ] 
 
 [by Ridley. 
 
 NELSON’S UNCLE, 
 
 CAPTAIN MAURICE SUCKLING. 
 
 Entered the Navy when very young and became a 
 lieutenant in 1745 and captain in 1755, when he com¬ 
 missioned the Dreadnought, of sixty guns. He took 
 command of the Raisonnable in 1770 and the Triumph 
 in 1771 ; was appointed Comptroller of the Navy 1775, 
 and elected M.P. for Portsmouth shortly before his 
 death in 177S. 
 
 This was nothing extraordinary in an age which saw sons of 
 admirals promoted captains at fifteen, and majors and colonels 
 in the Army of just as tender years. On the first day of 1771 
 the young Nelson's name appears on the books of the ship; 
 some days earlier the lad had joined her. His parting from 
 his brother and his school friends was perhaps the first real 
 sorrow of his life. Now he was going forth from the family 
 circle of Burnham and Walsham, to the larger, colder, and 
 more critical world. 
 
 He travelled to London with his father in the coach, 
 and his journey must have been slow and tedious. Poor as 
 
 the Nelsons were, the two must have 
 
 Journey to London. . . , 
 
 travelled on the outside ot the coach, 
 
 where the seats were most uncomfortable and cheapest. So 
 the pair at last jolted over the cobble-stone paved streets of 
 London, where the father and son parted, the son taking a 
 seat in the Chatham coach, and the father returning to 
 
 distant Burnham, which must have appeared thousands of miles away to the home-sick boy. 
 
 When at last he reached the Raisonnable no warm welcome awaited him. His uncle was away 
 
 and no one knew of his coming or paid him 
 
 any attention. It is the 
 
 In the “ Raisonnable.” 
 
 warm and affectionate 
 heart that feels most bitterly the want of 
 sympathy at such a moment. Added to the 
 sorrows of his parting from home and of his 
 present loneliness were the rudeness and dis¬ 
 comforts of life in the Navy. The child sees 
 the future in rose colour; seafaring life to 
 the imagination has a thousand attractions 
 and delights, till its disadvantages and rough¬ 
 ness, which are lost sight of in the distance, 
 are seen close at hand. All those novels 
 and other books which have had great effect 
 in inducing lads to go to sea, have dwelt 
 principally on the heroic and exciting epi¬ 
 sodes of sea life, and hardly mentioned the 
 dull, dreary routine, the iron discipline, and the monotonous portion of existence on the ocean. In 
 after days when he was a great man, Nelson never forgot his midshipmen. His interest in them 
 
 a 5 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 STAGE-COACH AND POST-CHAISE OF 1787. 
 
 [by Rowlandson 
 
 It must have been in a coach very like this that Nelson made his first journey 
 
 to London. 
 
Nelson and Ills limes . 
 
 i o 
 
 I 77 I - 
 
 The Navy in 1770. 
 
 Articles of War. 
 
 Attributed to Gainsborough.] 
 
 NELSON AS A MIDSHIPMAN. 
 
 From a painting contributed by the late Benj. Ridge, 
 M.D., to the Loan Exhibition of National Portraits at South 
 Kensington in 1868. This portrait, however, has never been 
 fully authenticated. 
 
 and sympathy for their joys and sorrows show that he was anxious to spare them those discomforts 
 which he had to face as a youngster. , 
 
 Life in the British Navy at the date of Nelson's entry was far different from what it is now. The 
 officers were for the most part rough, brutal, and drunken in their habits. The seamen were in time 
 
 of peace recruited only for the period of 
 the ship’s commission; in time of war 
 they were taken by the press-gangs from the streets of our 
 ports, or from the jails. Savage encounters between the press- 
 gangs and men who resisted impressment were far from un¬ 
 common, and every now and then a sailor would be knocked 
 on the head. In the course of the American War we find 
 American prisoners taken on board our ships from British 
 jails. We find vessels in which nearly the whole crew was 
 composed of Irishmen, who could scarcely speak one word of 
 English. To prevent the hatching of mutinies, orders were 
 frequently given and enforced that no conversation in Irish 
 should be allowed on board. The seamen of the fleet 
 deserted at every turn ; they were often as rough, brutal, 
 and drunken as their officers. To hold them down was a 
 matter of no small difficulty. 
 
 The code of rules governing the Navy, or “the Articles 
 of War,” were therefore of extraordinary severity. Almost 
 
 any offence could be punished by a 
 court-martial with death. “ Shall suffer 
 death ” is their dismal refrain. Disobeying orders, hanging 
 back in action, not assisting friends, refusing service because 
 wages had not been paid—a state of things only too common in the Navy at that date—deserting, 
 uttering mutinous words, striking a superior officer, neglect in steering a ship, sleeping on watch, 
 and robbery were all punishable with death. The alternative was scourging on the bare back with 
 the cat-of-nine-tails—a terrible implement of torture. 
 
 Any captain could order forty-eight lashes without a court-martial. A man would get two dozen 
 
 for saying that it was not his watch. There are in¬ 
 stances when men were flogged 
 for losing a cap or being a 
 minute late in getting down their hammocks. With 
 a brutal captain the ship became a hell, from which 
 there was no escape except by death. “ Let us do 
 what we will we can gain no goodwill nor satis¬ 
 faction from our captain, nothing but flogging from 
 morning to night,” the men complained to an 
 admiral, and were flogged round the fleet, entail¬ 
 ing a punishment of 500 lashes, for making such 
 a complaint. 
 
 The culprits were put into a launch fitted 
 with a platform and shears, to which the un¬ 
 happy men were triced up. 
 The boat was then towed 
 alongside the first ship and a 
 ctitain number of lashes inflicted, after which the sufferers were allowed to sit down, and their 
 shoulders co\ered witn a blanket, whilst being towed to the next vessel. The wounds had time 
 
 to close, the blood to congeal, which added to the pain of the torture. The cat was made of nine 
 hempen cords attached to a stout handle, and each cord near the end of the lash was bound with 
 
 Punishments. 
 
 From the Etching] 
 
 {by /. Gillray. 
 
 THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT: A TAILOR SEIZED BY A 
 PRESS-GANG. Dated 1779. 
 
 Flogging round the 
 Fleet. 
 
1 77 1 • j 
 
 Condition of the Seamen. 
 
 11 
 
 Bullying. 
 
 fine twine. After a few lashes it drew blood and the man who had suffered 200, 300, or 500 lashes, 
 if he survived, was completely broken in health and spirits. Though more lashes were given in the 
 Army, the cat used was not so formidable and the pain inflicted was far less. Besides this, flogging 
 in the Army was conducted by the drummers, who were generally small and weak men, whereas 
 flogging in the Navy was conducted by the boatswain’s mates, who were invariably the biggest and 
 most powerful men in the ship. Added to which, they were drilled to flog at periodic intervals, 
 having to belabour a cask under the superintendence of the boatswain. 
 
 But besides floggings by his captain, the seaman often had to undergo much brutality at the 
 hands of his comrades and of the boatswain and his mates. In the dusty pages of the “Court Martials” 
 
 is recorded a case where an unfortunate man had his hair burnt off and one 
 ear cut off; an attempt is made to hang him by fastening a rope round his 
 neck and hauling him up to a beam ; and finally the head clew of his hammock is repeatedly cut 
 down, with the result that he falls violently on the deck. The boatswains and the midshipmen 
 carried rattan canes as thick as the little finger, and belaboured with them men who were slack in 
 performing duty. In 
 the ' same “ Court 
 Martials ” is recorded 
 the case of a man 
 who was flogged to 
 death by the boat¬ 
 swain, and yet the sea¬ 
 men dared not make 
 any complaint. The 
 lieutenant of the watch, 
 when a man told him 
 what had happened, 
 only answered that he 
 was not a judge. The 
 body was hastily 
 thrown overboard, and 
 the matter left to an¬ 
 other and a greater 
 Judge. 
 
 The food in the 
 Navy was then a little 
 
 G. Crnik shank.\ 
 
 [From “Greenwich Hospital" by the Old Sailor. 
 
 FLOGGING IN THE NAVY. 
 
 The roloured etching here reproduced was executed in 1825, but relates to the time of the mutiny at Spithead in i 7 97 - !t 
 is an rilustratLn to a ' f varn” about a seaman wrongfully condemned to be flogged for calling out at the capstan contrary to 
 orders. The actual culprit steps forward and offers his own back—whereupon both are paidoncd. 
 
 better than in Smol¬ 
 lett’s time — a time 
 
 vividly described in , 
 
 “Roderick Random’’—but still it was bad. Indifferent salt meat, pease-pudding, and sour beer lor the 
 
 men; salt meat, rancid butter, and “purser’s” cheese—which was generally a stink- 
 F °° d ' ing compound—for the officers, with of course a good allowance of grog for all. In 
 
 those days the men got a gill of rum a day, half in the dinner hour and half in the evening, after 
 “night-quarters”; this was generally served raw. The weight of food was invariably short—a great an 
 shameful grievance. Beer was issued freely to the men as a preventative of scurvy. A cask would be 
 broached in the afternoon on deck and the men would come and take it away to drink. On suci 
 occasions disorder was very common; and sometimes handspikes were thrown about just missing t e 
 leers of the lieutenant who was superintending. Water was carried in casks, not distilled, and wou 
 often be verging on the condition known as putrid. The biscuit supplied was so full of weevils that 
 there was a standing service joke about weevils being the only fresh meat tasted since the ship had put 
 to sea. Even in the days of Jervis’s and Nelson’s blockade of Toulon, when there had been considerable 
 improvements in the victualling of the Navy, we find complaints on this score, and it was not an 
 unknown thing for three seamen to be put upon one man’s allowance when food ran short. 
 
Nelson and His Tunes 
 
 I 77 I - 
 
 I 2 
 
 The midshipmen, amongst whom Nelson must now be classed, lived in the gun-room, a tiny 
 space in the steerage, shut off from the deck with canvas screens, where they frequently had to 
 
 subsist on rum, putrid water, and weevilly biscuit. The gun-room was usually dark, 
 The Midshipmen. uncom f or table, and very malodorous; its one table thickly covered with tallow 
 from the wretched candle which gave the only light. The Navy being constantly engaged in war, the 
 mind was distracted from all these horrors, or they could not have lasted as long as they did. The 
 midshipmen might be a very select or a very mixed lot, according to the captain of the ship. If the 
 captain had a reputation, in the days when the Navy became the aristocratic service, his gun-room 
 would be filled with young sprigs of the nobility. If otherwise, the midshipmen might be sons of 
 bumboat-women or small tradesmen. Their staple amusement was the practical joke. Taking early 
 to the sea, they were quickly inured to the discomforts of ship life ; they acquired sea-legs; and though 
 they might be, and usually were, miserably educated, in professional matters they were competent 
 
 enough. Before being promoted lieutenant they 
 had to pass an examination, show six years’ sea 
 service, and be at least twenty years of age. 
 These regulations, however, did not in practice 
 amount to very much and were often evaded. 
 
 We can now understand how it was Dr. 
 Johnson said that no man with contrivance 
 
 enough to get himself in 
 jail would be a sailor. The 
 pay was low, and usually months, or it might 
 be years, in arrear. Sometimes a disreputable 
 captain would embezzle part of his ship’s com¬ 
 pany’s pay, and they would get little or nothing 
 and not dare to complain. In the “ Court 
 Martials ” the crew of the Bonavista write to 
 their admiral to say they have had no pay for 
 four years, “ through which we have suffered 
 great hardships by the inclemency of the weather 
 and the want of clothing.” On the other hand, 
 in war, and even in peace, when there were 
 still many pirates on the high seas, there was 
 always a chance of prize-money. As we shall 
 hear something from Nelson on this subject it 
 
 The Seaman's Life. 
 
 T. S tot hard, [Painted from Nature , 1779. 
 
 QUARTER-DECK SCENE ON P, 0 \RD H.M.S. “PRINCE GEORG F.” 
 
 This was the ship on which Prince William Henry (afterwards King William IV.) 
 was, at the time of the artist’s visit, serving as a midshipman. 
 
 will be well to give a few words to it. 
 
 Prize-money. 
 
 Any ship captured with all stores on board 
 was the property of the captors, and when it 
 
 had been declared a lawful 
 prize could be sold for them 
 by their agent and the money distributed in the following proportions :—The admiral or commodore 
 in command of the fleet or squadron, whether on board or not, one-eighth; the captain, two-eighths; 
 the captain of marines and sea lieutenants, one-eighth ; the junior officers, midshipmen, warrant and 
 petty officers, two-eighths; the rest of the crew, two-eighths. With a rich prize the fortunes of the 
 officers might be made for life. Thus, when in 1799 two British frigates captured two Spanish treasure- 
 ships, each captain received £40,730 ; each lieutenant, £5,091; each warrant officer, £2,468; each petty 
 officer, £791 ; and each seaman, £182. In his command in the East Indies during the American War, 
 one admiral amassed by prize-money a fortune of £40,000 a year, but this was the record. There were 
 bitter complaints by the men both of the smallness of the share which they received and of the great 
 difficulty of obtaining payment, which was another very real grievance. 
 
 Under these deplorable conditions with pressed men, criminals, foreigners, and sometimes enemies, 
 on board our ships, mutinies and dangerous conspiracies were fairly common. The pressed men in the 
 
1 77 1 -] 
 
 Sources of Discontent in the Navy. 
 
 13 
 
 Speedwell attempted to blow up the ship s deck and to poison the officers with arsenic; in the Hawk 
 Mutinies. ° n February I > J 77 ^’ they rose on the officers, confined them, and deserted; in 
 
 the Savage the boatswain's mate and several able seamen conspired with their 
 American prisoners to seize the ship; in the Pvotlice the Irish crew, with a surgeon’s mate, prepared to 
 rise on the officers and murder 
 them ; in the Narcissus there was 
 a similar plot; the crew of the 
 Bounty put their captain and 
 officers into a boat and with their 
 ship vanished on the broad ex¬ 
 panse of the Pacific. Fortunately 
 for them several of them reached 
 an unknown island where no ex¬ 
 peditions could find them. The 
 men of the Invincible on being 
 ordered from Plymouth to the 
 West Indies—a station where 
 ships’ companies died like flies— 
 refused to weigh anchor as they 
 had not received their wages. 
 
 Desertions were so frequent that 
 42,000 men were logged “ run ” 
 from the Navy in the first ten 
 years of the great war with 
 France. At the same time there 
 was another side to the picture, and, so far as we know, these men never showed cowardice in 
 action or flinched when side by side with an enemy; and under a brilliant captain who was kindly and 
 humane, their lot was not a hard one when the difficulties of the times are taken into consideration. 
 
 A word or two must be said about the ships of the Navy at this date. They were, of course, 
 
 On the 
 other hand, 
 
 Ships and Guns. 
 
 they had 
 from time to time to send a- 
 shore for water. The line-of- 
 battle ships carried from fifty or 
 sixty-four to no guns, the heavi¬ 
 est of which were thirty-two 
 pounders mounted on rough 
 wooden carriages, and firing a 
 round shot or grape, which is 
 the name given to a number 
 of small shot secured round a 
 spindle with an iron base. Be¬ 
 sides these guns all ships of any 
 size carried carronades, or short 
 
 R. Dodd.] 
 
 [From the original Engraving in the British Museum. 
 
 THE MUTINY ON BOARD H.M.S. “ BOUNTY.” 
 
 Lieutenant Bligh, with some of the officers and crew, turned adrift by the mutineers. 
 
 wooden sailing vessels, without exception, and thus they needed no coal for propulsion 
 
 cannon of light 
 
 weight 
 
 and 
 
 John Collett .] . I By permission of Commander Robinson, R.N. 
 
 TARS TRIUMPHANT : DEFYING THE LAW AT WAPPING, i 7 58. 
 
 various sizes, mounted on very 
 handy carriages, and firing a 
 shot from twelve to sixty-eight 
 pounds in weight. They were 
 of use only at close quarters. 
 Frigates ranged from forty-four 
 
H 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 
 Nelson’s Early 
 Service. 
 
 guns downwards, and did- the work of our modern Powerfuls, Edgars, and Minervas, as the line-of- 
 battle ship did the work of our Majesties and Royal Sovereigns. Answering to our waspish destroyers 
 and torpedo-boats were fireships, cutters, gunboats, and small brigs. The fireship was crammed with 
 combustibles; she was carried into the midst of the enemy’s fleet and then set on fire. But in Nelson’s 
 day she was a craft of little value, and 
 was already disappearing. 
 
 The Raisonnable had been com¬ 
 missioned in the expectation of war 
 
 with Spain, as diffi¬ 
 culties had arisen 
 with that Power 
 about the Falkland Islands. Spain, 
 however, yielded, and the Raisonnable 
 was paid off, Captain Suckling moving 
 to the Triumph, then guard-ship at the 
 Nore. On January I, 1771, on the 
 books of that ship, Nelson was entered 
 as “ captain’s servant,” in accordance 
 with the custom of the time which 
 allowed captains to take young rela¬ 
 tives to sea in that capacity. In the 
 “Court Martials” instances occur of 
 captains’ clerks doing duty as midship¬ 
 men, and captains’ servants keeping 
 watch on the quarter-deck, whence it 
 is evident that there was nothing irre¬ 
 gular in Nelson’s position. 
 
 W. A. Richards .] 
 
 [By permission 0/ Symouds 
 hr 1 Co., Ports?nouth. 
 
 FIRST-RATE LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP OF 
 NELSON’S DAY. 
 
 H.M.S. Victory , the flagship successively of Hood, 
 of Jervis, and of Nelson, was launched at Chatham 
 in 1765. She was rated for 100 guns but actually 
 carried 102. She is here represented with her stud- 
 dine-sails set, exactly as she sailed, a marvel of grace 
 and beauty, into action at Trafalgar. 
 
 Yoyage to the West 
 Indies. 
 
 by his uncle to sea in a West 
 
 Indiaman, and 
 learnt some¬ 
 thing of prac¬ 
 tical seamanship, and plenty of 
 prejudice against the Royal Navy, 
 which, history records, was by no 
 means popular whether in the 
 forecastles or on the quarter-decks of our merchantmen. He returned to the Triumph and Captain Suckling 
 in July 1772, and spent some weeks in his old ship. This time he put to good use by learning, with 
 characteristic zeal and interest in his profession, the difficult pilotage of the Thames’ mouth—a splendid 
 school for the young officer. Amongst the shoals and sandbanks he acquired confidence in himself: the 
 life of hard work in the open air gave him pleasurable excitement and strengthened his constitution. 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Symonds dr 9 Co., Portsmouth. 
 
 FIRST-CLASS BATTLESHIP OF TO-DAY. 
 
 H.M.S. Majestic , twin-screw armoured battleship of 14,900 tons, 10,000 indicated horse-power under 
 natural draught, is to day the flagship of the Channel Squadron. 
 
Nelson in Polar Seas. 
 
 I 77 I_ 73-': 
 
 3 
 
 Joins the Arctic 
 Expedition. 
 
 Early in 1773 the Government decided to send an expedition to the Arctic Seas to explore the 
 North-east passage. The ships selected were mortar-vessels, of unusually solid construction, the Carcass, 
 
 Captain Lutwidge, and the Racehorse. They were specially strengthened for the 
 dangerous work of navigation amidst the ice-floes of the North. Such a service, 
 with its promise of incident and adventure, would appeal to every British mid¬ 
 shipman, and Nelson, of course, was passionately eager to go. Owing, doubtless, to the influence of 
 his uncle, he was taken in the Carcass; taken, too, as Captain Lutwidge’s coxswain and given com¬ 
 mand of a boat’s crew. 
 
 The experiences of this expedition 
 were not very eventful. The ship sailed 
 
 first to the desolate 
 and melancholy coast 
 of N.W. Spitzbergen, where Nelson saw 
 
 His Adventures. 
 
 Fro711 the original] 
 
 [in the Royal United Sei'vice Institution. 
 
 DIRK. WORN BY NELSON WHEN A MIDSHIPMAN ON BOARD THE 
 “ SEAHORSE ” IN THE EAST INDIES, 1776. 
 
 the vast glaciers which cover this ice¬ 
 bound land descending in interminable 
 
 
 
 
 -7 "4c -7 i* 
 
 |||pp|ppift | g, _ 
 
 
 slopes of dazzling green to the sullen 
 sea. At one point was a precipice of 
 ice rising 300 feet sheer from the water, with a cascade pouring down its face. When the sun’s 
 heat reached it, great pieces broke off and fell with a terrific crash into the sea. From Spitzbergen 
 again they steered north to Nova Zembla, and off this forbidding archipelago the ships were caught in 
 the ice. The passage behind them was closed by ice; the vast expanse shut them in, unbroken 
 except at the edges, dazzling white, devoid of life. Gradually, as the freezing water expanded, the floes 
 mounted round the ships, grinding against their sides and threatening to crush them in. The danger 
 was great ; in this land of everlasting snow Captain Pell had vanished two centuries before; but fortune 
 watched over Nelson. When the 
 boats had been hoisted out and 
 all preparations made to aban¬ 
 don the ships, the wind, till 
 now unfavourable, changed and a 
 current set towards the open sea. 
 
 A passage was sawn through the 
 ice, and the vessels, helped by 
 wind and current, were dragged 
 towards the open water. It was 
 at this point that, according to 
 the story, Nelson stole from his 
 ship in the middle of the night 
 with another midshipman as his 
 companion and chased a bear. 
 
 He came up with it, but his gun 
 missed fire and the beast turned 
 upon him. Fortunately for him 
 his absence from the ship had 
 been noticed; a fog which had 
 come on during his chase of the 
 bear cleared opportunely, and 
 Captain Futwidge seeing his dan¬ 
 ger, fired a gun and scared the animal. When reprimanded for this act of temerity he told the 
 captain, “ Sir, I wanted to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father.” 
 
 In due course the ships were extricated from the ice and returned to England in the autumn 
 of 1773, just as a squadron was fitting out for the East Indies. Anxious to see the world and to make 
 a distant voyage, he was appointed—we may again suppose by the interest of his uncle to the frigate 
 
 J. Clevely.\ 
 
 H.M.S. “RACEHORSE” AND 
 
 [From an Engraving in Hie British Museum. 
 ‘CARCASS” IN THE ICE. 
 
16 
 
 Nelson and Hts Tunes. 
 
 [I773-7 6 - 
 
 IV. H. Over end .] 
 
 [From contemporary Sketches . 
 
 THE LOSS OF H.M.S. “ QUEBEC.’ 
 
 C. Grtgnion , Junr.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by 
 J. Murphy. 
 
 CAPTAIN GEORGE FARMER, 1732-1779. 
 
 Midshipman in the Dreadnought with Captain Suck¬ 
 ling; lieutenant 1759-61, when "he was placed on half¬ 
 pay. In 1766 he assisted to quell a riot at Norwich, 
 and, on the representations of the magistrates, was pro¬ 
 moted to commander (1768). Took post rank 1771, 
 appointed to the Seahorse 1773, the Quebec 1778, and 
 perished when the latter blew up in 1779. 
 
 The Quebec frigate of thirty-two guns was at the time fitred only with nine-pounders. Off Cape 
 Ushant she fell in with the French frigate Surveitlante , armed with forty eighteen-pounders and 
 with a crew numbering nearly two to one, and fought her until both vessels were dismasted and the 
 Quebec took fire, October 6, 1779. 
 
 men with the words “We will conquer or die,” and when his ship 
 took fire still kept his station. The men ,vere ordered to leap over¬ 
 board : he sat calmly on the anchor-fluke and perished in his ship 
 when she blew up. His widow and children were pensioned, his 
 son made a baronet in reward for his stubborn gallantry, “ that his fate might be envied rather than pitied.” 
 
 The example of such a man cannot but have inspired Nelson. In the same ship with him was 
 Thomas Troubridge, who 
 
 Return to England. 
 
 after¬ 
 wards 
 
 served under Nelson, as 
 one of his captains, and 
 was from this time for¬ 
 ward one of his best and 
 warmest friends. In the 
 Seahorse Nelson remained 
 for two years, 
 between 
 Persian Gulf, and seeing 
 much of the East. He 
 was not, however, fated 
 to have any war service 
 on this station, where 
 there was so much hard 
 fighting when the next 
 struggle with France be¬ 
 gan. His health, never 
 
 cruising 
 Bengal and the 
 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF A LETTER ASKING FOR YOUNG NELSON AN INTRODUCTION 
 TO THE MASTER OF H.M.S. “SEAHORSE.” 
 
 Under Captain 
 Farmer. 
 
 Seahorse, of twenty guns. His new captain was George Farmer, an officer of brilliant and heroic valour. 
 
 Six years later, in 1779, after Nelson left him, and when Captain Farmer was in 
 command of the frigate Quebec, he met and fought a French seaman of equal 
 courage, in the Surveillante, Ducouedic of Ivergoualer. The Frenchman had the 
 heavier metal. Farmer was wounded 
 in the hand and collar-bone, but would 
 not leave the deck. He encouraged his 
 
i77 6 -] 
 
 Returns from India ill and dejected. 
 
 i 7 
 
 His Dejection. 
 
 very good, gave way, and he was sent home in the Dolphin in 1776. Already, by his eighteenth birth¬ 
 day, he had visited the East and West Indies and the Arctic Seas, so that he had acquired a wide 
 
 and varied experience; but as yet there was little to show that 
 he was more than a keen, hard-working young officer. 
 
 His ill-health on the Dolphin's voyage home preyed upon 
 his mind. A deep depression came over him, and he was filled 
 
 with morbid fear that he would never rise 
 in the service. Ambition is the nursery of 
 genius, and the young man who does not aspire to great things 
 will not go far. Before him lay countless obstacles to be sur¬ 
 mounted; we may conjecture that in the East Indies his hopes 
 had sustained some check or rebuff. This fit of depression has 
 in the same form come over many men of genius. Abraham 
 Lincoln, in the days of his youth, complained to a friend, 
 “ I have done nothing to make any human being remember 
 that I have lived. To connect my name with events of my 
 own day and generation and so impress myself upon them as 
 to link my name with something that will redound to the 
 interest of my fellow-men is all that I desire to live for.” 
 In Nelson also was this ardent yearning for fame and for the 
 immortality which she gives. But in the midst of his dejec¬ 
 tion, to use his own words, “ A sudden glow of patriotism was 
 kindled within me and presented my king and country as my 
 patron. ‘ Well then,’ I exclaimed, 1 1 will be a hero, and con¬ 
 fiding in Providence I will brave every danger.’ ” An orb 
 appeared to him: it urged him forward to renown. So 
 Cromwell was heard to say that, when a youth, a gigantic 
 figure came to his bed and drew the curtains, with the word 
 that he should be the greatest man in England ; and even 
 so sceptical a mind as Napoleon’s was profoundly impressed by the prediction of his uncle that he 
 would surely govern the world, “because he lied so well.” 
 
 In this discontent, this mysticism, these morbid questionings, there is interest, because they 
 mark the birth of that peculiar 
 
 faculty which 
 we call genius. 
 
 And certain it 
 
 is that from this time the ability 
 of the young man began to attract 
 attention. The generous enthusiasm 
 and the unswerving passion for 
 his country’s greatness which have 
 won for his name the love of 
 posterity are henceforward con¬ 
 stantly manifested in his actions. 
 
 With one aim and one only be¬ 
 
 fore him—the glory of his country 
 — he rises steadily. Poverty is 
 
 still his — it was with him, in a 
 measure, to the end — but the man 
 who had chosen the calling of 
 a hero could not bow down to 
 mammon. 
 
 T. Stothard, R.A .] [From Harz>ey s “ Naval 
 
 History .” 
 
 ADMIRAL AND MIDSHIPMEN, 1779. 
 
 This illustration, which represents Prince William Henry 
 and Admiral Digby on board the Prince George, shows the 
 first authorized uniform for midshipmen. 
 
 The Dawn of 
 Genius. 
 
 From a Photograph] 
 
 [by Symonds er 3 Co., Portsjnouth. 
 
 32 -POUNDER GUNS OF NELSON’S TIME. 
 
 These are two of the four guns still remaining on board H.M.S. Victory on their original carriages. 
 
NEVIS, WHERE NELSON WAS MARRIED. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WAR, 1776-1793. 
 (Nelson’s Age, 18-34.) 
 
 Impending War—Growth of the French Navy—Revolt of the American Colonies—France and Spain attack us—Catastrophe 
 on Catastrophe—Nelson sees no Fighting—In ihe Lowestoft —In Command—Quick Promotion—The Hinchinbroke — 
 San Juan Expedition—Returns to England—In the Albemarle —In Canada and Love—Sails for New York—Lord 
 Hood and Nelson—His Appearance—Honour not Profit—Prince William—Peace—Our Recovery—Uneventful Service 
 —Travels in France—Wishes to Leave the Navy—In the Boreas —Admiral Hughes and Nelson—The Navigation 
 Laws—Nelson’s Action—Unpopularity — Nelson’s Moral Courage — Troubles—The Matter Settled — Mrs. Moutray — 
 Nelson in Love—Marriage—Return to England—Contractors’ Frauds—Life on Half-Pay. 
 
 HILST Nelson was in the East Indies the political barometer had been falling ominously: 
 the revolt of the American Colonies against the taxation imposed by our Parlia¬ 
 ment had begun: the attitude of France and Spain had become so 
 doubtful that war was only a question of time. The Seven Years’ 
 
 Impending War. 
 
 struggle and the policy of Pitt had left this nation too great in the eyes of our 
 
 enemies. We were envied and plotted against by the Powers of Europe, which were anxious to drag 
 us down in the dust. “ It is time,” wrote the French Minister to his king, “ to strike the decisive 
 blow which will reduce England to a secondary Power and deliver the Universe from a great tyrant.” 
 In Europe, in the world, we had no friend and many bitter enemies. 
 
 Already the French Navy had recovered from the disasters of the Seven Years’ War. A weapon 
 was being silently and steadily forged with which to strike the British Empire down. The French 
 
 dockyards were reorganised till Brest had 3,000 shipwrights against our insignificant 
 800 at Portsmouth. Line- 
 
 Growth of the 
 French Navy. 
 
 of-battle ships were built 
 with astounding celerity, till the Pcgase was laid 
 down, launched, and actually at sea within eighty 
 days. The education of French officers, and the 
 training of French seamen, were improving. The 
 towns and provinces, fired with patriotism and 
 filled with interest in this new Navy, presented 
 ships of the line to the king. By 1778 France 
 
 SIGNATURE FROM NELSON’S BOOR OF NAVIGATION, IN THE 
 POSSESSION OF EARL NELSON. 
 
 had sixty-nine ships of the line. And what was happening in France, was happening in Spain. 
 There, too, a new Navy was being built up for war against England. In 1779 the Spaniards 
 
i 776-7 8 -] 
 
 Great Britain s Foes Combine. 
 
 l 9 
 
 disposed of sixty-two line-of-battle ships. Fortunately for us they did not understand that the strength 
 ot a fleet lies not in its ships and guns, but in the men who work the ships and stand behind the 
 guns. From admiral to cabin-boy the Spanish sailors were incompetent and incapable, or it would have 
 
 gone very hard with us. 
 
 The revolt of the Ameri¬ 
 can Colonies exasperated 
 the nation, 
 
 Revolt of the , , 
 
 « • „ , • though no 
 
 American Colonies. ° 
 
 one now 
 can think the Colonists were 
 wrong in fighting the War 
 of Independence, under the 
 circumstances forced upon 
 them. In fact, they would 
 not have been worthy de¬ 
 scendants of Britain had they not done so. Yet under Chatham we had poured out our blood 
 and treasure to drive the French from America. But for our ships, men, and money, our Colonies 
 would have been cut off from the Mississippi, and the vast and trackless, but fertile West. And now 
 those who had undoubtedly obtained so much benefit from our exertions, refused to pay on the 
 ground that without representation in Parliament they could not be taxed. Conciliation and common 
 sense at the outset might have saved the Colonies for us, and averted a deplorable war. But neither 
 the King nor the country was in any temper to try it. The British nation set its teeth and decided 
 that the revolt must be suppressed: as we were fighting against men of our own race and our own 
 tenacity this was not so easy as it seemed. Our armies in the revolted Colonies won few successes, 
 and finally a British force of 4,000 men capitulated 
 at Saratoga to the “ rebels.” 
 
 The rage of the country at this mishap may be 
 imagined : it had the very worst results. France, till 
 
 NAVAL SWORD, BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN THE ONE WORN BY NELSON WHEN 
 ACTING-LIEUTENANT OF H.M.S. “WORCESTER,” 1776-1777. 
 
 This sword came from Burnham Thorpe, having been given to a servant of Nelson’s family. It is now in the Museum 
 of the Royal United Service Institution, to which it was lent by the Rev. K F. btarbuck. 
 
 France and Spain 
 attack us. 
 
 then hesitating, resolved to aid 
 the Colonies—or, as they were 
 now called, the United States. 
 Spain under the dominion of a Bourbon king, and 
 bound by a compact with France, was certain sooner 
 or later to join her. From the hour when the 
 French Navy took the sea against us, it was morally 
 certain that the United States of America were lost. 
 It would have been wiser to have abandoned them, 
 and to have turned with all our strength upon our 
 new and treacherous enemies. But the British bull¬ 
 dog had got his teeth in and would not consent to 
 let go. We plunged into this terrible fight for life 
 resolved in no whit to abate our pretensions. 
 
 Immediately we began to suffer. Our Navy was 
 without great admirals: for no one would serve 
 
 owing to the Government’s treat- 
 
 Catastrophe on ment Q f Keppel, who had fought 
 Catastrophe. _ ... . , 
 
 an indecisive action with the 
 
 French in the Channel. Keppel was a Whig: the 
 
 Government of the day was Tory, and refused to 
 
 support him against a Tory officer who libelled him. 
 
 Under the then Admiralty no man felt sure of his 
 
 honour. There was an equal want of generals in 
 
 Sir ]. Reynolds , P.R.A.\ 
 
 [In the Rational Fortrait Caller, 1 . 
 
 ADMIRAL VISCOUNT KEPPEL, 1725-1786. 
 
 Son of the second Earl of Albemarle. Served in the South Seas under 
 Anson. He was raised to the rank of Admiral of the Blue in 1778. Fought 
 an indecisive action with the French, and was in consequence brought before 
 a court-martial but acquitted, and in 1782 was raised 10 the Peerage as a 
 reward for his services. The picture reproduced was presented by him to 
 John Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton, in acknowledgment of his legal 
 services at the trial. 
 
20 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1776-78. 
 
 the Army, for the Ministers were no judge of character or ability. The American captain, Paul Jones, 
 appeared on our coasts in 1778, tried to seize and carry off a British Peer who had a house near 
 the sea, attempted to burn Whitehaven, 
 and in 1779 defeated the Serapis in 
 fair stand-up fight. The French and 
 Spaniards cruised in overpowering force 
 in the Channel in 1779 and 1781—why 
 they did not invade is one of the puzzles 
 of history. Our Navy could have offered 
 no resistance, and all our best regiments 
 were in America. 
 
 And where, in all the turmoil of 
 battles and sieges, was Nelson ? By the 
 
 odd irony of fortune 
 
 Nelson sees no , , ~ , 
 
 „ , . he, whose later years 
 
 fighting. - 
 
 were marked by so 
 much fierce fighting, scarcely saw pow¬ 
 der burnt in this war. He did his best, 
 
 we may be sure, to get near the enemy, but destiny for the moment was against him. In the autumn 
 of 1776 he was appointed acting-lieutenant in the Worcester, sixty-four, and was delighted to find 
 himself, though but just eighteen, trusted to keep watch. In the Worcester he voyaged to Gibraltar ; from 
 her he passed his lieutenant’s examination, and was appointed to the frigate Lowestoft, commanded by 
 Captain Locker, and under orders for the West Indies. Locker had served in Admiral Hawke's flag¬ 
 ship, had been wounded in the last war in a sharp action with 
 a French privateer, and was altogether an able and meritorious 
 officer. Nelson regarded him with warm admiration, and was in 
 turn treated by him as a son. 
 
 From a Photograph.] 
 
 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 C J. Nolle.] [F-*om Collectanea Biographica . 
 
 JOHN PAUL (BETTER KNOWN AS PAUL 
 JONES), 1747-1792. 
 
 The son of a gardener at Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright. 
 Pt the age of twelve he was apprenticed on board a 
 Whitehaven ship trading to America ; seven years later 
 he was mate of a slaver, and he afterwards took to 
 smuggling. In 1775 he was appointed lieutenant in the 
 American Navy, and in 1777 took command of the 
 Ranger frigate,, in which die-scored the first naval success 
 of the Americans by capturing the sloop Drake • In 
 the Bonhomme Richard he captured the English ship 
 Serapis , but his own ship was knocked to pieces. 
 
 R. Pat on.] [From the Engraving by Lerpiniere dr 5 Fittler. 
 
 ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN H.M.S. “SERAPIS” (CAPTAIN PEARSON) AND THE 
 “BONHOMME RICHARD,” COMMANDED BY PAUL JONES. 
 
 Whilst Nelson was serving in the frigate she captured an American privateer. A high sea was 
 running, and it was no easy matter to put an officer and a prize crew on board the captive. The 
 first lieutenant, who should have gone, was unaccountably long in finding his sword, and Captain 
 Locker asked impatiently, as the boat, filled with men, had been lowered and was in danger of being 
 
I777-7 8 -] 
 
 Under Captain Locker. 
 
 21 
 
 dashed against the ship, “ Have I no officer in the ship who can board the prize ? ” At this the 
 
 master ran to the gangway, when Nelson drew him aside with the words, “ It is 
 
 In the ^ Lowcstofti^ 
 
 my turn now,” got into the boat and boarded the prize, which was water-logged 
 and in desperate plight. Even then he was in extreme danger, as the gale blew strong, and with but 
 a handful of men, he had no chance of communicating with the Lowestoft. In spite of this he brought 
 his charge safe to port. 
 
 His active disposi¬ 
 tion burned for more 
 
 work, 
 
 In command. 
 
 and 
 
 presently, finding life in 
 a frigate not sufficiently 
 eventful, he obtained 
 command of a schooner 
 attached to her. In this 
 craft he studied the in¬ 
 tricacies of the Hispani¬ 
 ola Coast, the resort of 
 pirates and privateers; 
 but of his adventures, if 
 he had any, no record 
 remains. Then he passed 
 to the flagship of Ad¬ 
 miral Parker, the com¬ 
 mander on the West 
 Indian station, to whom 
 he had been most warm¬ 
 ly recommended by 
 Captain Suckling, and 
 rising in due course from 
 third to first lieutenant 
 was given command of 
 the brig Badger. 
 
 Thus he had risen 
 rapidly from lieutenant to 
 
 com- 
 
 Ouick promotion. 
 
 man- 
 
 der, to which rank he 
 attained at the early age 
 of twenty. His cjuick 
 promotion had been due 
 
 in part to the fact that . , T r 
 
 he was the nephew of the Comptroller, in part to the extreme unhealthiness of the West Indian 
 
 climate, which killed off the healthiest and spared the weaklings such as Nelson, in part a so to 
 his untiring zeal and ardour for work. He had won the goodwill both of h.s admiral and ol Ins 
 admiral’s wife, who ever afterwards regarded him as her son. In our own day it is rare foi a man 
 to reach the rank of commander before the age of thirty-five or forty, when the fire of youth has 
 vanished, and keenness is giving way to disgust with the service. In that it brought young men 
 quickly to the top the old Navy was better. What is wanted in all days when active work is to be 
 done 'is the energy, enthusiasm, and the disregard of consequences which are more usually associa e 
 with youth than with men advanced in age. The men who startled Europe by their gemus-Nelson 
 at sea Napoleon on land-were both in the full vigour of manhood when they attained to hig i 
 
 A\ Westall , R.A. From the original in the] 
 Painted. Hall, Greenwich. 
 
 L permission oj me or as omnussiun trs 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON VOLUNTEERING TO BOARD A PRIZE IN A GALE. 
 
22 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1778-80. 
 
 command. They had not only the energy of youth, but also the audacity of youth and its bold disre¬ 
 gard of old rules and precedents. 
 
 From the Badger Nelson, not yet twenty-one, \Vas promoted post-captain of the Hinchinbroke, 
 
 a small frigate. Again his experiences were uneventful. He 
 
 cruised off Jamaica, made four prizes, and 
 The “Hinchinbroke.” , „ J . . . , , 
 
 netted £000 in prize-money. And then, at 
 
 last, in 1780, he saw some real war service. An expedition 
 
 was sent up the San Juan river to get control of Lake 
 
 Nicaragua and the route to the Pacific, and to capture certain 
 
 Spanish forts and seize the cities of Leon and Granada, reputed 
 
 to be rich beyond fable. It was a wild, romantic enterprise in 
 
 the land which Drake of old had plundered; the climate was 
 
 the deadliest in the deadly West Indies; and Nelson, who 
 
 coveted honour and never shrank from danger, volunteered to 
 
 command the party of sailors landed. 
 
 The British force was sent at the wrong season of the year 
 —in the unhealthy rainy season — into an unknown, trackless, 
 
 tropical jungle. In the poisonous miasma 
 exhaled by the rank and rotting vegetation 
 the men sickened and died. The Hinchinbroke's boats were 
 dragged up stream till Fort San Juan was reached, after seven¬ 
 teen days of desperate effort. Nelson, true to his instinct for 
 action, was for instant assault. It was not the recklessness of 
 a fool, but the calculation of a far-seeing general. The lives 
 saved by making zig-zag approaches and battering down the 
 walls of the fort would be lost ten times over by fever and 
 dysentery. But he pleaded in vain. The soldiers were for a 
 
 San Juan Expedition. 
 
 G. Stuart .] [/* the Painted Hall, Greenwich. 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM LOCKER, 
 
 I730-l800. 
 
 As lieutenant of H.M.S. Experiment in 17^7 he 
 headed the boarders at the capture of the Tclemaque 
 privateer of superior force. ( ommander 1762, captain 
 1768, commodore 1792. From 1779 until his death he 
 maintained an intimate friendship with Nelson. 
 
 regular and scientific siege. 
 
 It was 
 
 in the books, and they could not, like Nelson and Napoleon, think and argue for themselves. Despite 
 their folly Nelson’s ardour did not flag. He was first in the batteries, always present when the 
 
 pedantic zig-zags which he so de¬ 
 tested were being carried forward. 
 Yet, meantime, the men were dying 
 fast. The fort at last surrendered, 
 though not before Nelson had been 
 recalled ; but of the 1,800 men who 
 started on that ill-fated enterprise 
 only 300 returned. Of the Hinchin- 
 broke's crew of 200 men three- 
 quarters perished. Nelson himself 
 was saved from death by his furious 
 energy, but he carried with him 
 from Central America the seeds of 
 dysentery and fever. 
 
 On the verge of death he went 
 to Jamaica, where Lady Parker nursed 
 
 Returns to England. ^ im tenderl y- He 
 was given com¬ 
 mand of a larger and finer ship; his 
 health, however, was now so hope- 
 of imperative necessity if his life was to 
 
 A. Barraud .] f From authentic Sketches and Photographs. 
 
 THE OLD FORT ON THE SAN JUAN. 
 
 The smaller illustration represents a sentry-box upon the wall of the fort, sketched in 1840. 
 
 lessly shattered that his return to England was a matter 
 
 be saved. He embarked in the Lion, commanded by Captain Cornwallis, who was known to the 
 sailors as “Billy Blue,” an able and tough but eccentric officer. His care and attention insured 
 
1780-81.] ■ 
 
 In the West Indies and at Bath. 
 
 Nelson’s recovery. Landing in England the hero journeyed painfully to Bath, then the most fashion¬ 
 able of health resorts. There he was so ill that he had to be carried to and from his bed, “ racked 
 all the while, as he writes, “ with the most excruciating tortures,” and physicked three times a day 
 
 by a famous doctor, who declined to charge him his usual fees, 
 saying, with true public spirit, “ Your illness, sir, has been brought 
 on by serving your King and your country, and, believe me, 
 I love both too well to be able to receive any more.” At this 
 time Nelson had nearly lost the use of his left arm and leg; it 
 must have seemed to him that his day of active service was over. 
 
 By August 1781 he had nearly recovered and was given 
 command of the Albemarle, a twenty-eight gun frigate. He was 
 T , „ pleased with his officers and midshipmen— 
 
 “very genteel young men and seamen”— 
 and pleased with his crew, in which there were many volunteers. 
 “ I have an exceeding good ship's company,” he wrote ; “ not a 
 man or an officer in her I would wish to change. She appears 
 to sail very well.” It was a case of the good workman being 
 satisfied with his tools. He showed his zeal for the service by 
 only twice leaving his ship during the weeks and months of 
 waiting for orders. At last he was sent to the Baltic with 
 a convoy of merchantmen, and chased on his way home a 
 notorious privateer, “ Fall the Pirate,” whose exploits have 
 long since been forgotten, but, alas! could not catch him. 
 Then, to his great disgust, he was ordered with a convoy to 
 Quebec, and he complains, not without reason, of the danger 
 to his health which would be caused by the cold damp 
 climate assailing a frame already emaciated by fever. 
 
 And yet a few weeks later he was rejoicing in a new experience—“ health, that greatest of bless¬ 
 ings,” which “ Fair Canada” had given him. At this time he fell in love with a French Canadian 
 
 lady, whose house in Quebec is shown to this day. This was the first love passage 
 of his life, the first sign of a yearning for a woman’s sympathy in him. For her 
 sake, as in after years for Lady Hamil¬ 
 ton’s, he was ready to surrender all— 
 his passion for fame, and his prospects 
 in the service. His heart was fixed 
 to leave the Navy, but fortunately for 
 his country, either the lady’s parents 
 were obdurate, or the remonstrances 
 of his friends overcame what was only 
 a caprice. 
 
 He sailed for New York, where was 
 Lord Hood with a large squadron, fresh 
 
 From the Engraving ] 
 
 [try Ridley. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR PETER PARKER, 1715-1811. 
 
 Captain 1747. Served in the West Indies and at the 
 reduction of Gundnloupe 1756; was at the siege of Belleisle 
 in 176T, and in operations against the French seaports. 
 Knighted 1772. commode re 1775, rear-admiral and com¬ 
 mander in chief of the Jamaica station 1777. Vice-admiral 
 7779, baronet 7782, admiral 1787, admiral of the fleet 1799. 
 Followed Nelson’s body to the grave as chief mourner, 1800. 
 
 In Canada and Love. 
 
 Sails for New York. 
 
 from the great vie- 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 THE COMFORTS OF BATH. 
 
 [by Rowlandson. 
 
 torv of April 12, 
 
 1782, our one real victory of the war— 
 when Rodney beat the French in the 
 West Indies, and so disconcerted them 
 that they were ready to make peace. 
 
 But the United States had achieved 
 
 their independence, if England had not been reduced to the status of a “ secondary Power. 
 
 At New York he won the goodwill of Lord Hood by expressing a wish to go with him to the 
 West Indies. At this time the North American coast was a rich field of enterprise for our cruisers 
 
24 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1782. 
 
 Lord Hood and 
 Nelson. 
 
 whereas prizes were few and far between in the West Indies. The bulk of British captains were keen 
 
 for prizes rather than hard service. “ Money is the great 
 
 object here, nothing else is attended 
 to,” as Nelson wrote. At New York 
 he made the acquaintance of the future 
 King William IV. of England, who had been sent into 
 the Navy by George III., an example which attracted the 
 blue blood of the nation to the service. To Prince William, 
 as he then was, we owe this description of Nelson's appear¬ 
 ance at this date :— 
 
 “ Captain Nelson appeared to be the merest boy of a 
 captain I have ever beheld. He had on a full-laced uni¬ 
 form : his lank, unpowdered hair was 
 His Appearance. . 
 
 tied in a stiff Hessian tail of extra¬ 
 ordinary length; the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat 
 added to the quaintness of his figure, and produced 
 an appearance which particularly attracted my notice. 
 There was something irresistibly pleasing in his address 
 and conversation, and an enthusiasm when speaking on 
 professional subjects that showed he was no common 
 being. Throughout the whole of the American War the 
 height of Nelson’s ambition was to command a line- 
 of-battle ship; as for prize-money, it never entered into 
 
 L. F. Abbott.) 
 
 [In the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 SAMUEL, VISCOUNT HOOD, 1724-1816. 
 
 The son of a clergyman in Dorsetshire. Entered the Navy at 
 fourteen and became captain at thirty-two. He distinguished 
 himself in many actions with the French; was created a baronet 
 in 1778 and rear-admiral 1780. He was second in command in 
 Rodney’s great victory over De Grasse in 1782, and was raised to 
 the Irish peerage for his services. Commander-in-chief in the 
 Mediterranean 1793, when he took Toulon and reduced Corsica. 
 Admiral 1794, viscount 1796. As Governor of Greenwich Hospital 
 he received Nelson’s body there in 1805. 
 
 his thought; 
 
 Honour not Profit. 
 
 “ The West Indies is the station for honour,” said 
 Nelson to Admiral Digby, when that good officer com¬ 
 placently congratulated him upon the splendid chances of prize-money on the American coast. Men who 
 will set honour above profit are not too common in 
 any age, and these words and acts of the hero 
 should be remembered. In the later stages of his 
 
 career, though his high ardour 
 never flagged, there were times 
 when, in the interests of the officers and men 
 whom he commanded, he stood upon his strict 
 rights in the matter of prize-money, and when a 
 hasty reader might accuse him of grasping conduct. 
 
 But there never was anything sordid in his character; 
 the same magnanimity marked him from first to 
 last, and that though he was a poor man and con¬ 
 stantly in debt. 
 
 So high was Lord Hood’s opinion of him, that 
 he sent Prince William to this young captain, who 
 
 had never been in a fleet 
 action, for instruction in tactics. 
 
 Nelson, enthusiastic in his loyalty, conceived a 
 warm admiration for the Prince, who repaid him 
 with his regard. But the Prince, though in 
 many ways a capable man, and deeply interested 
 in the Navy, was a headstrong and tyrannical 
 officer. He quarrelled with his officers and with 
 his father, George III., and so his friendship did 
 Nelson no good. 
 
 Prince William. 
 
 B. West, P.R.A.) 
 
 [From the Engraving by Bay tolor.zi. 
 
 PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY ON BOARD THE 
 GEORGE.” 
 
 ‘PRINCE 
 
1 783-84.] 
 
 Captain on Half-pay. 
 
 her pride. 
 Peace. 
 
 A\ Pat on.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by Lerpiniere. 
 
 RODNEY AND HOOD BREAKING THE LINE OF THE FRENCH FLEET OFF DOMINICA, 
 
 April 12, 1782. 
 
 The war ended in 1783 with a peace which stripped Great Britain of the United States and 
 
 Minorca, and humbled 
 Our reco¬ 
 very was 
 rapid be¬ 
 yond belief. The nation 
 had lost no honour. 
 It had fought with stub¬ 
 born tenacity a hope¬ 
 less fight. The Navy, 
 though mismanaged and 
 without great leaders, 
 had held its own. In¬ 
 dia had been saved by 
 Warren Hastings: the 
 younger Pitt, a states¬ 
 man of far less calibre 
 than his father, but still 
 trusted by the nation, 
 was rising to fame. 
 
 In these years we 
 planted our first settle¬ 
 ment in the Southern 
 Hemisphere at Port 
 
 Jackson, in New South Wales. In these years, too, began the great expansion of our manufacturing 
 industry, 
 
 Our Recovery. 
 
 and the 
 use of steam and water¬ 
 power in place of hand 
 labour. Our trade grew 
 by leaps and bounds : our 
 ships multiplied : the na¬ 
 tion had lost neither its 
 spirit nor its vigour. 
 
 Thus Nelson’s jour¬ 
 ney with Hood to the 
 West 
 Indies 
 
 was fruitless. He did 
 not attain that fame for 
 which he yearned, be¬ 
 cause there was no op¬ 
 portunity afforded him. 
 
 His ship was ordered 
 home, paid off, and he 
 was left to stagnate as a 
 poor captain on half-pay. 
 
 The devotion of his ship’s 
 
 company was shown by their offer to re-engage for service under him ; his kindly &nd humane 
 interest in his men manifested itself in the efforts which he made to obtain for them the arrears 
 of their pay. 
 
 He visited his home, and in the autumn made a tour in the north of France, travelling in 
 
 Uneventful Service. 
 
26 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [17*4- 
 
 Travels in France. 
 
 Wishes to Leave the 
 Nayy. 
 
 fe m 
 
 
 
 
 ■ S., < 
 
 
 3 ; -.'*3 
 
 . - 
 
 a post-chaise with postillions, and tells us that he was very much shaken on the road. He stayed 
 
 for the winter at the small watering-place of St. Omer, where he made the 
 acquaintance of a young English lady, Miss Andrews, and immediately fell in love 
 with her. The match, however, did not come off, and Nelson returned to England in January 1784. 
 About this time, in 1784, disgusted with the hopelessness of his prospects, he endeavoured, un¬ 
 successfully, to obtain the post of commander in the East India Company’s navy. 
 Had he been appointed to it, he would have gone out to the East and have been 
 lost sight of by the Admiralty at home. In March he was appointed to the frigate 
 Boreas, and a little later ordered out to the West Indies. He took his brother William with him as 
 
 chaplain, and was obliged to carry out in 
 his ship Lady Hughes, the wife of the 
 commander-in-chief in the Leeward Is¬ 
 lands, and a great number of passengers. 
 
 Though Nelson usually got on very 
 well with women, he did not like Lady 
 
 In the 11 Boreas.” Hl ' gheS - In the 
 
 place she was a 
 
 great expense to him, a poor captain; 
 in the second she had an “eternal 
 clack”; in the third place the small 
 frigate must have been most uncom¬ 
 fortably crowded, and in warships there 
 has never been much accommodation 
 for ladies. On her part Lady Hughes 
 was much struck by his kindness to 
 his midshipmen. 
 
 Lady Hughes’ husband pleased Nel¬ 
 son even less than Lady Hughes. “ Our 
 
 admiral is tolerable, 
 but he bows and 
 scrapes too much 
 for me,” he says, and a little later: 
 “ The admiral and all about him are 
 great ninnies.” Admiral Hughes was 
 indeed a weak, easy-going man of plea¬ 
 sant manners and no particular talent. 
 But if Nelson could get little help from 
 his senior officer, he was consoled by 
 the friendship of Captain Cuthbert 
 Collingwood, whose acquaintance he 
 had made eight or ten years before, 
 and who had succeeded him in com¬ 
 mand of the Hinchinbrokc. Collingwood 
 was an older man, but he had much of the Nelson spirit, determination, zeal for the service, high 
 patriotism, and deep affection for his friend. His intimacy with Nelson ended only with death. At 
 Antigua, too, Nelson found a Mrs. Moutray, who was “very, very good” to him. 
 
 It was not long before grave differences arose between the sluggish admiral and the high-tempered 
 captain. The trouble began with Nelson’s enforcement of the Navigation Laws. By these laws, 
 
 which were meant to favour British shipping, none but British built and British 
 The Navigation . . 
 
 Laws. owned ships could trade with our Colonies. Before the war which had just ended, 
 
 the American Colonists, as British citizens, had shared the very lucrative trade 
 
 to the West Indies, and now that they were independent they expected to retain their privilege. They 
 
 Admiral Hughes 
 and Nelson. 
 
 /. F. Rigaud, R.A .] 
 
 [In the possession 0/ Earl Nelson , and specially photog7-aphed 
 Jor this Work by his permission . 
 
 NELSON AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-TWO. 
 
 Ihis picture was painted in 1781, and represents Nelson in his uniform as a Captain. 
 It is the earliest portrait which is undoubtedly authentic. 
 
1784-86-.] 
 
 Duty before Interest. 
 
 Nelson’s action. 
 
 were aided and abetted by the inhabitants of the islands, who in this way got goods they wanted 
 cheap, and sold their own sugar and rum easily. And though the meaning of the laws was clear and 
 unmistakable, though British admirals and captains were expressly enjoined to enforce them, it was 
 possible by hard swearing to evade them, and for a lazy admiral to wink at the practice. This was 
 
 going on in the Leeward Islands when 
 Nelson arrived. 
 
 He was now senior captain on the 
 station—next in command to the ad¬ 
 miral. What he saw 
 filled him with an¬ 
 ger and dismay. It was not only that 
 the admiral was guilty of dereliction of 
 duty; his country must suffer; for Ameri¬ 
 can shipping, if free to come and go, 
 would speedily displace British shipping. 
 A weak man would have feared unpopu¬ 
 larity and sat still: a prudent man, with 
 an eye only to his own interests, would 
 have avoided conflict with his superior 
 officer: only a man absolutely fearless, 
 and capable of setting duty above all other considerations, would have risked a quarrel which 
 might ruin him for life. We hear much of Nelson’s physical courage ; here is one of the most 
 splendid instances of that moral courage and faith in the light which burned in him, to the exclusion 
 of all worldly interests. 
 
 Collingwood, to his eternal honour, stood by him in this encounter with authority. The two saw 
 their weak admiral, and drew his attention to the Navigation Acts and the Admiralty Statutes, which 
 
 it appeared this strange commander-in-chief had never read. They extorted from 
 him directions to enforce the Acts, and left. The American ships were sent about 
 their business. The people and governors of the island were furious. “ I am not very popular with 
 the people,” Nelson writes: “I have not had a foot in any house since I have been on the station, 
 and all for doing my duty by being true to the interests oj Great Britain!” The colonists in their turn 
 assailed the admiral. Nelson was out of the way, and the old gentleman once more yielded—this time 
 to them—and issued an order that the Americans were not to be molested. 
 
 This disgraceful order must 
 
 1 
 
 IV. Pocock .] 
 
 [From the “ Naval Chronicle 1800. 
 
 ENGLISH HARBOUR, ANTIGUA. 
 It was here that the Moutrays lived. 
 
 Unpopularity. 
 
 courage. 
 
 either be obeyed or disobeyed. 
 
 If Nelson 
 
 Nelson’s moral , . . . 
 
 obeyed it he 
 
 was false to 
 his ideals of duty, false to the 
 interests of his country, and 
 guilty of neglect of an Act of 
 Parliament. If he disobeyed it 
 he was guilty of flagrant in¬ 
 subordination to his commanding 
 officer. From youth upwards 
 the officer is taught and inured 
 to discipline, which means abso¬ 
 lute obedience. In an army or 
 navy the man who disobeys a 
 direct order is usually lost. 
 
 Not only professional ruin stared him in the face, but also pecuniary ruin. For if he interfered 
 with a traffic that was sanctioned by the admiral, damages could be, and were, claimed against 
 
 A. Barraud.\ 
 
 [After a Sketch made about 1800. 
 REDONDA AND NEVIS, LEEWARD ISLANDS. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 ' [i7 8 7- 
 
 Z u 
 
 Troubles. 
 
 him in the law courts of the islands. It was a terrible position for a young and almost penniless 
 officer, but he never wavered or hesitated. With proud confidence he wrote that he trusted “to 
 the uprightness of his intentions, and believed that his country would not allow him to be ruined by 
 protecting her commerce.” 
 
 And now troubles gathered over Nelson’s head. Sir Thomas Shirley, Governor of the Leeward 
 Islands, remonstrated with him. Nelson called on him and told him that he should not yield. The 
 
 peppery old officer, despising his youth, assured him “ that old generals were 
 not in the habit of taking advice from young gentlemen." Nelson countered his 
 thrust with the passionate reply: “ Sir, I am 
 as old as the Prime Minister of England, and 
 think myself as capable of commanding one 
 of His Majesty's ships as that Minister is of 
 governing the State.” Subscriptions were raised 
 to prosecute him, and writs to the amount of 
 £4,000 were out against him. He was a close 
 prisoner in his ship, for the moment he set 
 foot on land he was certain to be arrested. 
 
 H is admiral was against him; no one but 
 Collingwood was openly on his side. 
 
 So furious was the admiral that he wished 
 to supersede him. Nelson’s example, however, 
 
 had stirred the fleet, and, 
 finding that the captains 
 were of opinion that he was in the right, 
 
 The matter settled. 
 
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 rq/ 
 
 1 f< 
 
 |r c 
 
 
 From a Photograph .] 
 
 [By permission of Mrs. Eccles and of Col. Esdaile . 
 
 PAGE FROM THE REGISTER OF THE CHURCH AT NEVIS RECORDING 
 THE MARRIAGE OF NELSON AND MRS. NISBET. 
 
 It is obviously only a list of marriages taking place in the colony, rnd not strictly 
 speaking a register. 
 
 Hughes once more gave way. The costs of 
 Nelson’s law suits were paid by the British 
 Government, and with most curious irony, the 
 admiral, and not Nelson, was warmly thanked 
 for his activity and zeal in protecting the com¬ 
 merce of Great Britain. Thus was Nelson’s 
 credit filched from him—a proceeding not un¬ 
 common in naval affairs even in the present 
 day—but, at least, he had the inward consola¬ 
 tion that he “ had done his duty, and had 
 nothing to accuse himself of.” 
 
 Nelson, amidst his sorrows and trials in 
 the West Indies, began to feel keenly the want 
 
 of sympathy. To Mrs. 
 
 Mrs. Moutray. Moutray, the wife of the Admiralty Commissioner at Antigua, he turned at first. 
 But then his “dear, sweet friend,” whose “equal he never saw in any country or situation,” had to go 
 home, as her husband was ill, and he was once more left to himself. Deep melancholy came over 
 him; Antigua became intolerable, the harbour was hateful, the island barren, the very trees seemed 
 to wither. The sense of happiness enjoyed and past sat heavy on him. He was very lonely. 
 
 In this susceptible condition he sailed away from the place where he had met Mrs. Moutray, and 
 put in to Nevis, where he made the acquaintance of a young widow, Mrs. Nisbet, niece of the President 
 
 of Nevis. By her first husband, a doctor, she had one child, Josiah Nisbet. The 
 emptiness of Nelson’s life had filled him with a passion for woman’s society, and 
 he was speedily captivated by her. He impressed her at first as reserved, taciturn, and odd, but of 
 “a superior mind.” His enthusiasm and kindliness soon disposed her in his favour, for it was his 
 character quickly to win affection. In his letters there is every sign of attachment to her, but little 
 of that deep, enduring, and devouring passion which we call love. He does not burst into little passages of 
 prose poetry when he mentions her, as he did with Mrs. Moutray. And though he wrote to his uncle, 
 
 Nelson in love. 
 
1787.] 
 
 Nelson *s Marm ape, 
 
 o 
 
 29 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 mmm 
 
 ['ipps* 
 
 when he told him' of his engagement, “You will smile and say, ‘This Horatio is always in love,”’ and 
 no doubt fancied that he was in love, the lady of his choice does not seem to have appealed to his 
 deepest emotions. Others noticed this, and Prince William rallied him, telling him that he had esteem, 
 not love, for her. “ He is right,” added Nelson, “ my love is founded on esteem, the only foundation 
 that can make passion last. Alas for his prophecy ! Mrs. Nisbet carried with her a certain stiffness 
 which hardly accorded with Nelson’s temperament. 
 
 Mrs. Nisbet’s uncle seems to have promised her an allowance, with the ultimate prospect of 
 inheriting his comfortable fortune. Captain Suckling’s brother also seems to have made Nelson an 
 
 allowance, so that though poor he was able to marry. The wedding took place 
 in 1787, when Nelson’s friend, Prince William, gave the bride away. In the 
 summer the Boreas sailed for England, and Nelson was able to boast that, in spite of the unhealthi¬ 
 ness of the climate, she had not lost a single man in her three years of service in the West Indies. 
 His care for his men, so remarkable in the glorious days of his blockade of Toulon, was not less 
 
 evident and satisfactory at this earlier date. 
 
 On his return to England in 1787, his health 
 gave way, and he suffered find from colds in the 
 
 _ , , , winter and then from fever 
 
 Return to England. 
 
 in the summer. He could 
 see nothing of his wife, who had crossed in a 
 merchantman, as his ship was kept lying at the 
 Nore, seven miles from the land. In December 
 1787, however, the Boreas was paid off, and he 
 was left to exist on a captain’s half-pay of £120 
 a year. He was not favourably received either 
 at the Admiralty or at Court. The King appears 
 to have disliked him as the friend and associate 
 of Prince William, who was now in one of his 
 usual scrapes. His disobedience to Hughes in 
 the West Indies may have prejudiced him, but 
 there is no doubt that steady influence was exerted 
 against him for another reason. 
 
 In the West Indies he had detected certain 
 of the Admiralty contractors in the most dis¬ 
 graceful frauds, by which the country had been 
 plundered to the amount of £2,000,000 or more. 
 With characteristic zeal for his country’s interests 
 and disregard for his own, he took the matter up and forced it upon the attention of the reluctant 
 Admiralty. Owing mainly to his efforts, precautions were taken against such peculations in future, 
 
 and a certain amount of the money stolen was recovered. But this action of his 
 did Nelson no good; he received no commendation, and the contractors, being 
 rich and powerful, he added to the growing list of his secret enemies. Repeatedly applying for 
 employment, he found that he could not obtain it, and even the admired and honoured Lord Hood 
 frowned upon him. 
 
 Thus debarred from active work in the Navy, Nelson took to a placid, perhaps a happy life, at 
 Burnham, where he lived with his wife and father: gardening, birds’-nesting, digging, and working. 
 
 He filled the gaps in his neglected education, and seems to have read much. 
 Already, however, his eyes were beginning to trouble him. Thus five years passed 
 slowly—slipped from him—and his mind must often have smarted at the thought that he had not as 
 yet won greatness, and that perhaps he never would win it. Wars and rumours of wars passed over 
 the quiet country parsonage, but Nelson was out of the world, neglected, forgotten. 
 
 From Patoris “Down the Islands'*] [By permission 0/ Messrs. Scribner. 
 
 CHURCH AT NEVIS, WHERE THE RECORD OF NELSON’S 
 MARRIAGE IS KEPT. 
 
 Nelson was, as a matter of fact, married privately and very quietly, in a house 
 at some little distance from this Church. 
 
 Contractors’ frauds. 
 
 Life on half-pay. 
 
R. Dodd ] 
 
 [From the original Engraving in the possession of Messrs. E. &• E. Emanuel , Fortsea. 
 
 H.M.S. “VICTORY,” FLYING A VICE-ADMIRAL’S FLAG, AT SPITHEAD. About 1782. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION AND WAR WITH FRANCE, i793'797- 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 34 - 38 .) 
 
 The French Revolution—French Navy Wrecked—The Officers Deposed—Jean Bon-St.-Andrd The Ships The Odds against 
 France—Religious Revival—Nelson Commands the Agamemnon —War Service Begins—Idealises his Ship—Sails for 
 the Mediterranean—Capture of Toulon—Nelson at Naples—Meets Lady Hamilton Returns to loulon Hncounter 
 with French Frigates—A Drawn Battle—Urges Siege of Bastia—The Army hangs back—Nelson and 
 
 his Wife—Bastia Falls—Nelson Robbed of his Credit—The Enemy at Sea—Siege of Calvi—Nelson Wounded 
 —Calvi Surrenders—Heavy Expenses—Hotharn Replaces Hood—The French in Sight—“ Prepare for Battle”— 
 The Battle tarries—Nelson Attacks—A Battle results—Hotham’s Timidity—Disastrous Consequences—No Honour 
 for Nelson—Greatness of Hood—On the Italian Coast—Jervis in Command—Jervis Trains the Fleet—Jervis and 
 Nelson—Nelson Quits the Agamemnon —Nelson blockades Genoa—Seizure of Elba—England’s Struggle for Life—War 
 with Spain—Fortune against us—Corsica Evacuated—The Mediterranean Abandoned—Spirit of the Fleet—A Perilous 
 Errand—Nelson in the Mediterranean—Saves Hardy—In the midst of the Enemy’s Fleet. 
 
 The French 
 Revolution. 
 
 HILST Nelson was digging and gardening at Burnham, the storm had burst over 
 
 France. The Great Revolution had begun. It does not fall within our province to 
 
 follow its deeds and misdeeds; we can only trace its effects on the 
 French Navy, with which we were so soon to come into collision, 
 because no account of Nelson’s life and victories would be just 
 which did not take into account the demoralisation of our opponents. 
 
 A nation of theorists, crazy with ideas of the equality of all men, was certain to play havoc with 
 such an organisation as a navy. What right had admirals, captains, and lieutenants to order their 
 
 “equals” about their business? Upon discipline, which means prompt obedience, 
 all armies and navies have their foundations, and if the foundations are once 
 
 weakened the whole structure must collapse when strain comes upon it. On land, indeed, the enthu¬ 
 siasm of vast masses of men, fighting for great ideas and for their own skins, repaired the mischief 
 
 done. But at sea, where great masses could not be employed, and where enthusiasm could not 
 replace skill and seamanship, the ground lost in an hour of delirious folly could never be recovered. 
 
 French Navy wrecked. 
 
1 793-j 
 
 State of the French Navy. 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 The officers deposed. 
 
 The officers of the French Navy at the beginning of the Revolution had this fatal defect, that 
 they were aristocrats. As such they were instantly marked out for attack. Their crews refused to 
 
 obey them. They argued with the men and, afraid of vigorous measures or blood¬ 
 shed, gave in to them. Contrast Admiral 
 Gardner who, at Spithead in 1797, in a mutinous ship, and 
 with no chance of help, turned on one of the mutineers, 
 shook him by the collar, and 
 swore he would hang him with 
 every fifth man in the ship. 
 
 Set against him the French offi¬ 
 cer with his “ If you do not 
 obey, I shall surrender my com¬ 
 mand.” One man was probably 
 quite as gallant as the other, 
 but the explanation was that 
 Admiral Gardner had a sane 
 and strong Government at his 
 back; the French officer had the 
 assemblage of theorists at Paris. 
 
 The crowning touch to this 
 
 extravaganza was put by send- Photo, by Eyre & spottiswoode.) 
 ing an orator from the Assembly burnham thorpe church. 
 
 The Church is of the “perpendicular” period of Gothic, and although restored 
 remains, in external appearance, very much as it was in Nelson's time. 
 
 Jean Bon-St.-Andre. 
 
 to command the fleet at Brest. This gentleman, 
 
 known as Jean Bon-St.-Andre, 
 made magnificent speeches to 
 the men. “ Disdaining evolution, the French ships 
 were to lay their foes alongside and board, when 
 Fjrenchmen always won. ’ His advice was tried; 
 with what result the world knows. 
 
 Miserable as were the officers and men of the 
 Revolutionary Navy, the ships and their fittings 
 
 were little better. The masts 
 The ships. were too large, the sails were 
 
 too small and made of bad canvas, which readdy 
 rotted and split. The rigging was generally of old 
 rope and could not be trusted in heavy weather. 
 France was shut out by the superior strength of 
 our fleet from the Baltic, whence at this time came 
 the supply of hemp. The guns in the line-of-battle 
 ships were too heavy, and could not approach ours 
 in rapidity of fire. The ironwork was weak, and 
 rings and bolts gave way with disastrous frequency. 
 Thus when a French fleet did take the sea, it was 
 usually driven back to harbour by mishaps to 
 
 __ masts and rigging. 
 
 It was a moral certainty that when a British ship met a Frenchman of anything like equal force, 
 le Frenchman would be captured. On the one side were seasoned officers bred up to war, on the 
 ther Tean Bon-St.-Andres and ignorant pilots; on the one side skill combined with patriotism, on 
 le other patriotism without skill; on the one side abundance of well-trained seamen, on the other, as 
 
 From a Photograph \h Eyre & Spottisnuoode. 
 
 INTERIOR OF BURNHAM THORPE CHURCH. 
 
Nelson and His Times . 
 
 I 793- 
 
 32 
 
 French shipping was driven from the sea, no seamen at all. But at the outset the discipline of our 
 
 Navy was so bad that we could not make the full use of our immense advan- 
 The France* amSt t a g es - So great were these that Nelson’s boast of an Englishman being worth 
 three Frenchmen—at sea—was almost justified. 
 
 The pretension of the French Revolutionists to meddle with our form of Government forced war 
 upon us. For the shock of this desperate encounter the country was strengthened by the religious 
 
 revival. Wesley and his followers had kindled in the nation 
 
 _ „ . , something of the old Puritan fire and 
 
 Religious Revival. 
 
 earnestness of purpose. It was the Eng¬ 
 land of Cromwell that was girding up her loins to beat off 
 the assaults of the old inveterate foe. 
 
 In January 1793 Great Britain began to arm, and the 
 Admiralty to smile upon Nelson. The country had need of 
 
 his services; after all he had not been 
 
 the “Agamemnon.” for g otten - He was given command of the 
 Agamemnon , a sixty-four gun ship, and 
 thus his ambition to be captain of a vessel of the line was 
 gratified at last. He was now in the very flower of manhood, 
 thirty-four years of age, with every prospect of a great career 
 before him. Behind him in the fast receding past lay ample 
 evidence of a fearless and independent character. His physi¬ 
 cal courage had not as yet been severely tried, but there had 
 been enough to give him confidence in himself. The way¬ 
 wardness of fortune, which had so long held him back from 
 battle and glory, was against him no longer. Henceforward 
 his existence was to be passed amidst scenes of desperate 
 encounter, and from a more or less insignificant spectator he becomes a chief actor. He had climbed 
 the lowest rungs of the ladder mainly by influence; now by his own merit he was to mount to the 
 topmost steps, but at each step fortune claimed from her darling some fresh sacrifice. She maimed 
 his body but she spared the mind 
 that planned and executed, till its work 
 was done. 
 
 For Nelson, then, the year 1793, 
 marks the beginning of his war service. 
 
 His life ceases to 
 
 War Service begins. 
 
 be the biography of 
 an individual and becomes instead the 
 history of the Navy and the nation. 
 
 The concentration and rapidity of attack 
 which marked Napoleon’s tactics on 
 land, marks Nelson’s tactics on the sea. 
 
 Like his great rival he disdains the 
 pedantry of war, as he found it, with 
 its resultless battles. Ready to face all 
 risks, as one who knows that nothing 
 great can be achieved without running 
 grave risks; gifted with almost unerring intuition of the course the enemy would take; shrinking from 
 no responsibility ; tireless and fearless in action ; ardent for renown and capable of inspiring the men 
 who served him with his own passionate enthusiasm, he stands forth as a matchless man of war. 
 Around him gathers a band of heroes whose courage and fidelity reflects his glory—the Nelson 
 captains, that immortal “ band of brothers ” who were the well-tempered weapon in his hand. Only 
 where he is present are great results achieved ; with the sole exception of Camperdown there is no 
 
 IV. Pocock .] [From the “ Naval Chronicled i8ro. 
 
 CADIZ, FROM THE SEA. 
 
 EARLY MINIATURE OF NELSON. 
 
 Formerly in the possession of his wife, and now in that of 
 Earl Nelson, by whose permission it is here reproduced. 
 
1 793 -] 
 
 A T elson again Afloat. 
 
 
 0 0 
 
 annihilating victory in his absence. Under Jervis, afterwards Lord St. Vincent, the morale of the 
 British Navy is raised and its discipline carried to a pitch of severe perfection ; but Jervis could not 
 reap the harvest which he had sowed. Of an earlier generation, he lacked Nelson's fire and uncon¬ 
 ventionality of attack. Jervis forged the weapon ; Nelson used it. 
 
 We have already, seen that it was one of Nelson's characteristics to fancy his ship the best and 
 
 the best-manned in the service. And so, naturally he writes of the Agamemnon that she is “without 
 
 exception the finest sixty-four in the service and has the character of sailing 
 Idealises his ship. .... 
 
 remarkably well .... well appointed in officers and manned exceeding well.” 
 
 In all his seven volumes of letters there is not a complaint of his officers or men. His generous 
 
 optimism acted as a stimulant, for where confidence is shown it is in human nature to repay the 
 
 compliment by meriting it. Service under him was a pleasure for his officers and crew. For not only 
 
 was his ship always at the forefront, where glory was to be won, but also his kindly and affectionate 
 
 R. Raton [figures by J. Mortimer).] [From the Engraving by P. C. Canot. 
 
 THE ROYAL DOCKYARD AT CHATHAM, 1793. 
 
 It was here that the Victory was built in 1765. 
 
 nature smoothed over the hardships and discomforts of every-day life at sea. His ship or his fleet was 
 the healthiest ; convinced of the sacredness of human life, he only expended it for great ends in naval 
 actions. His immense popularity in the fleet was some recompense for his assiduous care; he was to 
 his men not only their superior officer, he stood to them also in the relation of a father. 
 
 The Agamemnon was destined for the Mediterranean, whither she was to accompany Lord Hood 
 with a fleet of ten ships of the line and some frigates. Some days were spent cruising oft the Scillies, 
 
 and then the fleet steered for its destination. On the way Nelson with five ships 
 
 Sails for the i nto Cadiz to water. What he saw there of the Spanish fleet convinced him 
 
 Mediterranean. * 
 
 of its absolute worthlessness. “I am certain,” he says in June 1793, “if our six 
 barges' crews, who are picked men, had got on board one of their first-rates, they would have taken her. 
 The Dons may make fine ships—they cannot however make men. Proceeding to Toulon he had some 
 more experience of Spanish seamanship. The British fleet in July passed a huge Spanish fleet of 
 
 twenty-one ships of the line, and watched its evolutions with contempt. The Spaniards, aftei hours of 
 
 ' B 5 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 '[ 1793 - 
 
 34 
 
 Drawn on the spot, 1793, by Capt. Knight, R.N.\ VFrom an Aquatint in the possession 0/Messrs. E &= E. Emanuel, Portsea. 
 
 COAST DEFENCES OF TOULON : BALAGUIER TO EGUILLETTE FORTS. 
 
 Capture of Toulon. 
 
 futile attempts, could not form line of battle; and having been sixty days at sea had 2,000 men sick. 
 “ Long may they remain in their present state,” he adds, suspecting, and not without reason, the 
 sincerity of their alliance. 
 
 At Toulon were now seventeen French sail of the line ready for sea, but blockaded by Lord Hood’s 
 superior fleet, the latter amounting, with various detachments which it had picked up, to twenty-one sail. 
 
 The French were in a desperate plight. The harvest had failed, and corn could 
 not be imported; the people were starving. At the end of August the Royalists 
 rose on the Republicans, and handed over the town and port, with all its contents, to the British and 
 Spaniards. No less than thirty-one French ships of the line and many other vessels fell into our 
 possession. Nelson, eager then, as always, for the strongest measures, would have had these prizes 
 burnt or sent away at once. But the Spaniards, who had seventeen sail in the port, would not hear 
 of it; and it was represented to Hood that the French had surrendered to Louis XVIII., for whom 
 we were professedly acting, and not to him. The situation was a difficult one, and he did not care to 
 destroy the French fleet till the very last moment. In consequence, when the Republicans recovered 
 Toulon, eighteen of these ships were recaptured. Still, the loss of the other thirteen was a terrible 
 blow to the French Navy, coming as it did upon a force weakened by the follies of the Revolution. 
 
 As soon as the surrender was arranged, Nelson, in his Agamemnon, was sent off to Naples with 
 
 letters from Hood, requesting the despatch of Neapolitan troops to hold Toulon. For nineteen weeks 
 
 „ „ he had only twice set foot on shore, and his crew had gone without fresh meat 
 
 Nelson at Naples. ' . 
 
 and vegetables. 1 he work of blockade had been particularly hard and trying: 
 
 his present errand, however, promised relaxation. He reached Naples safely in September 1793, and 
 
 was received with singular cordiality by Sir William Hamilton, the British Minister, and by the famous 
 
 Drawn on the spot , 1793, by Capt. Knight , R.JV.] [From an Aquatint in the possession of Messrs. E. E. Emanuel, Portsea. 
 
 COAST DEFENCES OF TOULON : CAPE BRUN TO THE GORGE OF ST. ANDRf. 
 
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 1 793-1 
 
 Nelson at Naples. 
 
 Lady Hamilton, his wife. After an interview with this young captain, Sir William is said to have 
 been so much struck with his great qualities that he ordered his best bedroom to be made ready for 
 
 him, and told Lady Hamilton : 
 “ The captain I am going to 
 introduce to you is a little man 
 and far from handsome, but he 
 will live to be a great man. 
 I know it, from the talk I have 
 had with him. Let him be 
 put in the room prepared for 
 Prince Augustus ”—the son of 
 
 George III., whose visit he was 
 expecting. 
 
 And not only was Nelson 
 treated with marked distinc¬ 
 tion by the 
 minister, he 
 also found 
 
 Meets Lady 
 Hamilton. 
 
 T. Whitcomle.] [From Jenkins' 11 Naval Achievements of Great Britain 1816. 
 
 THE BURNING OF THE FRENCH FLEET AT TOULON. 
 
 Returns to Toulon. 
 
 himself in great favour at the 
 Neapolitan Court. Hitherto, he 
 had only experienced the frowns 
 of kings; now he had their smiles. 
 
 Thrice in four days he had audiences with King Ferdinand, and he sat on his right hand at a great 
 
 banquet. As for Lady Hamilton, she drove his stepson, the young Josiah Nisbet, then a midshipman in 
 
 the Agamemnon, in her carriage everywhere; upon Nelson himself she made no impression. No rhapsodies 
 about her charms fills his letters; his mind was set on other things. “ She is a young woman of 
 
 amiable manner,” he writes coldly, “ and who does honour to the station to which she is raised.” 
 
 From Naples he returned to Toulon, which was now hard pressed by the French. Already the sallow 
 artillery officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, had planted the battery which was to reduce the place; and with 
 
 treachery within and savage ardour and impetuosity without, the defence was becom¬ 
 ing hopeless, 
 the town was 
 
 In November 
 
 abandoned to the vengeance of 
 the Revolutionists, after as many 
 of the captured ships as possi¬ 
 ble had been destroyed. The 
 final scene was one of surpass¬ 
 ing horror. The miserable in¬ 
 habitants, well knowing the fate 
 that awaited them at the hands 
 of their countrymen, clamoured 
 to be taken away in the ships. 
 
 Room could not, however, be 
 found for all, and thousands 
 were left on the quays in a 
 wild delirium of panic. The 
 harbour was lighted up by the 
 blaze of the burning French 
 ships, as the British fleet put 
 to sea, and the crowning touch was given by the explosion of a vessel laden with powder, which blew 
 one British gunboat and her crew to bits, and sent the men of another flying through the air, though 
 fortunately without killing them. 
 
 // ’alker £* Boutall sc. 
 
 TOULON, and surrounding Country; from a survey made in 1793. 
 
6 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 t'l 793- 
 
 Encounter 
 
 with French frigates. 
 
 Nelson was spared these dismal sights. The English admiral was already casting his eye upon 
 Corsica, which was believed to be ripe for revolt from the French. If Toulon were lost our fleets 
 
 must have some base near the French coast. Malta as yet was not ours, and if it had been, 
 
 lay too far away. Corsica would 
 
 admirably 
 supply the de¬ 
 ficiency. And 
 on his way to cruise off the island, 
 Nelson, at two o’clock on the 
 morning of October 22, 1793, fell 
 in with a squadron of three large 
 French frigates and two smaller 
 vessels, mounting 174 guns. 
 
 It was dark when they were 
 made out from the Agamemnon; 
 
 just before 
 
 A drawn battle. 
 
 day one ot 
 the five was within hail, but in 
 the obscurity her nationality could 
 not be ascertained, and the 
 
 Agamemnon did not open fire. Presently the stranger set all doubts at rest by returning no answer to 
 the hail, by running away, and by firing when she got the chance at the Agamemnon's rigging. For 
 Nelson the position was awkward. His ship was easily out-distanced by the fast frigates. His crew had 
 been weakened by detachments left at Toulon or placed in prizes; but he was not the man to shirk 
 a fight. Guns were run out forward and the French fire was returned. With day the frigate joined 
 her consorts. The wind dropped, and when a breeze again sprang up the enemy found them- 
 
 N. Pocock .] 
 
 [From the “ Naval Chronicle 1799. 
 BASTIA, WITH THE BRITISH SHIPS IN THE OFFING. 
 
 selves to windward, in the position of advantage, 
 cut up that she was almost helpless. Expecting 
 their advantage and attack him in this state 
 with all their five ships, Nelson hastily repaired 
 his damage. The French thought better of assail¬ 
 ing him, and kept away for the nearest port. In 
 this, his first ship action, Nelson lost one man 
 killed and six wounded. 
 
 It was now resolved to reduce Corsica, and 
 early in 1794 British troops landed in this island. 
 
 At the same time Nelson cruised 
 vigilantly against the French, 
 capturing their privateers and 
 coasting craft, landing and cutting down the absurd 
 “ trees of liberty,” which the Republicans had every¬ 
 where planted, and intercepting supplies. The 
 French, thus harassed, fell back on Bastia. Nelson 
 at once reconnoitred the town; it was strong by 
 nature and strong by art, but he was convinced it 
 could be taken. Not so thought the general of 
 our troops on land. He considered its siege “ a 
 most visionary and rash attempt, such as no officer 
 
 By this time the Agamemnon's masts were so 
 that the French would make the utmost of 
 
 Urges Siege of 
 Bastia. 
 
 THE RIVIERA AND CORSICA. 
 
 could be justified in undertaking.” Was Nelson a rash fool or the general a hesitating, weak, and 
 inefficient officer.-' The issue decided. Ford Hood was passionately for the attack; Nelson had at 
 least convinced this great seaman. And now, though his old Agamemnon was leaking in every seam, 
 though she was short of fuel, wine, beef, pork, flour, water, rope, and canvas, he held her close to 
 
1 794-J 
 
 Soldiers and Sailors as Marines. 
 
 37 
 
 Bastia, burning to be in at the attack. Her officers and men slept on wet bedding, but the 
 enthusiasm of their captain was contagious. 
 
 Nelson and his wife. 
 
 So, whilst the singular general was hanging back, Nelson was feeling the strength of the place 
 with his ships, and writing letter after letter, now of remonstrance and now of entreaty. “When was 
 
 The Army hangs a ^ ace ever ^ et ta ^ en without an attempt?” he cries in fiery indignation. “We 
 back. must endeavour to deserve success, it certainly is not in our power to command it. 
 
 \\ hat would the immortal Wolfe have done ? Beat the enemy if he perished in the 
 attempt.” And at last his absolute confidence drove even this reluctant general forward. The siege was 
 formed in the spring of 1794 > Nelson and a party of seamen landed from the ships to co-operate with 
 the soldiers, and dragged their clumsy, heavy guns 
 up to the heights which commanded the town. 
 
 Nelson’s wife heard of her husband’s brilliant 
 audacity and eagerness to expose himself and 
 
 remonstrated, as she did a- 
 gain later. To her he wrote 
 one of the noblest of his letters in reply — a 
 letter of simple, but sublime resignation — for 
 with death about him and in constant peril, he 
 could not look forward to a long life: “ Only 
 
 recollect,” he wrote, “that a brave man dies but 
 once ; a coward all his life long. We cannot 
 escape death ; and should it happen to me in 
 this place, remember it is the will of Him in 
 wffiose hands are the issues of life and death. 
 
 I have no fears about the final issue of the 
 expedition. It will be victory—Bastia will be 
 ours.” His reputation was at stake, for if 
 Bastia held out he who had been the prime 
 cause and mover in the siege was a discredited 
 man. “ I feel an honest consciousness that I 
 have done right,” he wrote to his brother, in 
 the divine conviction of success: “ I feel for the 
 honour of the country, and had rather be beat 
 than not make the attempt. We must, we will 
 have it, or some of our heads will be laid low.” 
 
 And thus when, on May 23, the town sur¬ 
 rendered and the British grenadiers marched in, 
 
 “the most glorious sight that 
 an Englishman can expe¬ 
 rience was exhibited — 4,500 men laying down 
 their arms to less than 1,000 British soldiers 
 who were serving as marines ”—and to his faith¬ 
 ful “Jacks”; he felt the full glow of a success which he and he only had been the means of winning. 
 
 And what was his reward ? It was contained in these few words, which gave to others the credit 
 and made it almost appear that Nelson had been in the rear doing a quartermaster’s duties. “Captain 
 
 Nelson,” said Lord Hood, after praising the soldiers, “who had the command and 
 directions of the seamen in landing the guns, mortars, and stores, and Captain Hunt, 
 who commanded at the batteries, have an equal claim to my gratitude.” No warm 
 enthusiasm, no affectionate praise, not even cold justice for the prime mover in the enterprise, in this 
 the public despatch. Deliberately he was passed over, and this neglect of him on the part of Lord Hood 
 was all the more remarkable and discreditable, because in a general order to the fleet and in private 
 
 him the highest commendation. Nelson, with all the ardent longing 
 
 Photographedfrom the original Miniature ] 
 
 [by Kelley , Plymouth. 
 
 Bastia falls. 
 
 FRANCES, VISCOUNTESS NELSON, 1758-1831. 
 
 Was originally Miss Frances Woolward. Her mother was sister to Mr. Herbert, 
 President of the Council in Nevis, at the time when Nelson was stationed in the 
 Leeward Islands. She married Dr. Josiah Nisbet, of Nevis, in 1779, and in 1780 was 
 left a widow with one son, Josiah. She met Captain Horatio Nelson early in 1785, 
 married him on March n, 1787, and outlived him by twenty-six years. She died 
 May 6, 1831, and is buried in Littleham Churchyard, Exmouth. The. portrait, painted 
 about 1795, is reproduced by kind permission of Mrs. Eccles, Lady Nelson’s great- 
 granddaughter, who owns the original miniature, and with the consent of Captain 
 Mahan, in whose “ Life of Nelson” it was first published. 
 
 Nelson robbed of his 
 credit. 
 
 conversation the admiral gave 
 
3c 
 
 8 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [’ 1794 - 
 
 for praise which marks his simple, unaffected nature, felt the slight sorely. But his zeal ne\er flagged, 
 he had learnt in the West Indies that injustice is the way of man: “I am well aware that my poor 
 services will not be noticed,'’ he said, “ I have no interest; but however services may be received, it is 
 not right for an officer to slacken his zeal for his country.” 
 
 Lord Hood’s fleet, in which was the Agamemnon, was lying off Bastia, when suddenly, in 
 June 1794, a British frigate under full sail was seen standing in, with the signal flying from her mast¬ 
 head, “The enemy is at sea.” The fleet weighed and put out, hoping to make 
 The enemy at sea. ^ end of the French. Battle was before Nelson, probably a desperate and 
 
 bloody battle, and as the fleet went out he wrote a letter of farewell to his wife: “ If any accident 
 should happen to me, I am sure my conduct will be such as will entitle you to the royal favour ; 
 not that I have the least idea but I shall return to you, and full of honour; if not, the Lord’s 
 
 CALVl. 
 
 Siege of Calvi. 
 
 will be done. My name shall never be a disgrace to those who may belong to me. The little I 
 have, you know I have given to you, except a small annuity. I wish it was more, but I have 
 never got a farthing dishonestly.” 
 
 Nelson, however, was sent off to Calvi before the battle, and the battle itself did not come off. 
 At Calvi troops and sailors were landed, and he took command of the latter. With him was Captain 
 
 Hallowed, an officer of gigantic stature and saturnine temperament, but as brave a 
 sailor as Nelson, and now and henceforward one of his intimate friends. The seamen 
 were worked hard at making roads, hauling the heavy twenty-four pounders of the ships into position, 
 and building batteries. Their shpes were bad, and they went almost barefooted. But, as at Bastia, the 
 example of Nelson and Hallowed taking turn and turnabout, twenty-four hours each at the batteries, 
 was inspiring. 
 
 The climate was so deadly that Nelson was for an immediate assault. Now, as years before at 
 San Juan, the general would not consent to it, and preferred the pedantry of zig-zags. It was at this 
 
 Nelson wounded. 
 
 time that Nelson was wounded. He was standing in one of the advanced batteries 
 
 when a shot struck the earthwork, and dashed a volley of small stones and 
 splinters in his face. He was badly cut and blood poured from his head ; more serious, however, was 
 an injury to his right eye, which was badly scratched. The pain of any injury to the eye is agonising; 
 
1 794-J 
 
 Nelson Loses an Eye. 
 
 Calvi surrenders. 
 
 before 
 
 low,” 
 
 Calvi 
 
 yet that same evening he wrote to his admiral, with undaunted courage making light of his wound 
 “I got a little hurt this morning; not much, as 
 you may judge by my writing.” And twenty-four 
 hours later when his turn for duty came, he was 
 back at his post. To his wife he at first said nothing, 
 but later he told her the truth. The sight of his 
 right eye was destroyed, and he could with it only 
 just distinguish light from darkness. This was his 
 second wound, for at Bastia he had a sharp cut 
 on his back, which tie never mentioned till long 
 afterwards. 
 
 His eye gave him constant pain for some time, 
 but his energy kept him in good health. Others 
 
 sickened and died, he, like “ the 
 reed amongst the oaks, bowed 
 the storm, whilst the sturdy oak was laid 
 and suffered, but survived. A month later 
 surrendered, and for once Nelson got the 
 praise he deserved. “ His unremitting zeal and 
 exertion I cannot sufficiently express,” said Lord 
 Hood, and once more offered him a seventy-four. 
 
 But Nelson could not bring himself to part with 
 his dear ship’s company — the gallant men who had 
 fought so well under his eye at Bastia and Calvi. 
 
 His work in Corsica cost him not only his eye and his health, but also, a more serious thing for 
 a poor officer, £300 beyond his pay. His ship’s company, that company which he could proudly boast 
 
 had never a man ill at sea, was, he said, 
 
 NELSON WOUNDED AT CALVI. 
 
 Heavy expenses. 
 
 FLAG OF THE 2ND BATTALION OF THE 26th FRENCH 
 REGIMENT, CAPTURED AT CALVI, 1794. 
 
 This is one of the oldest French flags still in existence It now hangs in 
 the Royal United Service Institution, in Whitehall, where it was photo- 
 graphed for this Work. Beside it hang four other French flags captured at the 
 siege of Bastia. 
 
 “ completely ruined ” in 
 health. And now Lord 
 Hood, the best and ablest admiral of the 
 time, went home, not taking Nelson with 
 him. Depressed by this Nelson began to 
 long for peace, and for the quiet cottage on 
 shore — always the goal of the storm-tossed 
 sailor. 
 
 In command of the Mediterranean fleet 
 was left a gentle, easy-going, pleasant old 
 gentleman, Admiral Hotham, 
 whom every one liked, but 
 
 no one 
 honoured 
 —as dif¬ 
 ferent as possible from the 
 eager and zealous Hood. He 
 was anxious not to win suc¬ 
 cess, but to avoid all risks, 
 without which success is im¬ 
 possible. Under his lead 
 discipline declined, seaman¬ 
 ship retrograded, and the fleet skulked in harbour. The French ships at Toulon had been refitted, and 
 were now readv for sea. They were, it is true, miserably manned, as of 12,000 souls Mho formed the 
 crews but 4,000 were sailors, or had ever been to sea. The French soldiers and sailors, ho\\t\er, 
 
 Hotham replaces 
 Hood. 
 
 \Froin Sketch supplied by 
 Major Holden. 
 
 DETAIL OF THE FLAG. 
 
40 
 
 ['*795- 
 
 Nels on and His Times. 
 
 Prepare for battle.” 
 
 The British fleet gave chase to 
 the French. Already the ebullient 
 
 courage of the 
 Republican 
 crews was oozing away as they saw 
 their terrible enemies in hot pur¬ 
 suit. They had not as yet, how¬ 
 ever, learnt all that British seamen 
 could do, and our chase was ill- 
 ordered, wide intervals separating 
 the ships. At 3.15 in the after¬ 
 noon of March 12 the English flagship made the signal “ Prepare for battle.” The guns were cast 
 loose and examined; on the low long decks, with their dim horn battle-lanterns, the men, stripped to 
 the waist, took up their quarters; the magazines were opened; the decks were sanded to give a firm 
 footing when blood began to run; the surgeons in the cock-pits got out their instruments; the empty 
 water-barrels and the unhappy bullocks, carried to give the men fresh meat, were hoisted up and 
 
 thrown into the sea. All was bustle and preparation, and every heart beat fast for the fight—but 
 the fight did not come. 
 
 FIRST-CLASS CRUISER OF TO-DAY. 
 
 H.M.S. Poiver/u/, twin-screw cruiser, built in 1896-97, has a tonnage of 14,200, indicated horse power under 
 natural draught 25,000, capable of being materially increased under forced draught. Speed, twenty-two knots. 
 
 had been “electrified” by the magnificent speeches of a deputy. They had sworn to conquer or die. 
 The orders were to seek and fight the English, who had only fourteen sail of the line to their fifteen. 
 On March 8, 1795, Hotham heard that the enemy were at sea; and steered to meet them with every 
 chance in his favour. With him was Nelson in the Agamemnon, burning for battle and glory. 
 A victory at the moment would end the war, and if he lived through it, perhaps give him his 
 coveted cottage. 
 
 On March 10 there were seen triangular specks on the horizon — the enemy's sails. Nelson, 
 who with each battle prepared for death, as on the glorious morning of Trafalgar, sat down to write 
 
 his last words 
 
 The French in sight. 
 
 to those he 
 
 loved, in case he fell. “ Whatever 
 be my fate,’’ he said in this his 
 letter to his wife, “ I have no 
 doubt, but that my conduct will 
 be such as will not bring a blush 
 on the face of my friends; the 
 
 lives of all are in the hands of 
 Him who knows best whether to 
 preserve mine or not ; to His will 
 do I resign myself. Life with 
 
 disgrace is dreadful. A glorious 
 
 death is to be envied.” 
 
 From the Engraving in the possession 0 /] 
 
 IV. H. Over end. Esq. 
 
 AN ENGLISH FRIGATE OF NELSON’S TIME 
 AND A WEST INDIAMAN. 
 
 The frigate was a fast-sailing vessel mounting from 
 twenty eight to forty guns and stood in much the 
 same relation to the ship of the line as the modem fast 
 cruiser bears to the more heavily-anned and slower 
 battleship. 
 
 All that afternoon and night the fleets were in sight and ready for battle. The French were 
 noticed to handle their ships in very lubberly style; calm confidence filled everyone in the British fleet 
 except Admixal Hotham. W ith daybreak the two fleets were near together. A general chase was 
 
1 795 •] 
 
 4i 
 
 Nelson Attacks the “ Qa-1 rat' 
 
 The battle tarries. 
 
 ordered by the English admiral, and almost at once, one of the enemy’s ships was seen to lose her 
 
 two topmasts. A British frigate dashed at her, and the fighting began. Fast 
 towards the flash of the guns cams Nelson in his Agamemnon, whilst behind him 
 the British fleet tailed out in a long irregular line. In a cluster lay three French ships; one a vast 
 
 three-decker of 120 guns, with sides so solid that the 
 French believed no shot would go through them. 
 Of the two others, one was the eighty-gun Qa-Ira, 
 which had lost her topmasts, and had been assailed 
 by the British frigate. Behind Nelson for miles was 
 no help. He looked at the three-decker and longed, 
 but prudence overcame his eagerness to engage the 
 biggest of his enemies.. He chose the Ca-Ira as 
 his quarry, and bore down upon her. 
 
 As he closed her stern-chasers opened, and, 
 splinters flying from the Agamemnon's sides and 
 
 masts, told of the enemy’s accu- 
 
 Nelson attacks. 
 
 rate aim. At first the Agamem- 
 advance was made in silence—that “terrible 
 
 From the Etching J 
 
 \by Row ancison. 
 
 FIGHTING A GUN IN ACTION. 
 
 non s 
 
 silence” which Frenchmen have told us so unnerved 
 their crews, because it was the sure sign of iron discipline and absolute self-control. For an hour the 
 British ship continued her menacing approach; then, when but a hundred yards from the Ca-Ira's stern, 
 the French officers saw her turn till all the guns of her broadside bore; the muzzles came into sight; 
 the faces of the men could be seen through the open port-holes; an instant later she was a sheet of 
 flame, as, with a tremendous roar, she 
 gave the French a double - shotted 
 raking broadside, which tore its way 
 through the Ca-Ira's stern, carrying 
 death and confusion before it. When 
 the concussion and noise of cheering 
 died away, the Agamemnon could be 
 seen turning back to her old course 
 astern of the Ca-Ira, only to repeat 
 her performance. Time after time she 
 practised her adroit manoeuvre, and all 
 the while the French could scarcely 
 fire a gun. The Qa-Ira's decks were 
 strewn with dead and dying, her masts 
 were tottering, her sails in rags, and 
 when at last she turned, so flurried 
 and disorganised were her men, that 
 almost every shot from her broadside 
 passed over the gallant Agamemnon. 
 
 But other French ships were tardily 
 coming up to her rescue. Hotham 
 saw with alarm that Nelson was on 
 the verge of being surrounded, and 
 made the signal of recall, just as the 
 seamen of the fleet, warmed by the thunder of the intermittent firing and by the Agamemnon's example, 
 were panting for action, and murmuring at the admiral's inexplicable reluctance to engage. Nelson 
 could do nothing but draw off. 
 
 All the afternoon the Agamcmnons were repairing damage. Only seven of them had been wounded 
 —with such skill and seamanship had Nelson handled his ship. On the Qa-Ira no men were dead or 
 
 //. C. Seppings Wright. ] 
 
 THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE 
 
 ‘ AGAMEMNON ’ 
 
 {From contemporary Sketches. 
 AND THE “CA-IRA.” 
 
42 
 
 Nelson and Hts Tunes. 
 
 U795- 
 
 wounded. 
 
 A battle results. 
 
 Hotham’s timidity. 
 
 Her resistance had been glorious to her crew, but her heavy loss was not creditable to 
 her officers. Through the night the fleets watched each other, and with day the 
 Ca-Ira was observed to be in tow of another battleship, and some distance from the 
 main body of the French. Two British ships were signalled to attack them; Admiral Hotham and 
 Nelson with the rest of our line followed. The two British ships were roughly handled ; one could be 
 seen flying the signal of distress. The main body of the French fleet was bearing down to drive off 
 the British ships and save its cripples. To frustrate this intention, the British fleet passed between 
 the French line and the Ca-Ira and her companion, thus engaging on both sides. The Agamemnon came 
 fourth in the British line, and was in the thick of the battle. She was specially directed by Hotham 
 to assail the two French ships which were in difficulties. And now, at last, Nelson reaped the harvest 
 of the previous day’s fight. The Ca-Ird’s flag came slowly down, and her example was followed by 
 her companion. Two French ships of the line had struck to him in presence of the fleet. 
 
 The French main body made no attempt to repair this disaster, but turned in retreat. This was 
 the moment for Admiral Hotham to seize his opportunity and launch every British sail in pursuit. 
 
 “ Not victor}-, but annihilation ” 
 
 was required. 
 The great 
 commander follows up his success 
 to the utmost; with him the de¬ 
 struction of the enemy is the one 
 object, and till this has been 
 attained he counts nothing done. 
 But Admiral Hotham was not 
 a great commander. The wind 
 had sunk, the ships were scarcely 
 moving, and Nelson, amazed at 
 his chiefs “ tame and slow mea¬ 
 sures,” went on board his ship 
 to try personal remonstrance. 
 The meeting must have been 
 singular. “ We must be con¬ 
 tented,” said Hotham; “we have 
 done very well.” Contented ! 
 Not such was Nelson’s frame of 
 mind. “ Now, had we taken ten sail and had allowed the eleventh to escape, when it had been 
 possible to have got at her, I could never have called it well done,” he wrote. 
 
 This lost opportunity had disastrous results. If the French had been not merely beaten but 
 destroyed, their army could never have invaded Italy; because in that case, food, ammunition, and 
 
 artillery could not have been conveyed, as it was conveyed by sea, to their troops^ 
 The coalition then engaged in a desperate struggle with France would have been 
 encouraged to redouble its efforts ; Spain would never have allied herself with the 
 Republic; and Napoleon’s rise to power would have had to be achieved in other quarters of Europe 
 than Italy. To England a Trafalgar at this moment would have meant everything. As yet our Navy 
 had achieved no great victory ; the ist of June, 1794, was an almost resultless battle ; the resolution 
 of the nation was steadily declining with misfortune after misfortune. Small wonder then that Nelson 
 and his comrades ground their teeth. 
 
 Once more — and this was the third occasion—Nelson was robbed of his legitimate honour. 
 
 his masterly onslaught on the £ a-Ira , there was a very inadequate notice in 
 the despatch. Of the fact that two French ships had, on the second day’s 
 fight, struck to him there was no notice at all. The reader would never 
 have guessed that his was the lion’s share of both the fighting and the credit- 
 But the admiration of the fleet was a sufficient reward for him. All had seen his achievements; 
 
 T. Whitcombe .] 
 
 [From the original Engraving, published in 1805. 
 
 THE “CA-IRA” AND “ CENSEUR” AFTER THEIR CAPTURE, WITH THE BRITISH SHIPS 
 “ILLUSTRIOUS” (to the right) AND “COURAGEUX” (to the left), March 14, 1794. 
 
 Disastrous conse¬ 
 quences. 
 
 Of his brilliant, 
 
 No honour for 
 Nelson. 
 
43 
 
 1 795*] Timid Warfare. 
 
 his brothers in arms knew now his real deserts; and his light could no longer be hid under 
 
 a bushel. 
 
 Chafing at the inactivity of Hotham, he heard that Lord Hood had quarrelled with the Admiralty, 
 and that there was no hope of his return. The news filled him with grief. Though Hood’s name has 
 
 Greatness of Hood. n0t COme down to us associ ated with any brilliant victory, his was known in his 
 
 own time as a master mind. It was opportunity not skill that he wanted. For 
 
 ns Nelson’s judgment of him is sufficient title to fame—“ the first officer in our service.” He felt 
 Hood s loss all the more because on July 13, 1795, Hotham, that singular admiral of wasted 
 opportunities, threw away another splendid chance of beating the French. The French were sighted 
 off Toulon. The British ships at once attempted to engage them. Nelson selected an eighty-gun 
 enemy for his attack, when the wind fell, and Hotham ordered a retreat. Then was to be seen the 
 singular spectacle of a British admiral dancing with rage on his quarter-deck, and kicking his hat to 
 and fro. This was Admiral Godall, Hotham’s second in command, furious at his chief’s hesitation and 
 reluctance to fight. As for Nelson, his feeling for Hotham was now bordering upon disdainful 
 
 F. J. de Loutherbourg, R.A. From the original in the ] [By permission of the Lords Commissioners 
 
 Fainted Half Greenwich. 0/ the Admiralty. 
 
 EARL HOWE’S VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH FLEET OFF USHANT, June t, 1794. 
 
 This action was always spoken of as the “glorious First of June.” Six French ships were captured, and one sunk; but the victory was 
 not followed up, and Nelson used the term, “a Lord Howe’s victory,” to express one of which the fruits were forfeited for lack of vigorous 
 pursuit. The picture here given represents Howe’s flagship, the Queen Charlotte , engaging Admiral Yilhret in La Montague. 
 
 contempt. “ Hood,” he cried, “ would not have acted thus.” “ I almost, I assure you, wish myself 
 
 an admiral with the command of a fleet,” he wrote to his brother—confident that he could do better. 
 
 It would seem that Hotham himself realised his own incapacity, as he asked to be recalled. His 
 
 request was presently complied with by the Admiralty. 
 
 The last months of Hotham’s command passed uneventfully for Nelson. As some reward for his 
 
 services he had been appointed Colonel of Marines, an honorary post which carried a pension with it: 
 
 and his name was now becoming known to the Admiralty. He was employed 
 On the Italian coast. ...... 
 
 in watching the Genoese coast, and co-operating with the Austrian army, then 
 
 fighting in North Italy. His work, however, could not be properly done, not because of any want 
 
 of zeal and energy on his part—for then, as ever, his activity was unrelenting—but because he was 
 
 - - 
 
44 
 
 Nelson and His Times . 
 
 '•[1795- 
 
 not given sufficient force. Hotham with the main part of the fleet was doing nothing. In vain 
 Nelson begged him to send more ships; it was not to be. 
 
 But the day of our sluggish inactivity was over at last. As successor to Hotham, the Government 
 sent out Admiral Sir John Jervis, a man of very different mould from Hotham. He was famous for the 
 sternness of his discipline. In character he was the typical grim, cold, reserved Englishman of his 
 
 day—a Duke of Wellington at 
 
 sea. To 
 
 Jervis in command. 
 
 the in¬ 
 capable he was terrible; the 
 lazy captain and the muti¬ 
 nous sailor found in him the 
 harshest of judges. Zeal and 
 courage he favoured and dis¬ 
 tinguished. Of character he 
 was a consummate judge; 
 the captains whom he “ made 
 and formed ” in the Medi¬ 
 terranean were the “ band of 
 brothers ” rendered glorious 
 by the victory of the Nile. 
 His merciless severity was 
 untempered by the milk of human kindness; he had no hesitation in ordering men to be flogged or hung; 
 he never attempted to govern by love. But to repair defects in discipline, to keep a fleet in thorough 
 order, to train it for battle, he was the very man we needed. As the man who forged and tempered 
 the perfect weapon that Nelson used his career is inseparably bound up with our hero’s greatness. 
 
 The steps which he took were admirable. He insisted on constant gunnery drill at sea and in 
 harbour. He explained to the negligent amongst his captains that their post was no sinecure, and 
 
 compelled them to come on deck for important' manoeuvres. He checked the 
 insubordination of the lieutenants. He compelled the doctors to carry their 
 instruments always with them, as a hint to them that they neglected their duty, 
 the health of his 
 
 From a Photograph \ 
 
 GENOA. 
 
 [by Frith < 5 ^ Co., Reigatc. 
 
 Jervis trains the 
 Fleet. 
 
 to 
 
 H is attention 
 men was unremitting. The ships 
 were to be properly aired, and not 
 too often washed between decks; 
 sugar and lime juice were to be 
 issued to the ships’ companies to 
 prevent scurvy; the sick-bay was to 
 be comfortable and well - situated. 
 H is ill-equipped, ill-found, old ships 
 he husbanded, contriving to keep 
 them in fighting order. His central 
 idea was to pen the enemy in their 
 ports by a close blockade. Thus 
 whilst his own fleet, ever at sea, 
 gained daily in seamanship, the 
 enemy’s daily deteriorated. The 
 energy of Jervis was as furious as 
 that of Nelson himself, though he 
 had attained the ripe age of sixty 
 years. He had not, however, Nelson’s 
 genius for war, or Nelson’s power 
 of winning his officers’ and men’s 
 
 From a Photograph ] V>y the Photocrom Company. 
 
 SAN R£MO. 
 
 Nelson, in September 1795, endeavoured to concert with the Austrian General de Vins the landing 
 of a body of men to occupy San Remo and so cut off supplies from the French army. The General, 
 however, could not be induced to co-operate, and Nelson had to content himself with watching the 
 coast and making seizures of f rench vessels whenever possible. 
 
1795-96-] 
 
 Jervis in Command. 
 
 45 
 
 Jervis and Nelson. 
 
 Nelson quits the 
 “ Agamemnon.” 
 
 affection. His tastes were cultivated, his conversation charming, his table well appointed—and yet he 
 was not liked. “Where I should take a penknife,” said Nelson, “he takes a hatchet.” 
 
 It was characteristic of Nelson that he never kicked when he was serving under really able men. 
 Of Jervis and Hood he has no complaints. He took at once to the new commander-in-chief, and the 
 
 new commander-in-chief took to him. Jervis talked freely with him and sent him 
 off to blockade Genoa. This annoyed some of his brother captains. “ You did 
 just as you pleased in Lord Hood’s time, the same in Admiral Hotham’s, and now again with 
 Sir John Jervis ; it makes no difference to you who is commander-in-chief,” they said. 
 
 In the spring of 1796 
 Nelson was made a com¬ 
 modore, 
 and two 
 months 
 
 later had to abandon his 
 Agamemnon. She was in 
 so deplorable a state that 
 she had to be sent home. 
 
 For years he had been 
 longing to see England 
 once more, but now' the 
 chance had come, he could 
 not bring himself to -make 
 use of it, or leave the stage 
 on which he was so im¬ 
 portant an actor. Reluc¬ 
 tantly he quitted her for 
 the Captain, a splendid 
 seventy-four, taking with 
 him many of his war-worn 
 
 officers and men ; and then proceeded to blockade Leghorn, which was now menaced by the French. 
 
 The main 
 French force. 
 
 H. C. Seppings Wright .] 
 
 GUN-DRILL ON BOARD A SHIP OF NELSON’S TIME. 
 
 The illustration represents the larboard battery preparing to engage an enemy on the larboard bow. 
 
 Nelson blockades 
 Genoa. 
 
 body of the British fleet was busy blockading Toulon, in which lay a considerable 
 It could not spare men to man the small gunboats that were needed to look after the 
 small French craft running along the coast under shelter of the batteries Napoleon 
 had erected. Not a French line-of-battle ship or frigate could go or come under 
 the vigilant eyes of Jervis, but these craft went backwards or forwards inshore 
 with almost complete impunity. Now and then, however, Nelson made hauls. He captured a \essel 
 
 with charts and books for Napoleon ; another in which was a carriage full of clothes belonging to a 
 French general. This, with a generosity remarkable in the man who said “ I hate a brenchman, he 
 
 returned. To do him justice it was the only occasion on which he shewed his enemy the slightest 
 
 compunction. 
 
 It now became necessary for the British to seize Elba. Our position in Corsica was most insecure. 
 The Corsicans who had voted themselves Englishmen with absurd incongruity, when they saw how 
 
 the wind blew, were all for France. The occupation of Elba was effected by 
 
 Seizure of Elba. Nelson w i t hout difficulty. It seems that this event passed almost unnoticed, which 
 
 so chafed Nelson that he wrote to his wife: “ Had all my actions been gazetted, not one fortnight 
 would have passed during the war without a letter from me; one day or other I will have a long 
 gazette to myself. I feel that such an opportunity will be given me. I cannot, if I am in the held 
 
 of glory, be kept out of sight. I am known throughout Italy, not a kingdom or state where my 
 
 name will be forgotten. This is my gazette. ’ 
 
 Up to this hour France had been fighting for life against a coalition. But now the tables were 
 turned. One by one England’s allies had been beaten, and made peace or joined France, till our 
 Navy alone was left confronting the all-victorious Republic, and we fought no longer for mere success 
 
4 6 
 
 Nelson and His Tunes 
 
 [1795-96. 
 
 but for existence. Holland had become the ally of France, and in the summer of 1796’ Spain signed 
 
 a Convention offering the Republic the aid of fifteen ships of the line. Informed 
 England’s Struggle itg secret agentS) w ho were extraordinarily numerous and active, the British 
 
 Government warned its admirals in all directions. At home the news of the fresh 
 war caused deep dejection. We had now fought incessantly for more than three years. The war 
 which was so soon to be ended with the overthrow of France had culminated in her triumphant victor}. 
 
 Invasion by the French was appre¬ 
 hended ; armies were gathering for that 
 end across the Channel. Bread was 
 fearfully scarce. In 1795 the Privy 
 Council had called upon Englishmen to 
 put their households upon an allowance 
 of one quartern loaf per head per week. 
 The rich were not to powder their hair 
 with flour; they were not to make rich 
 soups or gravies. The King himself set 
 an example. In spite of all these laws, 
 however, the miseries of the poor were 
 great and can scarcely be exaggerated. 
 Ominous cries of “ bread and peace ” 
 were heard in the streets ; riots were 
 constant. England was on the eve of 
 some appalling disaster. 
 
 Our sailors heard of the probable 
 war with Spain with mixed feelings. To 
 the younger, the more ardent, who knew 
 what Spain and what her navy was, such a struggle brought delight rather than terror. “ I have no 
 
 ... ... e . fears, ’ wrote Nelson to his admiral; “their fleet is ill-manned, and worse officered, 
 
 War with Spain. 
 
 I believe, and 
 they are slow. A Spanish galleon 
 taken now in this country will end 
 the war.” For Spain was still the 
 possessor of Mexico and Peru; the 
 treasure-ships which from time im¬ 
 memorial had excited the cupidity 
 of British sailors still crossed the 
 Atlantic. The war with France 
 brought only miserable, valueless 
 prizes; that with Spain promised 
 to the officers and men of the 
 Mediterranean fleet wealth almost 
 beyond the dreams of avarice. As 
 for success against them in pitched 
 battle, neither Nelson nor any other 
 British officer in the Mediterranean 
 fleet ever doubted this. “ Under 
 such a commander as Sir John Jervis nobody has any fears. We are now twenty-two sail of the line, 
 the combined fleet ^French and Spanish] will not be above thirty-five; I will venture my life Sir John 
 Jervis defeats them. There is nothing we are not able to accomplish.” The British fleet was in the 
 very pink of condition, owing to the new discipline of Jervis; its gunnery was perfect; its discipline 
 of iron; its officers the very best the world has ever seen. No comparison between it and the 
 disorganised, disorderly fleets of Spain and France was possible. 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 [by Symonds & Co., Portsmouth. 
 
 TWIN-SCREW DESTROYER OF THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 Like the cutter of an earlier period, these destroyers are intended for overhauling or running down 
 the enemy’s smaller craft. They steam as a rule thirty knots an hour. 
 
 /. Kitchingman . ] [From an Engraving in the possession of Commander Robinson, R.N. 
 
 CUTTERS OF NELSON’S DAY. 
 
1 796-] 
 
 47 
 
 Spam Joins our Foes. 
 
 It was well that this was so, for now began one of the most extraordinary runs of ill-luck against 
 us. Let no man say that fortune all through was on our side. To Jervis and Nelson it was given 
 
 _ to rise supe- 
 
 Fortune against us. 
 
 rior to bad 
 luck, and show that they could 
 overcome it. The British fleet 
 had been divided. A squadron 
 of fifteen ships was with Jervis, 
 off Toulon; another of seven 
 ships with Admiral Man, off 
 Carthagena. This officer was 
 ordered by Jervis to join him. 
 
 He did so but without stores, 
 and had to be sent back to 
 Gibraltar to fill up, as the ships 
 of our fleet were all on short 
 allowance. To return once more 
 to Jervis, Man must run past the 
 main strength of the Spanish fleet; his hear L failed him, and his captains wanted to go home. Positively 
 he called a council of war, and sailed calmly off to Spithead, whilst Jervis was left anxiously sweeping the 
 sea from the mountain tops of Corsica for the sails which never came. And yet Man was not shot. 
 
 In November 1796 Corsica was evacuated, Nelson covering the operation. The French party 
 in Bastia talked mighty high till the British commodore threatened to batter down their town 
 
 for twopence, when their tune changed. Our troops and stores were with¬ 
 drawn in perfect order; and Nelson, according to the custom of our Navy, 
 was the last man to embark. 
 
 Orders had come from home to abandon the Mediterranean. The spirit of Nelson rose in 
 
 indignation against this weakness. “ They do not know at home what this fleet is capable of per¬ 
 
 forming : anything and everything. Much as I shall rejoice to see England, I 
 lament our present orders in sackcloth and ashes, so dishonourable to the dignity 
 
 of England, whose fleets are equal to meet the world in arms; and of all the 
 
 fleets I ever saw, I never beheld one in point of officers and men equal to Sir John Jervis’s, 
 
 N. Pocock .] 
 
 TOULON. 
 
 [From the “Naval Chronicle" 1799. 
 
 Corsica evacuated. 
 
 The Mediterranean 
 abandoned. 
 
 E. T. Compton .] ELBA, FROM THE MAINLAND. [Drawn from Nature. 
 
 who is a. commander-in-chief able to lead them to glory.” But he did not yet know of Man’s 
 extraordinary mistake. And, indeed, the odds were fearful upon paper. So the fifteen sail of the 
 line sadly set their course for Gibraltar, leaving behind them the vast stretches of the Mediterranean, 
 on which not a British flag now flew, except at Elba, our only remaining possession. 
 
43 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 '• [1796. 
 
 Eating the sweepings of their bread-rooms these heroic crews neither murmured nor held back. 
 The spirit of the fleet was as the temper of some fine Toledo' blade which will stand every 
 
 strain. And at home was sorrow and dejection: the funds falling fast; out- 
 
 Spint of the fleet. ^ peace . an d growing panic, as even the British Navy was now proving 
 
 unequal to its work. 
 
 Barely had Jervis arrived at Gibraltar when fresh orders came from home for him to withdraw 
 
 the garrison of Elba. Someone must be sent back into that perilous sea; someone must make 
 
 his way through the gathering forces of the enemy and bring off the troops. 
 A perilous errand. Ne j son > s v jg 0ur and audacity marked him as the man for this most dangerous 
 
 enterprise. Late in 1796 he sailed eastwards in the fast frigate Minerve, taking with him another 
 frigate, the Blanche, and leaving for once his Captain, as she was too slow. Off Carthagena 
 he ran up against two Spanish frigates. Our ships gave chase and paired off with their 
 enemies. Then, almost in sight of the main Spanish fleet, which was lying in or off the port, 
 Nelson attacked the Santa Sabina with the Minerve, and, after three hours’ hard fighting, captured 
 her and took her in tow. Her captain was Don Jacobo Stuart, of British royal descent, sprung 
 
 from the ill - fated James II. 
 Hardly had the British taken 
 possession when another Spanish 
 frigate came up and fired into 
 the Sabina, and yet more hostile 
 sails were seen astern. The fri¬ 
 gate was beaten off, but the ships 
 behind chased vigorously, and two 
 of them were made out to be 
 ships of the line. Of these one 
 was close upon Nelson, when, 
 with splendid judgment, the Brit¬ 
 ish officers of the Sabina hoisted 
 the English colours above the 
 Spanish to provoke their enemy 
 by this taunt. The Spanish line- 
 of-battle ship turned aside and 
 chased and captured the Sabina. 
 Meanwhile the Minerve escaped, 
 and was speedily joined by the 
 Blanche, which had beaten her 
 opponent, but had been compelled to retire on the approach of the other Spaniards. 
 
 Thus gloriously did Nelson “singe the King of Spain’s beard”; thus narrowly did he escape a 
 Spanish prison. Fortune favoured him as she did often; but in this action may be seen the fruits 
 
 of his kindness and affection for his junior officers. Would they have sacrificed 
 themselves to save a man with less kindness of disposition and vigour of character ? 
 It may be doubted. From Carthagena Nelson steered for Elba, passing afar off twelve of the enemy’s 
 sail. To Elba the fame of his deeds had gone before him, and he was received with wild applause. 
 He refitted his ships; then, as the general in charge of Elba would not abandon the place, turned 
 westwards once more. 1 he sea was as empty of foes as of friends; all ships must be gathering 
 round the Straits for a great battle. 
 
 Burning with anxiety not to miss the opportunity, he hastened to Gibraltar. There he picked up 
 the officers lost in the Santa Sabina, who had been already exchanged, and of whom Hardy was one. 
 Saves Hardy wen ^ ou ^ once more, the garrison crowded the rock, for there were Spanish 
 
 battleships lying in the Straits and these at once gave chase. The Minerve 
 prepared for battle. “ Before the Dons get hold of that bit of bunting,” said Nelson, looking up at 
 his commodore s pennant, “ I will have a struggle with them, and sooner than give up the frigate I'll 
 
 T. Whitcombc .] 
 
 [From Jenkins “ Naval Achievements 
 
 CAPTURE OF “LA MINERVE,” June 24, 1795. 
 
 The frigate Minerve (of 40 guns, eighteen-pounders on the main deck', which was now to serve Nelson so 
 well in his daring expedition for the evacuation of Elba, was a new French ship, and remarkably fast. She 
 was captured by the Lowestoft, Nelson’s old ship, with some assistance from the Dido , in the Mediterranean, 
 on the date mentioned. 
 
 In the Mediterranean. 
 
I797-] 
 
 Nelson risks his liberty for Hardy. 
 
 49 
 
 BROOCH SET IN 
 DIAMONDS. 
 
 This Brooch, now in the 
 possession of Earl Nelson, 
 bears on the back the en¬ 
 graved inscription, “ Horatio 
 Nelson to Lady Hamilton, 
 1796.” About this time the 
 Queen of Naples, through 
 Lady Hamilton, informed 
 the British Government that 
 Spain had become the ally of 
 France, and it is suggested 
 that this Brooch was Nelson’s 
 recognition of her services. 
 
 N. Pocock.] 
 
 [From an Engraving published in 1799. 
 OFF BREST. 
 
 run her ashore.” The enemy was gaining fast when Nelson and his party sat down to dinner. At 
 
 this moment the cry “ man overboard ” was heard. The officers dashed on 
 deck; the jolly-boat was lowered in the teeth of the enemy, with Hardy in it, 
 and dropped with the current fast astern towards the Spaniards. The man who 
 had fallen was never seen again ; it was now a question of Hardy and his boat’s 
 crew. Already the first of the Spaniards was within gun-shot of the Minerve. 
 Nelson turned and saw. With the words : “ By God, I’ll not lose Hardy,” he 
 backed his sails and stopped, risking again a Spanish prison. So extraordinary was 
 the audacity of this manoeuvre that the Spaniard was taken aback and also stopped, 
 fearing, it would seem, 
 that Nelson had sight¬ 
 ed friends to the west. 
 
 Thus was Hardy saved, 
 and Nelson’s debt to 
 him repaid. For Hardy 
 in the Sabina had been 
 one of the officers to 
 save Nelson. 
 
 Even so, they were 
 not out of danger. In 
 the night a number of 
 huge shapes suddenly loomed up round the (li¬ 
 gate. She had sailed into 
 In the midst of the the midst of the Spanish 
 
 enemy’s fleet. . , • 
 
 fleet. How she escaped is 
 
 a mystery; whether the enemy was careless and off his guard, whether he respected the small size of 
 
 the English vessel, or whether he supposed her to be a Spaniard, escape she did. The haze was 
 
 thick; Nelson followed the 
 
 movements of the Spanish, 
 tacking when they tacked, 
 and showing no hurry to be 
 off; but presently he edged 
 away. He fancied the 
 Spaniards were bound for 
 the West Indies, and, if so, 
 was determined to follow 
 or precede them thither, 
 to warn his countrymen. 
 But Brest was really their 
 goal, where they were to 
 effect a junction with a 
 considerable F rench squad¬ 
 ron, and he had no need 
 to carry out this heroic 
 resolve. He got well away 
 from the enemy; nothing 
 was seen of the Spaniards 
 on the 12th; and on 
 February 13 the Minerve 
 joined Jervis’s fleet off Cape 
 St. Vincent. 
 
 H. C. Scppings Wright .] 
 
 NELSON STOPPING TO PICK UP HARDY IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FAME AND FAILURE, 1796-1798. 
 (Nelson’s Age, 38-39.) 
 
 A Run of Ill-Luck—Battle Imminent—Movements of Jervis—The Eve of St. Vincent—Greatness of the Emergency—Will 
 Jervis Fight ?—Jervis Breaks the Line—“Tack in Succession”—The Spaniards Divided—Nelson Disobeys—Collingwood’s 
 Gallantry—Nelson Boards—Carries the San Nicolas —Surrender of the San Josef —Nelson Wins the Day—Reception 
 by Jervis—Nelson passed over in Despatches—Nelson’s Modesty—Nelson and Collingwood—Enthusiasm in England— 
 Congratulations—Nelson’s Quest for the Treasure-ship—Second Voyage to Elba—Discontent in the Fleet—Open Mutiny 
 
 _Grievances Redressed—Danger to Great Britain—St. Vincent and the Mutineers—Iron Determination—The Execution 
 
 takes place—The Theseus loyal—Boat Actions off Cadiz—Nelson Plans Attack on Teneriffe—Teneriffe—First Attack— 
 For the Honour of Our Race—A Desperate Attempt—Gallantry of Nisbet—The Attack Opens—Nelson Wounded— 
 Nelson’s Care for Others—An Unskilful Amputation—Failure—Mental Agony of Nelson—St. Vincent’s Consolation 
 
 _Nelson Returns Home—His Popularity—Passion for Action—The Dead of Teneriffe—Nelson’s Heroic Modesty— 
 
 Rejoins St. Vincent—Detached to the Mediterranean. 
 
 A run of ill-luck. 
 
 HILST Nelson, favoured of fortune, was thus ploughing the enemy’s waters with 
 impunity, Jervis’s run of ill-luck had continued. In December 1796 he anchored at 
 
 Gibraltar, when a terrible storm struck his fifteen ships. Three 
 drove from their anchors, and one of these, the Coitrageux, ran 
 with a fearful crash on the iron-bound, precipitous coast of Morocco, and with the 
 greater part of her crew was lost. A second was half dismasted, but cleared the reefs and anchored in 
 the Tangiers Bay. Worse still, in the midst of this storm a considerable French fleet ran through 
 the Straits from Toulon and gained Brest. Jervis a few days later proceeded from Gibraltar to 
 Lisbon. His ill-luck continued: one ship scraped a rock and sprang a heavy leak ; another was 
 totally lost on a sand-bank at the entrance of the Tagus. In a few days his fleet had fallen, by 
 misfortune, from fifteen to eleven ships of the line. 
 
 In such continuous ill-luck there was something menacing to the superstitious. This was our 
 country’s darkest hour; all appearances were against us ; and now the stars in their courses were 
 
 fighting against our fleet. Battle was imminent, for the Spaniards were known 
 to be about to sail northwards to Brest, where they were to form a junction with 
 the French, and cover the invasion of Ireland. From the Mediterranean the enemy’s forces were 
 hastening to the Straits. The winter promised to be big with events, and Nelson was still far away, 
 voyaging from Elba. But Jervis never lost heart or faltered. At this moment a fifth ship of his, 
 
 Battle imminent. 
 
1797- 
 
 Misfortune dogs the British Fleet. 
 
 5i 
 
 the St. George, ran ashore; and though early in February 1797 five fresh ships joined him, and 
 brought his fleet once more to fifteen, the odds against him were still appalling. 
 
 The 
 stormy: 
 
 night 
 
 in 
 
 the 
 
 Movements of Jervis. 
 
 of February 12 was dark and 
 far distance now and then could 
 be heard the dull boom of sig¬ 
 nal guns fired from the enemy’s 
 ships. The British fleet, formed in the closest 
 order, was running for the cliffs of Cape St. Vin¬ 
 cent, when a fresh catastrophe happened. The 
 Culloden, commanded by the gallant and dashing 
 Troubridge, ran into another ship and was grievously 
 damaged. It was thought she must be sent back 
 to port; but such was the spirit of her captain 
 and the skill of her crew that by noon next day 
 she was again in a fit state for battle. 
 
 And now news that the Spaniards were at 
 
 hand arrived from all quarters. First 
 
 The Spaniards 
 at hand. 
 
 frigate Niger with tidings 
 
 came the 
 that 
 
 they were at least twenty-seven 
 ships of the line, it might be 
 thirty, strong. Then came another frigate, wear¬ 
 ing a commodore’s broad pendant, fluttering with 
 signals, greeted with cheers. It was Nelson in 
 his Mincrve, fresh from his glorious rescue of 
 Hardy in the Straits, fresh from his passage through 
 the Spanish fleet—a thunder-bolt of war. He 
 signalled to his admiral that some hours before he 
 
 Sir IV. Beechey , F.A.] 
 
 [By permission , from the original Painting 
 in the Guildhall Art Gallery. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR JOHN JERVIS (EARL OF ST. VINCENT), 
 
 had encountered the enemy’s fleet. The Spanish 
 frigates now began to get touch of our fleet. 
 
 The vigilance of our cruisers prevented them from 
 coming near it and counting it. The Spaniards 
 were certain of victory. They knew of Jervis’s 
 mishaps, and expected to meet only nine or ten 
 doubt of the issue. What mattered it that their crews were so unskilled that they dared not lie 
 
 out on the yards to reef sails ; that their 
 gunners had never fired at sea; and that 
 their officers were unable to handle their 
 ships ? They drank to the confusion of 
 Jervis and to the capture of his fleet. 
 
 Meantime Nelson had hastily shifted 
 his flag to the Captain, and signals 
 
 were made from the 
 
 The eve of , ■ , , ,, 
 
 _ A flagship to keep the 
 
 St. Yincent. b r v 
 
 closest order and 
 prepare for battle. In the flagship the 
 guests at dinner drank “ Victory over the 
 Dons in the battle from which they 
 cannot escape to-morrow.” The party 
 broke up, and Jervis sat down to write 
 his will: the boom of the enemy’s signal 
 guns sounded nearer and nearer over the 
 sea. In the intense darkness of the 
 
 1734-1823. 
 
 Commander 1759, captain 1760, commanded the Foudroyant in Keppel's 
 action 1778, knighted for capturing the Pegase (seventy-four guns) 1782, rear- 
 admiral 1787, vice-admiral 1793, commanded in West Indies 1794, admiral 1795, 
 and commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean until 1799. Created Earl of St. 
 Vincent for the action off the Cape of that name. Commander-in-chief of the 
 Channel fleet 1800 and 1806-7, first lord of the Admiralty 1801-4, general of 
 marines 1814, admiral of the fleet 1821. 
 
 British ships. Three to one, there could be no 
 
 Bennett] 
 
 [From a Sketch made about 1800. 
 AND ENTRANCE TO THE TAGUS. 
 
 LISBON ROCK, 
 
 Lisbon became the headquarters of the fleet under Sir John Jervis after the evacuation of the 
 
 Mediterranean. 
 
52 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 1797- 
 
 Greatness of the 
 emergency. 
 
 Vice-Admiral Sir C. Thompson. 
 
 Vice-Admiral Waldegrave 
 (afterwards Baron Radstock). 
 
 Rear-Admiral Sir W. Parker. 
 
 ADMIRALS SERVING UNDER JERVIS AT ST. VINCENT. 
 
 Will Jeryis fight ? 
 
 night the whole British fleet could not be discerned from the flagship’s quarter-deck, but Jervis was 
 satisfied that his vessels were together. The two columns in line ahead ploughed silently through 
 the water; the ripple of the sea and the complaining of the rigging were the only sounds that 
 broke in upon his vigil, save for the constant reports of the Spanish signal guns. 
 
 Long time Jervis walked the quarter¬ 
 deck consumed with thought. His coun¬ 
 try was in the extremest danger: victory 
 
 was all essential 
 to her ; for victory 
 would cheer and re¬ 
 animate the failing heart of the nation. 
 Day began to dawn. The grey of early 
 morning showed him his fleet compact, 
 well-ordered, ready for any hard work. 
 Thick mist covered the sea and hid the 
 enemy from him. As the sun pierced 
 the haze, the sheer cliffs of Cape St. 
 
 Vincent, and behind them the lofty moun¬ 
 tains of Portugal, rose on the horizon twenty miles away. Then frigates in the distance reported a 
 strange fleet in sight. Following these, the signal guns of the Culloden rang out, proclaiming the 
 enemy at hand. The signal was made for six British ships to chase the foe, as yet unseen. 
 
 The day waxed higher and the sun scattered the mist. One by one the masts and hulls of the 
 Spaniards came into view, looming huge as 
 
 “ Beachy Head in a fog.” 
 
 First there were six ships, 
 then eight, then twenty. On the flagship’s 
 quarter-deck all were anxiously watching the 
 admiral. Would he go through with the battle 
 against such odds ? “ There are twenty-five 
 
 sail of the line, Sir John,” the flag-captain 
 reported. “ Very well, sir.” “ There are 
 twenty-seven sail of the line.” “ Enough, 
 sir,” was his answer: “No more of that, the 
 die is cast; and if there are fifty sail, I will 
 go through them.” “ A victory is very essen¬ 
 tial to England at this moment,” he was 
 heard to observe. In ecstasy at his bold 
 resolve, Captain Hallowed, the friend of Nelson 
 and a passenger on board, so far lost his head 
 that he patted the grim old admiral on the back. 
 
 “ That’s right, Sir John, that’s right, by God 
 we shall give them a damned good licking.” 
 
 “ We flew to them as a hawk to his prey,” 
 wrote Collingwood of what followed. The sig¬ 
 nal was made to “ Form line 
 
 “ Form line of battle ! ” 
 
 of battle as convenient,” the 
 two British columns rapidly uniting in one long 
 line with a machine-like precision bred of 
 
 months’ drill at sea. Not in vain had been Jervis’s vigilant discipline and exercise. His fleet included 
 two ioo-gun ships, the Victory and Britannia; four of 98 guns, the Barfleur, Prince George, Blenheim, 
 and Namur; eight of 74 guns, the Captain, Goliath, Excellent, Orion, Colossus, Egmont, Culloden, and 
 Irresistible; and one of 64, the Diadem. The Culloden, with Troubridge, led; the Victory, with Jervis, 
 
 \ Or ^ \ ' > 
 
 Ernest Prater .] 
 
 “IF THERE ARE FIFTY SAIL, I WILL GO THROUGH THEM.’ 
 
I 797-] 
 
 Troubndge leads magnificently. 
 
 came seventh; thirteenth, was Nelson in the Captain; last, Collingwood in the Excellent. Ahead could 
 be seen the Spaniards in no order at all. They were in two divisions; the first to windward of the 
 British approach, comprising twenty-one ships, amongst which the massive Santissima Trinidad could be 
 made out, a four-decker, and the largest ship in the world. Some distance from this group were six 
 more Spanish ships. The Spaniards were caught in this confusion, because they had never expected 
 that Jervis would venture an attack: they imagined that in their hands w'ould rest the power of 
 forcing or declining battle; but now to their dismay they saw before them fifteen, instead of ten, 
 British ships, and these advancing with intimidating order and resolution. 
 
 The British line steered silently for the gap. Jervis’s object was to pass between the two bodies 
 of the enemy, to separate them, and to turn upon the larger division, when the smaller body being 
 
 to leeward, would have to beat up against the wind to attack him. At noon the 
 
 head of our fleet was within random gun shot; and the colours were hoisted, 
 
 l lne . ° 
 
 just as three Spanish ships from the larger group crossed the gap. A fourth, a 
 huge three-decker, was on the verge of crossing. The Culloden’s course would certainly bring a collision, 
 and the first lieutenant of the British ship turned anxiously to Troubridge and told him so. 
 “ Let the weakest fend off,” was his reply, and he held on his way. In silence he approached 
 the three-decker, till through all her ports 
 her crew could be seen at their quarters; 
 then in quick succession two double- 
 shotted broadsides rang out from the 
 Culloden, fired with terrible precision and 
 regularity, as “if by a second’s watch, and 
 in the presence of a port-admiral’s in¬ 
 spection.” As the cloud of dust scattered 
 which this fearful “fire of hell” had sent 
 whirling up from the Spaniard’s sides, she 
 gave way, her crew falling into such dire 
 confusion that they did not even discharge 
 their guns. 
 
 The Spanish line was broken. Imme¬ 
 diately the British admiral made the signal 
 
 “ Tack in succession,” 
 to turn upon the larger 
 body of the Spaniards. The fire was now 
 general along the head of the British line. 
 
 There was no slackness about Troubridge. 
 
 He had felt certain that the signal would 
 
 be made; he already had it at the mast¬ 
 head, ready to break; it fluttered out from 
 his ship the moment the flagship’s order 
 was seen, and he went about. “ Look! ” 
 shouted Jervis, proud of his splendid pupil, 
 
 “look at Troubridge there, he tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of all England were upon him, 
 and would to God they were ! ” With seamanlike order the ships astern of him tacked, though the 
 Spanish shot, fired high, were cutting away ropes and gear. 
 
 The ships of the smaller Spanish division made one attempt to impede the British advance. 
 They came up astern, and their leader engaged the Victory, but received from her so appalling a fire 
 
 that he retreated, and was followed in his retreat by the other vessels of the 
 division. The eighteen Spaniards of the main body were left to bear the shock of 
 fifteen British ships, which, with fast rising spirit, were turning upon them. In 
 the smoke and confusion of battle the Spanish admiral thought he saw his chance. As the British 
 vessels came up one behind the other, and turned in succession, he was forging ahead. The British 
 
 “ Tack in succession.” 
 
 H. C. Seppings JVright. J 
 
 “ LET THE WEAKEST FEND OFF ! ” 
 Troubridge in the Ctilloden leading the English fleet into action. 
 
 The Spaniards 
 divided. 
 
54 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1797- 
 
 line was now doubled up in the shape of a V : if he could pass above its extremities he might yet 
 join the smaller division of his fleet and escape—for he had ceased to dream of victory. Swiftly, veiled 
 
 by the mist of battle, he altered course : the head of his 
 fleet already nearing the right arm of the English \J. 
 
 The moment was critical, if the British were to win 
 the battle and not fight a mere indecisive engagement. 
 
 BATTLE of ST. VINCENT. I. / 
 
 ^ ..British 
 
 a 9a 
 
 O ..Spaniards 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 9 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 9 
 
 a Captain (Nelson) 
 b Victory (Jervis) 
 
 C Culloden (Troubridge) 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 c 
 
 9 
 
 0 0 ® 0 <y 
 
 9 o 
 
 0 0 
 .00 
 
 c 0 0 
 
 0 
 
 n> v. 
 
 0 Wind ^ 
 
 & & 
 
 
 Nelson disobeys. 
 
 Instant action was demanded: there 
 was no time for signals, and if there 
 had been the admiral was veiled in the smoke of the 
 continuous firing. The British rear must act for itself. 
 It must disobey rules and precedents which ordained 
 that no captain should quit the line of battle or fail 
 
 
 
 
 rJ 
 
 .■sNSi:. 
 
 * 
 
 
 Ip ^2 - 
 
 r- 
 
 s- 
 
 <S9 
 
 HR 1 
 
 
 T. Whit combe-] 
 
 [From Jenkins's “ Naval Achievements." 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ST. VINCENT: THE BRITISH VAN ENGAGING THE 
 
 ENEMY. 
 
 to follow his leader. It must run 
 counter to the teaching of genera¬ 
 tions and the verdicts of court- 
 martials with the certainty, if failure 
 came, that the captain who so acted 
 would be ignominiously shot or 
 reprimanded. The man who made 
 the venture risked fame and life. 
 
 Nelson, however, spared neither in 
 his country’s service. He rose to 
 the greatness of the emergency, and 
 where a brave seaman — and such 
 were all the captains of the fleet 
 — would have held on his course, 
 saw the right thing to do by a 
 swift, unerring intuition, and did it. To the amazement of all, the Captain was seen to alter course 
 and pass from the line. She turned between the ships astern of her, and steered straight into the din 
 and tumult of the Spanish van. The vast Santissima Trinidad loomed up ahead of her through the 
 smoke. On the quarter-deck of the flagship her 
 behaviour was noticed as the smoke lifted. Men 
 shivered for her fate. The admiral’s flag-captain, 
 
 Robert Calder, is said to have pressed Jervis to 
 signal her back to her place. But Jervis, with 
 unabated resolution, declined to order his daring 
 lieutenant’s recall. 
 
 Though Nelson’s example was followed by 
 his friend and brother-in-arms, Collingwood, he 
 
 had for many minutes to 
 
 Nelson is followed. 
 
 encounter the whole iury ot 
 the Spanish fire, supported only by the Culloden. 
 
 Had the Spaniards been only tolerable gunners, 
 his glorious temerity would have been sharply 
 punished and the Captain blown to matchwood. 
 
 Yet Nelson’s merit lay not only in his courageous 
 disobedience, not only in his independence of 
 
 BATTLE of ST. VINCENT. II. 
 
 British 
 
 0 _.__ Spaniards 
 
 -« REFERENCES *- 
 
 a ...Sant. Trinidad e Excellent (Collingwood) 
 b ... San Josef f... Captain (Nelson) 
 
 c.„. San Nicolas g... Victory (Jervis) 
 
 d ... San Ysidro h.....Culloden k .Blenheim 
 
In the thick of the Battle. 
 
 55 
 
 1 797-J 
 
 action and clear understanding of what ought to be done to help 
 only in his readiness of resource—that most brilliant charac¬ 
 teristic of the British seaman—but also in his correct estimate 
 of his enemy’s quality. So dire was the confusion he caused 
 that the Spaniards did not use many of their guns. Not a few 
 were found in the captured prizes with the tompions in their 
 muzzles, a certain proof that they had not even been loaded. 
 Even so the Captain suffered severely. Pouring broadside after 
 broadside into the Santissima Trinidad, upon which for a few 
 moments the white flag of surrender appeared, only to vanish, 
 she continued her progress, engaging in swift succession the 
 San Josef, of 112 guns, Salvador del Mundo, 112, San Nicolas, 80, 
 and two other ships. The Spaniards gathered round her, 
 
 his admiral to win the battle, not 
 
 BATTLE of ST. VINCENT. III. 
 
 British 
 ■O Spaniards 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 EL Excellent 
 b Blenheim 
 C Captain (Nelson) 
 d. Prince George 
 G Culloden 
 f Sant. Trinidad 
 S San Josef 
 tl San Nicolas 
 
 The 
 
 itish 
 
 
 w. 
 
 
 
 Van at the close. 
 
 Painted by Lieut. Jahleel Brent on, of the ‘ 1 Barfleur."] 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ST. VINCENT : THE “VICTORY” BEARING 
 The Barfleur following; Nelson, in the Captain ahead (on the 
 
 broadsides were dying away : the shot stored 
 had to be brought up from below. 
 
 H is friends 
 
 Collingwood’s ,, 
 
 „ . may well 
 
 gallantry. 
 
 have feared 
 for him. His ship in crippled 
 state was dropping back. The 
 Culloden, severely handled, was in 
 little better plight. Collingwood, 
 however, was now at his work. 
 
 He ranged up close to the Salva¬ 
 dor del Mundo, silenced her fire 
 and brought down her flag. She 
 struck to him. On this, with a 
 noble disdain for the “ parade 
 of taking possession of beaten 
 enemies,” he pressed into the 
 melee behind Nelson, and followed 
 
 eager to capture her: 
 her fate hung in the 
 balance. Her rigging 
 was cut up ; her 
 masts tottering or fall¬ 
 en ; seventy dead or 
 wounded strewed her 
 deck; Nelson himself 
 had been bruised in 
 the stomach by a 
 splinter. 
 
 Fast to the rescue 
 came the gallant Trou- 
 bridge in the Culloden, 
 Collingwood in the 
 Excellent, and Captain 
 Frederick in the Blen¬ 
 heim. Nelson's rapid 
 up for use on deck had all been fired, and fresh projectiles 
 
 [.From the EJigraving by J. Fittler. 
 
 UP TO RAKE THE “SALVADOR DEL MUNDO,” 
 left), engaging the San Nicolas and San Josef 
 
 R. Dodd.] 
 THE 
 
 [From the original Engraving. 
 
 “SALVADOR DEL MUNDO” CRIPPLED: THE “VICTORY” RAKING HER. 
 
 On the extreme right Collingwood’s ship, the Excellent , engaging the -S an Isidro. 
 
56 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [ 1797 * 
 
 his example, ranging up to the San Isidro and giving her a terrible broadside which caused her to 
 strike her flag. To his indignation he now perceived that the Salvador del Mundo had re-hoisted 
 her colours, and resumed the battle. He was not twice to be caught, and therefore stayed by the 
 San Isidro till he saw her safe in English hands. Then, going ahead again, he passed so close to 
 the San Nicolas that a bodkin could not have been placed between his ship and her, and after pouring 
 his fire into her, went on in terrible progress to the Santissima Trinidad. 
 
 Collingwood's fierce onslaught on the San Nicolas took off from Nelson the attention of one of 
 his assailants. With his ship disabled, Nelson, it might have been thought, could do little more. 
 
 He had won the battle, now he used the shattered Captain to reap the fruits of 
 his audacity. His men had warmed to the fight and were ready for anything, 
 though the Captain with foretopmast gone, wheel shot away, and “ not a sail, shroud, or rope 
 
 Nelson boards. 
 
 N.Poccck. After a Sketch by Captain Miller , of the ‘ ‘ Captain."} \Froin the Engraving by f. Fittler. 
 
 “NELSON’S PATENT BRIDGE FOR BOARDING FIRST-RATES.” 
 
 The picture shows the Captain driven against the stern of the San Nicolas ; Nelson, having captured the latter, used her as a “bridge” to board the 
 
 larger San Josef beyond. 
 
 standing,” could do no more work in the line of battle or in chasing the enemy. Nelson thereupon gave 
 the order “ Boarders away,” and drove his ship upon the stern of the San Nicolas. The seamen 
 gathered with pikes and tomahawks: the soldiers, who were serving as marines, stood ready on the 
 deck; Nelson himself prepared to lead his men. The rigging of the two vessels caught; Captain 
 Berry, a young officer wjio was a passenger in the Captain, leaped with fierce ardour into the enemy’s 
 mizzen chains: a soldier broke one of the windows in the Spaniard’s stern, and Nelson climbed in. 
 At that moment Miller, the captain of the ship, showed a noble rivalry with Nelson in leading the 
 boarders. He pressed forward sword in hand, when Nelson drew him back with the words, “ No, 
 Miller, I must have that honour.” 
 
 Cheering, they gathered in the Spaniard’s stern-cabin, whilst Berry and his men could be heard 
 fighting over their heads. The door of the cabin was locked; it opened on the deck, on which the 
 Spaniards had gathered ; and the Spanish officers fired their pistols at Nelson’s party through the windows, 
 but without effect. In a moment they forced the door and cleared the deck; Berry was already 
 hauling down the Spanish flag. The San Nicolas had little more stomach for fight, though her guns 
 
1 797 
 
 ^ n 
 
 Nelson cheered by the English Ships. 
 
 Surrender of the 
 “ San Josef.” 
 
 below were still going. Men poured into her from the Captain; her hatches were guarded; and 
 
 _ . . Nelson turned his eye to the San Josef, which had run aboard the San Nicolas 
 
 Carries the “San r . . . . , „ . 
 
 Nicolas.” on ^ ur ^“ er sic * e fr° m the Captain. He was fired upon by this ship, and with 
 
 the shout, “ \ ictory or W estminster Abbey,” dashed into the Spaniard’s chains and 
 was in a moment on board her, just as a Spanish officer looked down from her towering quarter-deck 
 on the smaller San Nicolas and shouted 
 that she had surrendered. 
 
 He advanced to the quarter-deck of 
 the beaten ship. There, surrounded by 
 a small group of offi¬ 
 cers and men, “all old 
 Agamemnons,” as he 
 noted with glee, he received the swords 
 of the Spanish captain and his subor¬ 
 dinates. As he took them one by one, 
 he handed them to one of the crew of 
 his barge, William Fearney, who tucked 
 them in a bundle under his arm. Below, 
 in the cabin, the Spanish admiral lay 
 dying of wounds received in the battle. 
 
 The ships of the British fleet w'ere now 
 passing Nelson in the San Josef: as 
 each came by the crew gave him three 
 thundering cheers. But even now, true 
 to his character which made him ever 
 look to the annihilation of the enemy 
 as his ideal, he did not halt or tarry. 
 
 Moving from the hopelessly shattered 
 Captain to the almost uninjured Irresistible, 
 he once more pressed forward, anxious 
 to lay his unwearying hands upon the 
 
 Santissima 
 
 E. West all) R.A .] [From an Engraving after the original in the Painted Flail , Greenwich . 
 
 NELSON RECEIVING THE SWORD OF THE WOUNDED SPANISH 
 COMMODORE ON BOARD THE “SAN NICOLAS.” 
 
 From a Miniature ] 
 
 [by Grimaldi. 
 
 Trin idad, 
 and to 
 crown the 
 
 glories of a heroic day by the capture of the enemy’s flagship, the 
 largest vessel in the world. The afternoon, however, was far advanced ; 
 night was falling; the enemy, though absolutely disorganised, was still 
 superior in numbers, and the Spanish smaller division was bearing 
 down to the attack. Had Jervis been a Nelson he would, perhaps, 
 have put every effective ship into the final and culminating onslaught. 
 But he was not a Nelson, though he was a brave and competent officer. 
 His crews were weary with the long day’s battle : the results obtained 
 must not be hazarded. He made the signal of recall and ended the fight. 
 
 Thus had Nelson won for him a battle, and showed him how to use 
 the marvellous fleet that he had trained. Nelson’s mind had planned 
 
 the greatest stroke of the day: Nelson’s ship, dis¬ 
 abled, had secured two of the four prizes that fell 
 to Jervis. “ I pretend not to say that these ships might not have 
 fell had I not boarded them,” wrote Nelson with admirable modesty; 
 “ but truly it was far from impossible but they might have forged into 
 the Spanish fleet as the other two ships did.” To Jervis was the 
 
 Nelson wins the day. 
 
 CAPT. EDWARD BERRY. 
 
 Entered the Merchant Service at fourteen, 
 and was subsequently pressed into the Navy. 
 His bravery won him a lieutenant’s com¬ 
 mission. In 1797 he distinguished himself 
 at the Battle of St. Vincent, and was, in 
 consequence, promoted to post - captain. 
 Knighted 1798 for services at the Battle of 
 the Nile, where he acted as captain of Nel¬ 
 son’s ship, the Vanguard ; captain of the 
 Foudroyant , 1800J was at the Battle of Tra¬ 
 falgar; baronet 1806, K.C.B. 1815, colonel 
 of marines 1819, rear-admiral 1821. 
 
58 
 
 Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 •-! 1797- 
 
 Troubridge Frederick Collingwood Miller Calder 
 
 (H.M.S. Culloiicn). (H.M.S. Blenheim). (H.M.S. Excellent ). (H.M.S. Captain). (Flag-captain, Victory). 
 
 SOME OF THE ST. VINCENT CAPTAINS. 
 
 Reception by Jervis. 
 
 Nelson passed over 
 in Despatches. 
 
 credit of deciding to face enormous odds: to Nelson the glory of converting an indecisive battle 
 into a signal victory. He was fortunate in one of the witnesses of his valour, for in the fleet 
 was Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards Lord Minto, a diplomatist of great influence, and already an 
 admirer of Nelson. 
 
 Nelson’s reception on board the flagship was such as his deeds deserved. When he came on 
 board Jervis took him in his arms and thanked him handsomely, insisting that he should keep the 
 
 Spanish rear-admiral’s sword which had been surrendered into his hands. He 
 snubbed Captain Calder, when that officer, envious of Nelson’s fame, reminded 
 him that Nelson and Collingwood had departed from orders. “If ever you commit such a breach 
 of your orders, I will forgive you also,” said the admiral. But he chose Calder to carry his 
 despatch home, and, if report can be credited, yielded to that officer’s jealousy in suppressing all 
 mention of Nelson in it. Such jealousies are to be found in the British Navy at the present day. 
 
 Jervis’s despatch can 
 only be described as extra¬ 
 ordinary and discreditable 
 to him. 
 
 T here 
 could 
 
 be no excuse for it, if he 
 was not in the habit of 
 refusing to notice zeal and 
 intrepidity. We can only 
 suppose that to this stern¬ 
 est of disciplinarians, it 
 may have seemed humili¬ 
 ating to confess that the 
 day had been won by the 
 disobedience of a junior 
 officer. The despatch con¬ 
 tains a dry, meagre, un- 
 enthusiastic narrative, and 
 praises or mentions no 
 one by name except the 
 jealous Calder. There is 
 not one word of Nelson’s 
 splendid manoeuvre; not 
 
 a notice of Collingwood’s gallantry or Troubridge’s readiness. A more comically inadequate record 
 was never penned by any man. The relation of details was left to the mean-minded Calder, 
 who, we may be perfectly sure, did Nelson less than credit ; and this officer, Calder, who was 
 suspected, and not without reason, of urging Jervis not to fight, was, as the bearer of despatches, 
 and the only man mentioned in the Gazette, given a wholly-undeserved rank in public estimation. 
 It is true that a rather fuller private letter accompanied Jervis’s singular missive, in which Nelson, 
 
 G. Jo 7 ies> R.A.] 
 
 [From the original in the Painted Hall, Greenwich , by Permission 0/ 
 the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON BOARDING THE “SAN JOSEF.” 
 
I797-] 
 
 N els oil s Rewards. 
 
 59 
 
 Photographed by permission ] 
 
 [o/the Lords Commissioners oj the Admiralty. 
 
 Nelson's modesty. 
 
 MEDALS OF ST. VINCENT AND THE NILE. 
 
 From the originals worn by Lord Nelson, now in the Painted Hall, Greenwich. 
 
 Troubridge, Collingwood, and Berry were commended, and Admiral Parker was praised for making 
 his signals in a “ very officer-like manner.” Apparently to make signals quickly was considered by 
 Jervis of equal importance with a most brilliant and original attack on the enemy. The letter 
 
 excuses the absence of praise for individuals 
 in the despatch, because “ every officer and man 
 had behaved correctly,” which we know was 
 not Nelson's opinion. He, who in his public 
 letters never praised himself, wrote in a private 
 letter to his father, “ We (with Collingwood 
 and Troubridge) are the only three ships who 
 made great exertions on that glorious day. 
 The others did their duty, and some not 
 exactly to my satisfaction. We ought to have 
 had the Santissima Trinidad and the Soberano.” 
 It is impossible to avoid thinking that the great 
 Jervis was for once, for one short hour, jealous 
 of his subordinate. 
 
 In Nelson’s account of the battle drawn 
 up for the British papers, it is singular to see 
 
 how little emphasis he lays 
 upon his brilliant move. He 
 treats it almost as if it had originated with 
 Jervis. He claims little or no credit for the 
 capture of the two ships: indeed he speaks just before of “the parade of taking possession of beaten 
 enemies ” and justifies his act—as if it needed justification—by the fact that the Captain was useless. 
 In short, the account is worthy of him in its modesty and self-suppression. 
 
 With passionate gratitude to the friend who had followed his lead, Nelson wrote to Colling¬ 
 wood a letter of warm and noble thanks for help given in time of need. Collingwood’s reply was 
 
 perhaps to him a compensation for all the neglect of his admiral in published 
 despatches, a neglect which Nelson himself, so untrue is it that he was an 
 inordinately vain man, scarcely notices or considers. “ The highest rewards are 
 due to you and Culloden; you formed the plan of attack—we were only accessories to the Dons’ 
 ruin.” In the fleet men 
 talked of “ Nelson’s pa¬ 
 tent bridge for boarding 
 first-rates,” so unheard- 
 of was it for a British 
 officer to pass from one 
 enemy’s ship to another. 
 
 “ I never was better, and 
 rich in the praises of any 
 man from the highest to 
 the lowest of the fleet,” 
 he wrote in all the glow¬ 
 ing animation of success. 
 
 Swiftly the news 
 
 travelled home, and with 
 
 the despatches went Elliot, Nelson’s devoted friend, ready to counteract Calder, 
 
 Nelson fears a bearing to the authorities the delicate hint that Nelson would prefer not the 
 
 baronetcy. onerou b honour of a baronetcy, usually given for distinguished service in such a 
 
 case, but a simple knighthood of the Bath, which then stood very high in social prestige. Nelson 
 preferred not to hand down to his posterity a title with poverty, which he felt meant misery. Elliot 
 
 Nelson and 
 Collingwood. 
 
 VwJW 
 
 cm-. 
 
 : ssati 
 
 SWORD USED BY NELSON WHEN BOARDING THE “SAN NICOLAS” AND “SAN JOSEF.” 
 Now in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall. 
 
6o 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1797- 
 
 Enthusiasm in 
 England. 
 
 and Calder landed at Plymouth with the news. To such a pitch had the fortunes of the country 
 fallen that the party could scarcely borrow gold in the town to take them up to London. 
 
 The coaches raced out wreathed with laurel and chalked with the talismanic words “ Glorious 
 victory,” and a wave of wild enthusiasm swept over the country. The tide had turned at last. From 
 
 this hour to the moment of his death the faith of the common people in Nelson 
 was steadfast and assured. They saw-—for they are sometimes quick, these 
 average minds—what the wise men had not yet discovered. The commodore 
 who had stood out of the line of battle in disobedience to orders, who had dashed from one of the 
 enemy’s battleships to another with the cry “ Victory or Westminster Abbey,” touched not only their 
 affection but their imagination. Great Britain had at last brought forth a rival to Napoleon. The 
 heart of the nation rose. In this, the supreme hour of that most terrible struggle for existence, with 
 
 famine and bankruptcy in the land, and mutiny on the 
 waters, with the hand of fortune manifestly against us, 
 without allies, with Ireland uneasy and on the eve of 
 revolution, no wonder that men lost their heads at our 
 success. No wonder they wished to render homage to 
 the man who was the prime cause of that success. For 
 not only had we won ; we had won against heavy odds, 
 though the public did not then suspect the buckram nature 
 of the Spanish fleet. “ Impossible ” had now no meaning 
 for any undertaking of the fleet. 
 
 
 THE SWORD OF THE SPANISH REAR-ADMIRAE, 
 DON XAVIER WINTHUYSEN. 
 
 This sword, received by Nelson on board the San Josef, 
 and presented by him to the City of Norwich, is now framed 
 into the monument shown above, on the wall of the Council 
 Chamber of the Guildhall. 'I he letter which accompanied the 
 present, and vvhich hangs below the monument, is given on 
 a larger scale in the annexed illustration. 
 
 On Nelson’s 
 lations rained. 
 
 wife and father congratu- 
 
 
 : 
 
 '■ / . 
 
 -- er/-^ 
 
 . A 
 
 Congratulations. 
 
 wrote his father 
 
 
 “ Tears of joy have in¬ 
 voluntarily trickled down 
 my furrowed cheeks,” 
 
 “ the people in general 
 meet me at every corner with such hand¬ 
 some words that I was obliged to retire from the public eye.” 
 to the occasion. In alarm for his safety, she wrote to him thus : 
 
 As for Mrs. Nelson, she hardly rose 
 “ You must have been most wonder¬ 
 
 fully protected ; you have done desperate actions enough. Now may I—indeed I do—beg that you 
 never board again ; leave it for captains." In this letter of Mrs. Nelson, as in another which followed 
 ami pressed the same moral in even plainer words—“ I sincerely hope that all these wonderful and 
 desperate actions, such as boarding ships you will leave to others . . . rest satisfied,”—we have 
 some evidence of a lack of sympathy on her part. To leave “ these wonderful and desperate 
 
1 797-] 
 
 Mrs. Nelson alarmed. 
 
 61 
 
 to sit down in smug satisfaction was to cease being heroic, to cease being Nelson. 
 
 actions ” to others 
 
 Yet great allowances must be made for a woman and a wife. The pity is that she did not understand 
 her husband’s temperament, that his note of masculine patriotism found in her no response of devoted 
 self-sacrifice. “ Had I been the wife or mother of this man,” wrote Lady Londonderry after his 
 death, “ I would rather have mourned him now dead than have lived to have lamented his loss upon 
 a future and less splendid day.” She at least would never have penned for her victorious husband’s 
 eye such a message. 
 
 Honours, title, and pensions were showered upon the victors. Jervis became Earl St. Vincent. 
 It was explained, by the way, as if those in power imagined they had been too generous to the men 
 who had fought and suffered for the country, that before the battle he had been marked out for a 
 
 barony. The victory of St. Vin- 
 
 Honours and 
 rewards. 
 
 cent only 
 brought 
 him two 
 steps in the scale of rank. The 
 admirals received baronetcies ; 
 Nelson the knighthood of the 
 Bath which he desired. A letter 
 from Lord Spencer stated that 
 the knighthood was to mark 
 the royal approbation “ of your 
 successful and gallant exertion 
 during the course of the present 
 war in the Mediterranean, and 
 more particularly of your very 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Jarrolds, Norwich. 
 
 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NORWICH. 
 
 As has already been mentioned (page 7). Nelson for a time attended this school. No doubt it was 
 his recollection of those school days which led him to present to this city the first admiral’s sword 
 which came into his possession. 
 
 distinguished conduct in the glorious and brilliant victory obtained 
 over the fleet of Spain.” Gold medals were awarded to all the 
 captains. Nelson received the freedom of London, Norwich, and 
 Bath. Already some days before the news of the battle arrived, 
 he had been promoted rear-admiral, on February 20, 1797, at 
 the age of thirty-eight. 
 
 The fleet refitted at Lisbon, and Nelson in the Irresistible went 
 forth with two other sail of the line to look for a Spanish treasure- 
 
 ship. His quest was unsuccessful. The ship 
 
 Nelson’s quest for the , , , , , , , ■ , ,, , r r 
 
 , ,. he had hoped to meet carried the Viceroy 01 
 
 treasure ship. r ; 
 
 Mexico, and the ingots of gold and silver 
 which had been the prey of Drake and generations of buccaneers. 
 
 An escort of three ships of the line was with this wealth. Pro¬ 
 bably the Spaniards had been warned and waited till he was 
 out of the way. Nelson imagined or was told that the treasure- 
 ship had gone to Teneriffe. Straightway he began to plan an 
 attack on that island, and to urge Lord St. Vincent thereto. 
 
 The capture of the treasure meant not only a rich reward to himself and the crews of his ships; it 
 would be not only a sore blow to the tottering fortunes of Spain, but it would also raise his 
 country “ to a higher pitch of wealth than she has yet attained. If this sum of six or seven million 
 
 STATUE OF NELSON IN FRONT OF THE 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NORWICH. 
 
62 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 ■[i797- 
 
 From a coin in the British Museum.] 
 
 SPANISH DOLLAR, 
 
 Having the head of George III. stamped 
 upon it. Used as English currency. 
 
 sterling were thrown into circulation in England, what, he asked, might not be the result. It would mean 
 peace. Already, in the scarcity of gold and silver, the Bank of England 
 had issued Spanish dollars, on which, upon the King of Spain’s bust, 
 was stamped the head of George III. This singular money gave rise 
 to the verse :— 
 
 “ The additional head on the dollar impressed 
 Is to circulate Jervis’s fame ; 
 
 To his valour ’tis owing, it must be confessed, 
 
 England made an impression on Spain.” 
 
 But these plans of his were interrupted 
 by his departure in April for the Mediterranean 
 
 to bring off the garrison 
 
 Second voyage to , 
 
 „ , in Elba. I his, the second 
 
 Elba. 
 
 journey he had made for 
 the same object, through the same waters, 
 
 under circumstances almost precisely the same, was short and uneventful. 
 He was absent only six weeks from the fleet, and returning to Cadiz 
 transferred his flag from the Captain to the Theseus. The British fleet, 
 now off Cadiz blockading the Spaniards, had become infected with the 
 virus of insubordination or something worse. The Theseus had just come 
 from England, and was one of the ships which had brought out the 
 poison; she was made over to Nelson because she was one of the most 
 mutinous ships. 
 
 In February of this year, about the very time when the Battle of 
 St. Vincent was being fought, the admiral in command of the Channel 
 
 fleet received several anonymous letters, complaining 
 of the low pay, the bad provisions, and the insufficient 
 leave given the seamen. Although it should not be 
 an excuse, the ships’ companies were driven into insubordination by the 
 disgraceful treatment they received. Desertions were at that time so 
 frequent that the men, when in port, had to be rigorously confined to 
 the ship. Married men often went without sight of their homes and 
 families for year after year. In the fleet too at this time were three 
 distinct causes of danger. There were many educated men carried off 
 by the press-gangs, or drawn to serve for their country by a species of 
 conscription. These bore the hardships of the service and the gross 
 brutality and caprice of many captains with unconcealed discontent. They were a focus for sedition. 
 Secondly, there were manv dangerous criminals, thieves and ne’er-do-wells, sent off to sea instead of 
 filling His Majesty’s prisons. Thirdly, 
 there were thousands of Irishmen, many 
 of them members of disloyal societies, 
 amongst the seamen. 
 
 Something has been said of the bru¬ 
 tality of punishments about this time. 
 
 There is no need 
 
 Open mutiny. 
 
 to dilate upon this 
 theme. The men’s grievances were real 
 and well founded, and demanded im¬ 
 mediate redress. Redress was not given. 
 
 The first incident was the refusal of the 
 men in the Royal George, at Spithead, 
 to weigh anchor, and put to sea. The 
 
 Discontent in the 
 Fleet. 
 
 From the original in the Painted 
 Hall , Greenwich , by permission 
 of the Lords Commissioners of 
 the Admiralty.] 
 
 JEWEL OF THE ORDER OF 
 THE BATH. 
 
 Cut from Nelson’s coat at his dentil in 
 1805. 
 
 
 
 N. Pocock.] 
 
 \From a Sketch made in 1797. 
 LISBON HARBOUR AND THE CASTLE OF BELEM. 
 
1797-] 
 
 Mutiny in the Fleet. 
 
 mutiny spread to other ships at Portsmouth. A committee of delegates from the ships’ companies 
 
 assembled; every man in the fleet was sworn to support them; ropes dangled from the yard-arms 
 ready for those who would not give their countenance ; 
 the officers were put on shore; and petitions were 
 drawn up to Parliament and to the Admiralty. These 
 recited the grievances in the most moderate way. 
 
 They opened with a profession of unswerving loyalty; 
 they went on to ask for an increase of pay, for full 
 weight of food—as hitherto one-eighth in every pound 
 had been retained by the purser—for pay and attend¬ 
 ance to be granted to the sick and wounded, for leave 
 do visit home and family when fleets put into port, 
 and for vegetables when possible. 
 
 That the men should have been compelled to ask 
 for some of these things is shameful to both country 
 
 and Admiralty. The practice of 
 turning seamen, wounded in their 
 country’s service, upon the streets 
 to starve, or beg for bread, was nothing less than 
 revolting. The men behaved with noble moderation. They committed no crimes ; they attempted no 
 revenge upon one or two captains who were notorious for their brutality. The sympathy of the 
 country was warmly with them. Tenable as was the position of England, it was no time for bargains, 
 
 or for severity. Without the fleet we were 
 helpless. The demands were conceded, an 
 amnesty was granted, and the men returned 
 to their duty. The only blood shed was that 
 of eleven seamen on board the London. The 
 officers fired upon the men, and the men 
 seized one of the officers and placed the halter 
 round his neck. They released him, however, 
 
 Grievances re¬ 
 dressed. 
 
 Kingsbury .] [From the Etching published in 1797. 
 
 THE BRITISH LION. 
 
 The pressure of the times was felt by all classes of the community. 
 The caricature here reproduced represents the “British Lion,” under the 
 figure of a much less dignified animal, tottering under a load of taxes. 
 
 H. Singleton .] 
 
 [From the Mezzotint by C. Knight. 
 
 when they learnt that the firing had been in 
 obedience to orders from the Admiralty. But 
 a fatal shock had been given to discipline. 
 
 A similar mutiny broke out at Plymouth 
 and ended when the mutineers learnt that con¬ 
 cessions had been made. 
 
 Mutiny at the Nore. 
 
 Another and a more seri¬ 
 ous explosion occurred a little later at the Nore, 
 and in the North Sea fleet, then under Admiral 
 Duncan, engaged in watching the Dutch. The 
 ships deserted their duty; their companies chose 
 delegates, the chief of whom was one Richard 
 Parker, by profession an attorney's clerk before 
 he became a sailor. He was a man of great 
 courage and ability, but, unlike the Portsmouth 
 mutineers, he went too far. He assumed the 
 title of “ President of the Floating Republic,” 
 in British eyes a hateful mimicry of French 
 and American institutions. He sent agents to 
 canvass the crews of other ships, and through 
 his intrigues Duncan was left to watch the 
 Dutch with only two faithful ships. He drew 
 
 BRITISH PLENTY. 
 
 This picture, one of a pair contrasting “British Plenty” and “Indian Poverty” 
 his been not inaptly re-christened “An Ocean Swell and Two Tenders.” Jack is 
 obviously bent on compensating himself for the hardships of life on board. He and 
 his “tender” friends are laden with supplies which suggest a distinct improvement on 
 the ships rations. 
 
64 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1797- 
 
 Danger to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The mutiny 
 suppressed. 
 
 up a memorandum going beyond the Portsmouth petitions. W hen the Admiralty replied that no fuither 
 concessions would be made, he proceeded to blockade the Thames. The mutineers anchored in a line 
 
 , across the river mouth, and detained every vessel that attempted to pass. 
 The position of Great Britain was now indeed desperate. France, 
 Spain, Holland, and one of her own fleets were in arms against her; 
 
 a French invading force stood ready on the further 
 side of the Channel ; Ireland was on the eve of in¬ 
 surrection ; consols had fallen to 47, the lowest figure 
 that they have ever touched in our recent history; the Banks had 
 been drained of their specie; credit, public and private, was gone; 
 and now London was blockaded. A mutiny amongst the artillery at 
 Woolwich increased the general alarm. And yet never has a crisis 
 been met with greater boldness and determination. The buoys at the 
 Thames mouth were removed. Furnaces were prepared in the Sheer- 
 itess batteries to heat red-hot shot, and so destroy the rebel ships. 
 Tilbury was strengthened. The crews at Plymouth and at Spithead 
 addressed to their comrades a noble remonstrance, in which they 
 entreated them to return to their duty. 
 
 This iron determination quickly produced its effect. One by one 
 the mutineers’ ships receded from Parker and retired to Woolwich or 
 
 Gravesend, till at last he was left alone. His own 
 crew surrendered his ship, and he was arrested and 
 executed ; he bore his fate with calm resignation 
 and died repentant, exhorting his fellow-seamen to avoid his crime. 
 Still the flame of discontent smouldered on and burst forth from 
 time to time. 
 
 To Lord St. Vincent, 
 tion, the Admiralty sent 
 off the worst and most 
 mutinous ships. When 
 Nelson returned to Jervis 
 from the Mediterranean, in May 1797, a few days after 
 
 the Portsmouth mutineers had re¬ 
 st. Vincent and the , , , , , , r , ,, n 
 
 turned to duty, he found the fleet in 
 
 mutineers. J 
 
 a ferment. The flagship even was 
 not exempt from treason. A dangerous mutiny had broken 
 out in the Marlborough on her way out. One of the 
 ringleaders was seized, court-martialled and condemned 
 to death. He was further ordered to be executed by his 
 own shipmates, who had sworn that no member of the 
 crew should be capitally punished. The captain waited 
 on St. Vincent and told him he could not trust his crew. 
 
 “ What! do you mean to tell me that you cannot com¬ 
 mand His Majesty’s ship? For if that is the case, sir, 
 
 I will immediately send on board an officer who can,” 
 was the admiral’s stern answer. 
 
 The captain retired. The execution was ordered 
 for the next morning at eight o’clock. At seven 
 
 all the boats of the fleet, each 
 
 Iron determination. 
 
 armed with a carronade, rowed to 
 the Marlborough. The officer in charge of them had 
 
 of resistance to close the 
 
 From the original in the Painted Hall , 
 Greenwich, by permission of the Lords 
 Commissioners of the Admiralty.] 
 
 ADMIRAL ADAM DUNCAN 
 (FIRST VISCOUNT DUNCAN), 1731-1804. 
 
 Son of a provost of Dundee: entered the 
 Navy 1746, post-captnin 1761, rear-admiral 1787. 
 Gained the victory of Camperdown over the 
 Dutch 1797, for which service he was created 
 a Viscount. 
 
 man of unrelenting sternness and determina- 
 
 From a contemporary Engraving ] 
 
 [in the British Museum. 
 
 orders on the slightest 
 
 RICHARD PARKER TENDERING A LIST OF GRIEVANCES 
 TO VICE-ADMIRAL BUCKNER. 
 
 Parker was tried for mutiny on June 26, 1797. and executed 
 June 30 on board H.M.S. Sandwich. 
 
1 797-1 
 
 \o trifling with St. Vincent. 
 
 ship till the boats touched her side, and to fire into her till all resistance ceased. If necessary 
 he was not to hesitate to sink her. The boats drew close; the tompions were removed from the 
 guns, and the guns loaded. 
 
 The whole fleet was watching and waiting to see what 
 v/ould happen. A boat from the flagship approached the Marl¬ 
 borough : in it could be seen the pinioned 
 
 The execution takes 
 place. 
 
 prisoner 
 
 and 
 
 strong 
 
 guard of marines. 
 
 The man went on deck, mounted the cat¬ 
 head, and stood with the halter about his neck. The fleet 
 waited with indescribable excitement till the bells struck eight. 
 
 The flagship fired a gun, and as the report died away the man 
 was lifted and then dropped. “ For at this dreadful moment 
 when the eyes of every man in every ship were straining upon 
 this execution as the decisive struggle between authority and 
 mutiny, as if it were destined that the whole fleet should see 
 the hesitating unwillingness of the Marlborough's crew to hang 
 their rebel, and the efficacy of the means taken to enforce obedi¬ 
 ence, by an accident on board the ship the men at the yard- 
 rope unintentionally let it slip, and the turn of the balance 
 seemed calamitously lost; but then they hauled him up to the 
 yard-arm with a run—the law was satisfied, and, said Lord St. 
 
 Vincent at this moment, perhaps one of the greatest of his life, 
 
 ‘ Discipline is preserved, sir.’ ” 
 
 Almost the same performance was repeated in the case of the 
 Defence. In her case a mutineer was to be executed, and the crew 
 
 had determined to prevent the execution. The boats of the fleet, armed as before, 
 were sent to fire into her if the men resisted ; but before the terrible will of the 
 admiral the plot collapsed. In the St. George two men were tried by court-martial and sentenced to 
 death for the same crime of mutiny. The court-martial did not rise till late in the evening, and though 
 
 the criminals asked for five days to prepare, 
 St. Vincent decided to hang them on the 
 At nine o’clock on Sunday morning 
 
 A rom Rowlandson's “ Caricatures ] 
 of the Lower Classes." 
 
 DISTRESSED SAILORS BEGGING. 
 
 Severe measures. 
 
 Sunday, 
 they 
 
 were 
 
 strung 
 
 From “ Lawrie Cr Whittle's] 
 Drolls" 1798. 
 
 \Reprodnced from Commander Robinson s 
 ‘ ‘ British Fleet. 
 
 “THE HONEST TARS AND MARINES OF THE ‘ARGONAUT’ 
 CONTRIBUTING NOBLY AGAINST THE ENEMIES OF OLD ENGLAND.” 
 
 The incident here depicted is in pleasing contrast to the stories of mutinies in other 
 ships. 11 probably represents an actual occurrence, for beneath the original picture is 
 printed the following letter, addressed to Lieut. F. Hue :— 
 
 “ Argonaut , Jan. 31, 1798. 
 
 “Sir,—We, the seamen and marines of His Majesty’s ship Argonaut, under your 
 command, desire to give 10s. each man out of our wages to drive before us into the 
 sea all French scoundrels and other blackguards that would take their part. 
 
 “he are, your faithful servants, 
 
 “John Mitchell, boatsw'ain’s mate, for self and ship’s company, 
 “Alex. Hean, serjeant, for self and party. 
 
 “ God save the King.” 
 
 Spanish gunboats, which came out when they 
 saw the boats of the fleet proceeding to wit¬ 
 ness the execution. This act of St. Vincent 
 drew upon him the remonstrance of a subordi¬ 
 nate, Admiral Parker, but, as prompt punish¬ 
 ment was necessary to suppress disaffection, it 
 was warmly approved by the Admiralty and 
 by Nelson. “The particular situation of the 
 service,” he wrote, “ requires extraordinary 
 measures. I would have executed them had 
 it been Christmas-day.” Within gunshot of 
 the enemy, with mutiny raging in the fleet, 
 the sternest determination was required. 
 
 The Irishmen in this fleet were particularly 
 dangerous; the mutinies hatched were not of the 
 
 inoffensive type of those at 
 Portsmouth and Plymouth, 
 but flagrant and open treason. St. Vincent met 
 the disaffection of his crew by making use of 
 
 Irish disloyalty. 
 
66 
 
 Nelson and Ills Times. 
 
 IT797- 
 
 The “Theseus” 
 loyal. 
 
 the marines. They were to be kept apart from the crew and to be berthed near the officers. To 
 the credit of this splendid corps be it said that their loyalty never wavered. But for them discipline 
 would have been impossible. 
 
 It was Collingwood’s opinion that the captains were much to blame for these disorders. Like 
 Nelson, he was averse to cruel punishments, and there is no doubt he was right. In his ship the cat 
 
 was very sparingly used, and he had little trouble. He threatened, indeed, to head 
 one turbulent character up in a cask and throw him into the sea if he made 
 mischief, but the threat was perhaps hardly serious. In Nelson’s ship, the 
 Theseus, there were no mutinies and no court-martials. It was not that discipline was slack, 
 but that Nelson was loved and followed with devotion, whereas Jervis was only feared. It was 
 about this time that a paper was dropped on the Theseus's quarter-deck, expressing the attachment 
 of her crew. “Success attend Admiral Nelson! God bless Captain Miller! We thank them for the 
 
 officers they have placed over us. 
 We are happy and comfortable, and 
 will shed every drop of blood in 
 our veins to support them.” As the 
 Theseus had been a most mutinous 
 ship, it appears that with proper 
 handling and without those scourg- 
 ings and hangings in which some 
 admirals so delighted discipline could 
 be maintained. Both Nelson and 
 Collingwood paid extreme attention 
 to the welfare of the men. They 
 looked carefully to the food, and 
 they organised concerts and enter¬ 
 tainments. 
 
 A\fter a Sketch 
 
 by D. Maclise , R.A.] 
 
 CARRONADE, AS ORIGINALLY MOUNTED. 
 
 Every night a number of boats 
 were sent our from the fleet to row 
 
 guard close in to- 
 
 Boat actions off 
 Cadiz. 
 
 wards Cadiz, and 
 at the same time 
 the enemy was bombarded. It is pro¬ 
 bable that tne most desperate spirits 
 in the fleet were detailed for this duty, 
 for the audacity of the British boats 
 was extraordinary, and their encounters 
 with the Spaniards, who also came out 
 in boats, legendary for their valour. 
 
 Nelson was always to be found in the 
 clash of cutlasses and the dint of toma¬ 
 hawks; it was now, in these petty and 
 obscure affairs, that his personal cour¬ 
 age more than ever shone forth ; he had evidently failed to take his wife’s advice to heart. On one 
 occasion his boat, with twelve officers and men besides himself, was assailed by a Spanish gunboat 
 with thirty officers and men. There was a desperate hand-to-hand scuffle, in which an “ old Agamemnon," 
 John Sykes, a valiant Yorkshireman, twice saved his life by parrying with his head a blow aimed 
 
 //. C. Sepf>ings Wright .] 
 
 GUN-DRILL WITH A CARRONADE ON LIGHT NON-RECOILING CARRIAGE. 
 
 This form of carriage began to come into use some years before 1800, and its lightness and 
 hand-ness specially fitted it for use on the upper decks. 
 
1797- 
 
 No risk, no glory 
 
 67 
 
 Teneriffe. 
 
 T. Rowlandson .] \From a coloured f>i int in GreenwichNaval 
 Museurn. By permission of the Lords Conns, of the Admiralty. 
 
 UNIFORM OF AN ADMIRAL, 1797. 
 
 at Nelson; eighteen of the Spaniards were killed; the rest were wounded. Nelson was not to be 
 assailed with impunity. As for the gallant Sykes, Nelson would have made him, though only a petty 
 officer, a lieutenant when he had served the required six 
 years at sea. But before that he was killed, and passes 
 out of our story. 
 
 And now Nelson’s mind went back from Cadiz to the 
 treasure at Teneriffe. He wanted a force of soldiers to 
 
 ensure success; without soldiers he 
 Nelson plans attack , , , . 
 
 on Teneriffe. waS more doubtful of the enterprise. 
 
 “ Soldiers,” he said, remembering San 
 Juan and Bastia, “obey their orders and no more; we 
 look to the benefit of our country, and risk our fame 
 every day to serve her.” At Teneriffe lay, not indeed 
 the Mexican treasure which would have meant millions, 
 but a Manilla ship, El Principe de Asturias, very richly 
 freighted. Of the extraordinary danger of the errand 
 Nelson was fully conscious. He was careful to tell his 
 wife not one word of it—for it was to be one of those 
 “ wonderful and desperate ” affairs which she had urged 
 him to leave to others. 
 
 The Island of Teneriffe is volcanic. Its enormous cone 
 rises steeply for 12,000 feet from the sea and can be 
 
 discerned a hundred miles away. On 
 its abrupt and rugged cliffs the surge 
 of the mid-Atlantic boils constantly. The Bay of Santa 
 Cruz, where lay the Manilla ship, is open and un¬ 
 sheltered ; its rocks, worn by the furious surf, are smooth and slippery, and offer no easy 
 
 landing-places. The currents are strong; the winds tempestuous; the approach for sailing ships 
 
 extremely difficult. Anchorage in the Bay there is 
 
 none, except close in, as the shore of the island is 
 steep-to, and the water deepens rapidly. But Nelson 
 had overcome too many obstacles in his career to be 
 intimidated by these. 
 
 Could he have obtained troops he would have run 
 
 in, landed them, cut off the water from the town, and 
 
 starved the Spaniards into submission. 
 As troops were not to be had, he had 
 to alter his plan. He now proposed to land a party of 
 seamen in the night, from the four ships of the line, 
 three frigates, and cutter, which were assigned him, and 
 to carry the place by an audacious surprise. Ladders for 
 scaling the walls, sledges for dragging the ships’ cannon, 
 were diligently" prepared. No resource of his genius, no 
 idea which his fertile imagination could suggest was neg¬ 
 lected. The boats were to make their approach in six 
 divisions, each division being roped together in a long 
 line. Each division carried four ladders, a sledge hammer, 
 wedges, and an axe; the oars were muffled with canvas. 
 The frigates were to follow and anchor in support. Captain 
 Troubridge had command of the landing party, 1,100 marines 
 
 T. Ro 7 ulandson.] {Front a coloured print in GrcenwichNaval 
 
 Museum. By permission of the Lords Comrs. of the A dmiralty. 8.110. S68m6n StFOIlg. 1116 111611 W6T6 8.1 Ill 60 Wltll pik6S, 
 
 uniform of a captain, 1797. tomahawks, and muskets. 
 
 His designs. 
 
68 
 
 Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 [1797* 
 
 On July 20, 1797, the frigates cautiously approached, keeping, however, out of sight, whilst the 
 line-of-battle ships lay far away in the offing. The next night the boats were lowered and the frigates 
 
 stood in. A strong gale blew from the land, 
 
 First attack. 
 
 rendering both 
 
 embarkation 
 and disembarkation difficult; 
 the current ran fast; and thus, though at mid¬ 
 night they had been only three miles from the 
 landing-place, by dawn they were still some 
 distance from it. Surprise under these circum¬ 
 stances was hopeless. But even now the British 
 landing-party might have carried the heights 
 which dominated the town had not Troubridge 
 feared the responsibility of the attack. He 
 did not, like Nelson at St. Vincent, seize his 
 golden opportunity, but delayed to consult with 
 the rear-admiral, and when the consultation 
 [by Rowlandson. was over the opportunity had slipped from his 
 grasp. The Spaniards crowded men upon the 
 heights; the attack was hopeless; and the sea¬ 
 men were re-embarked. 
 
 Nelson was not the man to turn back, even when fortune was evidently against him. It is the 
 characteristic of our race not to know when we are beaten. This on both land and sea has often 
 
 brought victory to our flag when the day seemed hopelessly lost. “ Foiled in 
 my original plan,” he wrote to his admiral, St. Vincent, “ I considered it for 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 A SNUG CABIN, OR, PORT-ADMIRAL 
 
 Here’s to the wind that blows, 
 
 The ship that goes, 
 
 And the lass that loves a sailor.” 
 
 For the honour of 
 our race. 
 
 the honour of our King and 
 
 A desperate 
 attempt. 
 
 country not to give over the attempt to possess 
 ourselves of the town, that our enemies might be 
 convinced there is nothing which Englishmen are 
 not equal to.” The first attempt was an effort to 
 possess himself of a rich ship; the second was 
 made for the honour of the race. 
 
 The odds against him were terrible. The 
 Spaniards had not only 8,ooo armed men ready 
 
 on shore, but they had also 
 strong works and batteries, now 
 fully prepared, commanding the 
 small mole, or breakwater, which runs out into the 
 deep water. They were vigilant and on their guard. 
 The British ships could not be brought in to sup¬ 
 port the attack because of the wind, current, and 
 absence of anchorage. In the boats only at the 
 most a little over i,ooo men could be landed, and 
 these would have to clamber up the slippery rocks 
 in the darkness of night, and in a heavy surf, 
 exposed to every shot that the enemy might fire. 
 To attack by day was, of course, hopeless. The 
 inevitable confusion of a boat attack by night on a 
 strange place must also be considered. Order 
 would be quickly lost in the roar and tumult of 
 the engagement. But nothing daunted Nelson. 
 He felt, indeed, that the attack was a forlorn 
 hope, and he therefore determined to lead it 
 
 SOME “NELSON” SILVER. 
 
 The above group represents silver articles formerly in the possession of Lord 
 Nelson, now the property of Mrs. F. H. B. Eccles. The covered sugar basin 
 on the left is believed to have come from Burnham Thorpe ; the water jug on 
 the right was “captured” at Calvi. The cream jug below fell and was trodden 
 upon by Nelson “on one occasion when he was worried” on board the San Josef 
 (when that ship, captured by him at St. Vincent, was serving as his flagship in 
 the Channel fleet) ; the broken leg was somewhat clumsily mended by the ship’s 
 armourer, and remains as he left it. Both this and the coffee pot, which still 
 has the original copper wick in its lamp, stood upon the breakfast-table in 
 Nelson’s cabin on board the Victory on the morning of Trafalgar. 
 
1 797-J 
 
 A elson attacks Santa Crm 
 
 Gallantry of Nisbet. 
 
 himself. At whatever risk to a precious, a priceless life, the general or admiral must not h 
 back when a desperate enterprise is forward. 
 
 On the evening of July 24 the signal was made for the men 
 to embark. The wind still blew strongly. All must have felt 
 
 the great peril of the errand; none perhaps 
 more clearly than Nelson. He supped on 
 board the Seahorse with the captains who were to lead; then 
 went back to his cabin in the Theseus to prepare for death. He 
 placed his papers in order, and called in his step-son, Nisbet, 
 to help him in his work. To his alarm he found the boy armed 
 and ready to leave with the boats. In vain he entreated him 
 to remain, saying, “ Should we both fall, what would become of 
 your poor mother?” With commendable spirit Nisbet answered, 
 
 “ Sir, the ship must take care of herself. I will go with you to- 
 
 ang 
 
 night, if I never go again.’ 
 
 To his courage and resolve Nelson 
 
 The attack opens. 
 
 Sir IV. Beechey , 
 R.A.) 
 
 {Engravedfrom the Drawing 
 by IV. Evans. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS TR 0 UBR 1 DGE 
 1760-180 7. 
 
 Served under Sir E. Hughes in the West Indies ; 
 post-captain 1782; commanded the Cullodcn at St. 
 Vincent and the Nile ; commanded a landing party at 
 Tenerifte: baronet 1799, Lord of the Admiralty 1802, 
 admiral 1804 ; lost at sea in the Blenheim 1807. The 
 portrait represents him as an admiral. 
 
 was to owe his life. 
 
 At eleven the boats shoved off accompanied by the Fox, 
 cutter. Nelson was to lead the attack on the mole; the others 
 
 were to get as near the mole as possible, 
 and, landing, to advance to the main square 
 of the town, where the men were to rally and form up. They 
 rowed silently in : the night was intensely dark; the roar of the 
 surf could be heard as they approached. They were some dis¬ 
 tance from the town when the alarm was given. Tocsins rang: 
 guns instantly opened; the place was alive with musketry. The 
 
 scene was terrible in the extreme. The boats dashed vehemently for the shore, but lost each other 
 in the darkness, where the only light was the blaze of the enemy’s guns. Many were beaten to 
 pieces in the surf: many were struck by shot ; many more finding the landing so difficult turned back. 
 The boats which did reach the shore were shattered on the rocks, and the men's ammunition pouches 
 were in an instant soaked. The scaling ladders were lost in the confusion and darkness. Troubridge, 
 however, glorious in his courage and resolution, effected his landing with a handful of men. He 
 dashed forward and forced his way to the square, where he stood at daybreak, waiting the coming of 
 Nelson, with eighty marines, eighty pikemen, and a hundred and eighty seamen with muskets. These 
 
 were all rhat got ashore alive of 
 his party. 
 
 r Meantime Nelson led his divi¬ 
 sion right at the mole. His boat 
 
 touched the 
 shore and he 
 was stepping from it when a dis¬ 
 charge of the enemy’s grape-shot 
 raked her. Seven men were wound¬ 
 ed, and he was struck high up in 
 the right arm, which was dread¬ 
 fully shattered. He staggered un¬ 
 der the shock of the wound, and 
 all but dropped the sword he held 
 in his hand, the treasured sword 
 of his gallant uncle, Captain 
 
 effort 
 “ I am 
 I am a 
 
 Nelson wounded. 
 
 6 . a. supreme 
 
 From a Photograph} Vh the Photochrom Company. 
 
 TENERIFFE: THE BAY OF SANTA CRUZ, AND THE MOLE WHERE NELSON WAS WOUNDED. 
 
 Suckling. By a 
 he caught it as it fell, 
 shot through the arm: 
 
7o 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1797- 
 
 dead man,” he cried, as 
 N isbet stepped forward 
 and caught him. The blood 
 poured from the wound: 
 they laid him, fainting, in 
 the bottom of the boat. 
 Then his step-.son examined 
 the injury and, noting the 
 great flow of blood, with 
 instant presence of mind 
 bound a handkerchief 
 tightly round the artery. 
 A seaman tore his shirt to 
 shreds and made a sling 
 for the arm. They had 
 yet to get him off, and to 
 collect seamen for this was 
 difficult, as the men were 
 pressing up the mole. Five 
 were assembled, and the 
 boat put off. They rowed, 
 at Nisbet’s order, right un¬ 
 der the guns of a battery, 
 which thundered over their 
 heads. 
 
 The fury of the can¬ 
 nonade recalled Nelson to 
 
 He 
 
 24 * 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 consciousness. 
 
 Nelson’s care 
 for others. 
 
 stant the Fox, 
 
 was 
 lifted up 
 in the boat. 
 At this in¬ 
 cutter, was 
 
 din of the engagement 
 
 struck below water by a 
 
 shot which sank her at once. The shriek of the unhappy men on board swelled up above all the 
 
 Nelson forgot his pain. He ordered the boat to row to the help of the 
 
 men in the water, and despite his cruel 
 wound saved many with his own hand. 
 Then they gave way to the nearest ship 
 for the wound to be attended to. The 
 nearest ship was the Seahorse; on board 
 her was Mrs. Fremantle, her captain’s 
 wife; her captain himself was engaged 
 in the attack and his fate was as yet 
 uncertain. Though each delay increased 
 the risk and pain from the wound, though 
 Nelson was told it might mean death 
 if he waited for another ship, he refused 
 to go on board her. “ I would rather 
 suffer death,” he said with tender solici¬ 
 tude for the wife of his friend, “ than 
 From a sketck\ [taken hi 1791. alarm Mrs. Fremantle by her seeing me 
 
 teneriffe: the peak and Santa cruz from the sea. in this state, when I can give her no 
 
1 797 -] 
 
 A r elsoiis arm amputated . 
 
 7 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tidings whatever of her 
 husband.” They rowed to 
 the Theseus ; to get on 
 board her in the sea that 
 was running was no easy 
 matter for even an un¬ 
 wounded man. But Nelson 
 refused all help. “ Let me 
 alone,” he said, “ I have 
 yet my legs left and one 
 arm. Tell the surgeon to 
 make haste and get his in¬ 
 struments. I know I must 
 lose my right arm and the 
 sooner the better.” 
 
 if 
 
 
 
 P*~ 
 
 7 * 
 
 
 
 
 A- 
 
 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE LAST LETTER WRITTEN BY NELSON WITH HIS RIGHT HAND. 
 
 In those days, which 
 knew not the merciful sleep 
 of chloro- 
 
 An unskilful r ,, 
 
 form, the 
 
 amputation. 
 
 surgical 
 operation which followed 
 upon a serious wound in¬ 
 flicted agony even more 
 excruciating than that of 
 the wound itself. To us 
 the surgeon’s table has lost 
 its horrors; few men of 
 that time could look upon 
 
 it without shuddering. Nelson supported the amputation with all the moral courage of his character. 
 He felt most sharply and afterwards complained most of the cruel coldness of the knife as it made 
 its first cut. He ever afterwards 
 gave orders, when he went into 
 action, that the surgeons were to 
 have a hanging-stove ready to 
 heat the instruments in the event 
 of his needing them. In the 
 darkness of his cabin, lighted only 
 by dim lanterns, the operation was 
 unskilfully performed. A nerve 
 was caught in the ligature applied 
 to the artery, inflicting upon him 
 for months the most agonizing 
 deranging his health, and 
 
 pain 
 
 causing a neuralgic irritability 
 which he never quite shook off. 
 
 Thus the attack on Teneriffe 
 miscarried ; thus was Nelson’s 
 
 head crowned 
 rather with 
 cypress than with laurel. Fre¬ 
 mantle and his men, indeed, had 
 stormed the mole, but under the 
 
 Failure. 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 \bv the Photochrom Company. 
 TENERIFFE : THE TOWN OF SANTA CRUZ. 
 
72 
 
 Nelson and His Times . 
 
 1797- 
 
 Mental agony of 
 Nelson. 
 
 appalling fire they could not advance. Troubridge with sublime impudence extricated his shattered 
 remnant from their perilous plight by threatening to burn the town if he was not permitted to 
 retreat unmolested. He made terms with the governor, stipulating that no further attack should be 
 delivered on the place by the ships of that squadron, and drew off with colours flying. The feats of 
 his men, he wrote to Nelson, would “ show what an Englishman is equal to.” The loss was 
 appallingly heavy. Not less than 114 men were killed or drowned, amongst these Captain Bowen, 
 an officer loved by Nelson and St. Vincent : 105 were severely wounded. 
 
 In his account of the attempt transmitted to the commander-in-chief, and written only two days 
 after his wound, Nelson 
 
 justly 
 dwells 
 upon 
 
 the “ daring intrepidity ” 
 of the men he had com¬ 
 manded. Of his own 
 wound there is not a 
 word. But in his private 
 letter to St. Vincent he 
 cries in the bitterness cf 
 his pain — physical and 
 mental, pain from his 
 wound, and pain at the 
 first great failure of his 
 life and at the loss of so 
 many gallant men—“ I am 
 become a burden to my 
 friends and useless to my 
 country.” 
 
 It is evident that he 
 thought the day of his ser¬ 
 vice at 
 an end. 
 
 In the 
 
 same spirit he begged for 
 the promotion of his seven¬ 
 teen years old step-son to 
 the rank of commander, 
 as he would no longer be 
 able to favour his interests. 
 
 St. Vincent granted all that 
 he asked. He was stirred 
 by the heroism of the 
 man and measured his 
 merits by another standard 
 than success. “ Mortals,” 
 
 St. Yincent's conso 
 lation. 
 
 R. West all, R.A .] 
 
 [From the Engraving by J. Neagle, after the original in the Fainted Hall , Greenwich. 
 NELSON WOUNDED AT TENERIFFE, July 24, 1797. 
 
 he wrote to him in words full of consolation, “ cannot command 
 success: you and your companions have certainly deserved it, by the greatest degree of heroism 
 and perseverance that was ever exhibited.” To the Admiralty he wrote as warmly: “Although 
 the enterprise has not succeeded, His Majesty’s arms have acquired a very great degree of lustre.” 
 But in the fleet the tattle of the ward-rooms said that Nelson was a dangerously rash man. 
 
 To his wife Nelson wrote news of his wound. Her son, under God’s providence, had preserved 
 his life. For the loss of a limb, he said, he had long been prepared. He would not be surprised 
 if he were neglected and forgotten, but in her affection he would be rich. He reached Portsmouth 
 
1797 -] 
 
 Nursed by Lady Nelson. 
 
 / 3 
 
 in the frigate Seahorse, voyaging with his wounded friend, Captain Fremantle ; struck his admiral's 
 
 Nelson returns home. llag ’ and P roceedecl to Bath, where, long years before his fame had come to him, 
 
 he had repaired the waste of the West Indian climate. 
 
 His piide, he said, suffered by his failures. But in the country his popularity had in no whit 
 declined. The desperate and wonderful attack at Santa Cruz had struck men’s imagination not less 
 His popularity. ^ ca P tm 'e °f the ships of the line at St. Vincent. His sufferings from his 
 
 wound were constant and intense. Lady Nelson nursed him with care: she 
 attended to and dressed his arm, on which it seemed another operation might be necessary to remove 
 the painful ligature. The surgeons, however, decided against this, and the cure was left to time. 
 
 P . de Louthe?bourg , F.A.) [From the Engraving by J. Fit tier. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF CAMPERDOWN, October ii, 1797. 
 
 This Battle between the English fleet under Admiral Duncan and the Dutch, under Admiral de Winter, lasted from 12.30 to about 3 p.m., and ended in the 
 
 capture of eleven of the enemy’s ships. 
 
 Passion for action. 
 
 In the autumn of 1797, still suffering much, he came up to London to be invested with the 
 Order of the Bath. Whilst he was in town, Duncan won the great Battle of Camperdown, destroy¬ 
 ing the Dutch Navy, though only at heavy cost of life and limb. Nelson had 
 burned to be with him : when he heard that the battle was imminent, he 
 starred up, and, in spite of his wound, exclaimed that he would give the other arm to be with 
 the fleet at that moment. His pain was still so great that he could only obtain sleep by taking 
 doses of opium. The night that the news of Camperdown arrived London was illuminated. A great 
 crowd paraded the streets, and broke the windows of those who did not thus honour the victory. 
 Nelson had retired to rest, and his windows were by some chance not lighted up: the mob there¬ 
 fore knocked at the door, not knowing who was lying there, to demand an explanation. They were 
 told that Sir Horatio Nelson, badly wounded at Teneriffe, lodged there, and could not be disturbed. 
 Moved with sympathy for him the mob withdrew, and the leader assured the inmates of the 
 household that they should not again be troubled. 
 
 D 
 
74 
 
 Nelson and Ills Times. 
 
 1797. 
 
 At this time he wrote a 
 tender letter to the father 
 
 
 2 7 - x T 9 7 
 
 The dead of 
 Teneriffe. 
 
 of a gallant 
 
 officer who 
 had fallen 
 by his side at Teneriffe. 
 “ When I recollect that 
 fatal night,” he said, “ I can¬ 
 not but bring- sorrow and 
 fall 
 
 Ay 
 
 t 
 
 ^2)pan n__ 
 
 bring sorrow 
 before my eyes. 
 
 f cim 6 
 
 GC 
 
 irrO& 
 
 
 his 
 
 Dear friend, he fought, as 
 he had always done, by my 
 side, and for more than a 
 hundred times with success ; 
 but for wise reasons we are 
 taught to believe a separa¬ 
 tion was to take place, and 
 we must, however hard the 
 task, be resigned.” In vain 
 he strove to persuade the 
 Admiralty to erect a public 
 monument to the heroic 
 Bowen, whose body had 
 been found on the rocky 
 shore of Teneriffe, covered 
 with wounds. There was 
 no precedent ! and so this 
 noble servant of England 
 sleeps forgotten. 
 
 His wound had now 
 almost ceased to trouble 
 him, and he was once more 
 looking forward to service. 
 
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 Wt ([{ rx41 mJL Tr\ t U tn VTv 
 
 TKjl tl\*k ^Tcvrvtr^ ^ 
 
 
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 J k/£j 
 
 
 On December 8, 1797, with his customary devotion, he sent to return 
 
 thanks “ to Almighty God for his 
 
 perfect re- 
 
 His services. 
 
 covery from 
 a severe wound, and also for the 
 many mercies bestowed upon 
 him,” at St. George’s, Hanover 
 Square. 
 
 St. Vincent had begged 
 that he might be sent back under 
 
 his 
 
 he himself was 
 
 eager 
 
 great 
 
 T. Whitcombe.) [From an Engraving in the possession 0/ Mr. W. H. Long, Portsmouth. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF CAMPERDOWN : THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE SHIPS 
 OF THE TWO ADMIRALS. 
 
 In the foreground to the right is the Dutch ship Hercules on fire. 
 
 command 
 
 to serve under his 
 chief. The Government awarded 
 him a pension of £1,000 for his 
 services. For this he had drawn 
 up a list of his achievements, and 
 he could now proudly place to 
 his credit, four fleet actions, three 
 frigate actions, six bombardments, 
 ten boat actions, four months of 
 siege work on shore, and the loss 
 
1797-98.] 
 
 Nelson joins St. Vincent. 
 
 X 
 
 A'^Tvcu/M 
 
 U/l et tv ~U c r>w c^, 
 
 C ^ >r ^t tM/HLslt* ^JJ A fl' 
 
 fr* An p a*V fwjf A^wOTlc njtfrjt 
 Tncrrt ^JctM^ful/ 
 
 jJ Cr/<fu> JvJU <rn^ 
 
 of an eye and an arm in 
 his country’s service. Smart¬ 
 ing with the desire to avenge 
 his defeat, he was looking 
 forward to yet greater deeds, 
 and yet more triumphant 
 victories. 
 
 At this time he received 
 in a gold box the freedom 
 
 of the 
 City of 
 
 Hi3 heroic modesty. 
 
 %^r\\ "W \Z[f 
 
 C <7Vv\v\ KrvY)C\ ^ vd'n 
 
 *"7 P ,t 
 
 i 0 *h_VY_ H 
 
 (y\yrW7 
 
 London, which has ever been 
 prompt to honour Britain’s 
 great men. At the Guild¬ 
 hall “ Sir Horatio and the 
 brave officers and men who 
 fought on board the Captain ” 
 were toasted after Duncan 
 and Jervis. The love and 
 admiration of his country¬ 
 men rewarded him for all 
 his efforts and sufferings. 
 
 The Vanguard, 74, was 
 prepared for sea and as¬ 
 signed to him as his flag¬ 
 ship. Great events were at 
 hand, and he was to be again 
 the chief actor in them. 
 Early in 1798 he sailed for 
 
 Cadiz and rejoined St. Vincent’s fleet. “I am very happy to send you Sir Horatio Nelson again,” 
 
 wrote the First Lord of the Admiralty to St. Vincent; “ not only because I believe 
 I cannot send you a more zealous, active, and approved officer, but because I 
 have reason to believe that his being under your command will be agreeable to your wishes.” 
 
 Almost immediately upon his ar¬ 
 rival he was placed in command of 
 a small squadron and detached to 
 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE FIRST LETTER WRITTEN BY NELSON WITH HIS LEFT HAND. 
 
 Rejoins St. Yincent. 
 
 the Mediterranean. A 
 
 great fleet was 
 
 \From the original in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution. 
 
 GOLD COMBINED KNIFE AND FORK, WITH STEEL EDGE, 
 
 Presented to Nelson by Countess Spencer (wife of the First Lord of the 
 Admiralty), after the loss of his arm in 1797, and always used by him. 
 
 being equipped for sea at Toulon, if rumour 
 
 could be trusted. Troops 
 
 Detached to the ,, , 
 
 „ were converging upon that 
 
 Mediterranean. 0 0 r 
 
 port. Some secret blow 
 was meditated by the French; it might be 
 against Ireland or Portugal, it might be against 
 Sicily or some place even farther afield. It 
 
 would be Nelson’s province to discover and 
 
 defeat it. 
 
 From the original in the Fainted ] 
 Hall Greenwich.. 
 
 [By permission of the Lords Commissioners 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 ENAMELLED GOLD BOX 
 
 In which the Freedom of die City of London was presented to “ Commodore Nelson” for 
 “ his gallant behaviour on February 14, 1797, in defeating the Spanish fleet.” 
 
•m 
 
 N. Pocock .] [From the Engraving by J. Fit tier. 
 
 SOME OF NELSON’S FLAGSHIPS. 
 
 His Majesty’s ships Agamemnon (64 guns), Captain (74), Vanguard (74), Elephant (74), and Victory (100). 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EGYPT AND THE NILE, 1798. 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 39.) 
 
 Napoleon on England—Napoleon’s Ambitions—Why he went to Egypt—Armament at Toulon—Dangers of the Expedition— 
 The Expedition Sails—“God keep off the English”—The Alps in View—Where were the English?—Nelson’s Orders 
 —A Blow to His Pride—Narrow Escape of the Vanguard —Nelson’s Emotions — The Hand of Providence—The 
 Vanguard Refits—French Fears—Bolder Action needed—St. Vincent Reinforced—Nelson Designated to Command— 
 Murmurs at this Choice—Nelson Reinforced—Nelson’s Orders—No Frigates—Off Naples—Steers for Egypt—His 
 ardent Pursuit—The French Escape by a hair’s breadth—Empty Alexandria—A Day Too Early—Councils of War— 
 Doings of the French—Brueys’s Inaction—The French Position—“Enemy in sight”—The French hold Councils of 
 War—They clear for Action—The English Attack—The Goliath leads in—No Hesitation— Goliath's Course—Battle 
 in the Van—A Night Action—English double on the French Van—French Van Crushed—The Culloden's mishap— 
 The French Centre Attacked — The Vanguard's Battle — The Orient on Fire — Nelson’s Humanity—The Orient's 
 Survivors — The Battle Pauses—Victory Assured—Reaping the Harvest — Nelson Thirsts for Annihilation—A New 
 Order of Battle—Losses—A Stunning Blow—Thanks to God—Suspense in England—Enthusiasm at the Victory— 
 Meagre Rewards — Rank before Merit — Honours — Generosity of Foreign Monarchs — Naval Medal—Nelson and 
 Napoleon—Prizes Burnt—Nelson Sails for Naples—Napoleon’s Dismay. 
 
 Napoleon on 
 England. 
 
 HE eyes of four generations of Frenchmen had fastened upon Egypt before Nelson's 
 age. It was, then, natural that Napoleon, fresh from the glories of the conquest of 
 Italy, and burning for new laurels, should turn his covetous gaze in 
 this direction. On the mainland the enemies of France had been 
 subdued. Great Britain alone remained, a redoubtable foe. Till she 
 was overthrown, France could not rest in peace, or the new order which made the countries of Europe 
 provinces of branee be assured. “The Austrians,” said Napoleon, “are dull, avaricious; they are 
 not dangerous. The English, on the other hand, are generous, meddlesome, active. Our govern¬ 
 ment must, therefore, overthrow the British monarchy, or expect itself to be destroyed by the corruption 
 of these intriguing, enterprising islanders. At this moment we have a splendid opportunity. Let us 
 turn all our attention to our navy, and destroy England. This done, Europe is at our feet.” 
 
1798.] 
 
 77 
 
 Napoleon Dreams of Eastern Conquest. 
 
 b‘“ aiiu ‘ i Napoleon, a man every whit as active and impetuous as Nelson, 
 glory as eager as his, and a mind hampered by no scruples of right or 
 
 The audacious imagination 
 with a thirst for 
 
 Napoleon's ambitions. had . Se ‘ Zed U P 0n the East as the ‘heatre of 
 
 empires had arisen founded by military genius 
 millions but hundreds of millions to be used as 
 pieces on the chess board of war and politics. 
 
 In his earlier years he had himself thought of 
 taking service in India; he looked upon the 
 East as a land of dazzling wealth. From 
 that country, and not from the hardy and en¬ 
 terprising Englishmen who had won dominion 
 there, he imagined that Great Britain drew her 
 millions. He fancied himself like a new Cyrus 
 leading the innumerable hordes of the East to 
 the conquest of India, or swinging back through 
 Russia and Turkey upon the mean and insig¬ 
 nificant mole-hill of Europe. All things were 
 possible at this remote distance. 
 
 The conquest of the East would further 
 bring him boundless renown in France. It 
 
 would strike the imagination 
 
 great 
 
 wrong, 
 
 events. In the East vast 
 In the East there were not 
 
 From the original Etching] 
 
 JACK TAR SETTLING BONAPARTE. 
 
 [by James Gitlray. 
 
 Why he went to 
 Egypt. 
 
 of the capricious Parisians and pave the way for his despotism. He wanted to 
 be missed. Frenchmen were beginning to think that their valour on the battle¬ 
 field, and not his skill, had given them victory. They must learn a lesson. Moreover, an invasion of 
 England was preparing in the North of France. He wished to be out of the way of this, which he 
 regarded as a most dangerous enterprise at that moment. He was perfectly aware that these islanders 
 
 were of a very differ¬ 
 ent disposition from 
 those Italians whom 
 he had conquered with 
 such ease. “ Go,” said 
 the masters of France 
 to him, anxious only 
 to be rid of him, 
 “ fetter this gigantic 
 pirate who broods 
 over the seas ; punish 
 in London the out¬ 
 rages which have long 
 been perpetrated with 
 impunity. You are 
 the liberator to whom 
 humanity sends up a 
 despairing cry.” 
 
 4 They named him 
 “General of the 
 Army of 
 
 [by James Gillray, 1796. 
 
 In 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 PROMISED HORRORS OF THE FRENCH INVASION. 
 
 nirti.re rives the artist’s idea of the changes to be looked for if England should become subject to France, 
 
 ,he fo e g “Fo P x 1 s bea g tin g PUt atthe pole, which is crowned with a Cap of Liberty. The “ Bedfordshire Ox’ (Duke of 
 k nr -n 8 ™ Kv Thehvall is tossing Burke. Lord Stanhope balances Lord Grenvilles head against his nether limbs. 
 
 Bedford), urged on , by_ ; n p rnn ks’s t Radical 1 Club, on the balcony of which Lord Lansdowne has 
 
 is being 
 (Lord 
 
 mic S , , r, V , 1__*._»_J tUn 
 
 Hawkesbury 
 
 Armament 
 
 at 
 
 Toulon. 
 
 England,” 
 w h e t h e r 
 as a blind 
 to deceive the “per¬ 
 fidious islanders,” or 
 
'•[1798. 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 as a delicate hint to him. They pressed their preparations on the shores of the Channel. But 
 
 extorted their consent to the invasion of Egypt. With the utmost 
 
 he had already obtained or 
 
 secrecy an armament was prepared at Toulon, 
 naturalists, stereometrists, chemists, 
 
 Drawn by Tooth.] 
 
 [Reproduced from the lithograph 
 by Senefelder . 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769-1821. 
 
 From a Drawing made in 1799, when he was known to the 
 world as “General Bonaparte.” 
 
 Thither went astronomers, geometricians, aeronauts, 
 mineralogists, antiquaries, civil engineers, and washerwomen, a 
 motley crowd to Frenchify Egypt. Maps of Bengal and 
 
 -the Ganges and forty volumes of English novels were to 
 
 console the tediousness of the voyage. In the vast Orient, 
 a gigantic three-decker of 120 guns, a swinging cot was 
 prepared to save the general from the catastrophe of sea¬ 
 sickness. Thirty-three thousand troops were embarked, 
 and presently Napoleon himself arrived bringing with him 
 his usual supply of magnificent words: “ Soldiers," he 
 said, “ accustom yourselves to manoeuvres on board. Be¬ 
 come the terror of your enemies, both on land and sea; 
 imitate in this those Roman legionaries who knew how 
 to defeat Carthage on the plains and the Carthaginians 
 in their ships.” Such words must have drawn a smile 
 from Nelson and St. Vincent if they ever heard of them. 
 
 The expedition was perilous, it might be; but its 
 dangers could not compare with those of an invasion of 
 
 England. For now more than a year, 
 
 Dangers of the ex- nQ British fleet had been seen in the 
 
 pedition. 
 
 Mediterranean. That sea had passed 
 to the condition of a French lake. Jervis’s fleet was busy 
 watching the Spaniards, and could not be moved without 
 letting them go. Dread of invasion in England would 
 prevent the Ministry reinforcing him, and once in Egypt 
 there was no serious resistance to be feared. “ I shall,” 
 six years. I am not twenty-nine now, I shall then be 
 
 
 mmm 
 
 said Napoleon, “remain a few months or 
 thirty-five. That is not old. These six years will enable me, if all goes well, to get to India.” 
 
 On May 19, 1798, the great 
 French expedition sailed. It counted 
 
 thirteen ships of 
 the line, nine 
 
 sails. 
 
 frigates, eleven 
 other vessels of war, and about 
 232 transports. It was better sup¬ 
 plied, in proportion, with frigates 
 than was the British fleet. Bona¬ 
 parte commanded in chief, both 
 on land and sea; under him was 
 Admiral Brueys. The French ships 
 were crowded with soldiers, and 
 encumbered with luggage. They 
 were very badly manned. But half 
 of the crews were sailors, and of 
 these many had never been to sea 
 in a warship. The officers were mu¬ 
 tinous and incapable. Thanks to 
 the Revolution, discipline and obedi¬ 
 ence were things almost unknown 
 in that fleet. Bruevs himself feared 
 
 D. Roberts , R.. 4 .] 
 
 [Sketched from Nature in 1830. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 
 
 Napoleon, having landed his troops at Alexandria on July 1, 1798, marched on the 13th upon 
 Cairo. On the 21st he fought what is known as the Battle of the Pyramids, where his army withstood 
 the furious onslaught of the Mamelukes. “ Soldiers,’ said Napoleon, “ from the height of these 
 Pyramids forty centuries look down upon you.” The age of the Great Pyramid is variously estimated 
 at from 4,300 to 6,000 years. The picture represents the oncoming of a Simoom, one of those terrible 
 storms common in the desert, in which sand is carried in blinding clouds, before which men and beasts 
 fly for their lives. 
 
1798.] 
 
 Napoleon s Voyage to Egypt . 
 
 79 
 
 the venture ; he was a man of brilliant personal courage, but absolutely without firmness or decision 
 of mind. He could make himself neither feared nor respected. His ships were miserably equipped, 
 and worse provisioned. They lacked spare spars and rigging, and none of them had more than 
 three months’ food on board. 
 
 Napoleon spent his time on board in reading and study, when he was not sea-sick. He trusted 
 
 to his star to keep oft the British fleet. Nelson was known to be in the Mediterranean with a 
 
 ... _ , _ . small force; his whereabouts were uncertain; but if he attacked, a desperate 
 
 “God keep off the . r 
 
 English.” resistance was to be offered. The soldiers were to work the guns whilst the 
 
 seamen attended to the sails. The French admiral, however, had no illusions. 
 \ ictory he thought to be a thing absolutely beyond the reach of the French ; even if victorious, what 
 _ would happen to the 
 
 D. Roberts , R.A .] 
 
 [Sketched from Nature in 1839. 
 
 expedition? “God 
 send that we may 
 pass the English with¬ 
 out meeting them,” he 
 said. Day by day he 
 anxiously swept the 
 horizon. No hostile 
 sail showed above it, 
 and his spirits rose. 
 
 When some days 
 out, a spectacle of 
 divine 
 
 The Alps in . 
 
 beautv 
 
 view. J 
 
 was of¬ 
 fered the French. Far 
 away across the blue 
 waters of the Medi¬ 
 terranean rose the 
 Alps, snow - topped, 
 purple with the light 
 of evening. The Alps! 
 At the mention of 
 those mountains 
 
 which had seen his glory, Napoleon stood a long time motionless, in a reverie; then broke out 
 with the words: “I cannot behold the land of Italy without emotion. Yonder is the East; yonder 
 I go; a perilous enterprise invites me. These mountains command the plains where I so often had 
 the good fortune to lead the French to victory.” 
 
 Whilst Napoleon, favoured of fortune, thus clove the waters, we must turn to the doings of the 
 British fleet. What was Nelson about to let him escape? What was the Admiralty doing? For 
 
 now information came pouring in from all quarters that mischief was threatening 
 from Toulon. Naples, Sicily, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, all were mentioned as points 
 likely to be aimed at. No one as yet had guessed Egypt. We underrated the 
 temerity of Napoleon. 
 
 Very early in May, 1798, Nelson left Gibraltar with three seventy-fours and five frigates. 
 St. Vincent’s orders told him that an armament was preparing at Toulon, and that transports were 
 
 collecting at Marseilles and Genoa. He was to look into the Spanish port of 
 Carthagena and into Toulon, and to try to ascertain what the enemy was 
 about. If the French were coming towards Gibraltar, he was not to let them get ahead of him. 
 On May 8 he sailed, and nine days later was off Toulon. He found, as he expected, a great force 
 of ships in the port, but such was the stealth and secrecy of the French preparations that he could 
 ascertain nothing of their destination. 
 
 CAIRO (MASR-EL-QAHIRA). 
 
 Napoleon and his army entered Cairo on July 22, 1798. The city was founded some five centuries B.c., and now 
 shelters a population of 375,000 souls, of whom 21,000 are Europeans. 
 
 Where were the 
 English ? 
 
 Nelson’s orders. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 17 98. 
 
 A blow to his pride. 
 
 And now a terrible blow befel him. On the 19th, the day of the French departure from Toulon, 
 his little fleet, posted in a favourable position for observation, was struck by a heavy north-westerly 
 gale. Towards night the fury of the wind increased, and about two in the morning the Vanguard's 
 
 main-topmast went overboard. The topsail-yard was crowded 
 
 with men when this happened, but, wonder¬ 
 ful to relate, only two were killed. Mis¬ 
 fortune on misfortune followed. At 2.30 the mizzen-topmast 
 carried away; at 3.15 the foremast went in three pieces. The 
 wreckage hung over the side and dashed against the ship ; an 
 anchor broke adrift and added to the confusion. The Vanguard 
 thus dismasted rolled fearfully, and was swept by the seas. In 
 the darkness and confusion the discipline and seamanship of 
 her company stood her in good part. The enemy’s iron-bound 
 coast loomed up close at hand to leeward, but by desperate 
 exertions the wreckage was cut away, and the ship's head 
 turned seawards for Sardinia. 
 
 The gale dropped, but fresh perils befel them. The Van¬ 
 guard was taken in tow of the Alexander, and was off the small 
 
 island of San Pietro to the south of Sar- 
 Narrow escape of the ... , . , , r ,, , 
 
 “Vanguard” dmia, when it suddenly tell calm. there 
 
 was a heavy westerly swell which carried 
 
 in the ships upon the breakers. The roar of the surf could 
 
 be heard through the night. Destruction stared the Vanguard 
 
 in the face, and Nelson gave orders to the Alexander to drop 
 
 the hawser, save herself, and leave him to his fate. Captain 
 
 Ball, of the Alexander, with noble devotion, refused to abandon 
 
 his admiral. Then, just when escape seemed hopeless, a breeze 
 
 From the Drawing) 
 
 [by A . Maurin. 
 
 Nelson’s emotions. 
 
 FRANCOIS PAUL, COMTE DE BRUEYS- 
 D’AIGALLIEP S, 1753-179?* 
 
 Was of a noble family of 1 aDguedoc. Entered the 
 French Navy at the age of 13; lieutenant 1780; took part, 
 under de Grasse, in the battles between that admiral and 
 Hood and Rodney. Commander 1784, captain 1792, rear- 
 adrniral 1796, vice-admiral 1798. Under his command in 
 1798 were the rear-admirals Villerieuve, Blanquet Duchnyla, 
 and Deeres. He was killed on board the Orient in the 
 Battle of the Nile. 
 
 sprang up, 
 
 carried the two ships clear of the reefs, and brought 
 them safe to the anchorage of San Pietro. 
 
 “ I ought not to call what has happened to 
 the Vanguard by the cold name of accident. I 
 
 believe firmly that it was the 
 Almighty’s goodness to check 
 my consummate vanity,” wrote Nelson to his wife. 
 “ I kiss with all humility the rod. Figure to your¬ 
 self a vain man on Sunday evening at sunset 
 walking to his cabin with a squadron about him 
 who looked up to their chief to lead them to 
 glory, and in whom this chief placed the firmest 
 reliance. Figure to yourself this proud, conceited 
 man when the sun rose on Monday morning, his 
 ship dismasted, his fleet dispersed, and himself in 
 such distress that the meanest frigate out of France 
 would have been a very unwelcome guest.” 
 
 Yet, had he known it, it was not punishment 
 but preservation which the Almighty sent him. But 
 
 for this gale with its attendant 
 disasters, he would have en¬ 
 countered the whole French fleet 
 off Toulon. The odds of fifteen ships of the line to 
 three were so desperately against him that success 
 
 The hand of Pro¬ 
 vidence. 
 
 Lemuel F. Abbott .] 
 
 [In the National Portrait Gallery . 
 
 NELSON IN 1797. 
 
 There is a replica of this portrait in the Paintei Hall at Greenwich. 
 
1798.] 
 
 Nelsons Frigates disappear. 
 
 8 1 
 
 would have been out of the question. “ I am not,” he wrote in later days, “ one of those 
 hot-brained people who fight at immense disadvantage without an adequate object.” But the 
 object the disabling of the expedition — would have been adequate, and he never shrank from a 
 sacrifice of himself under such circumstances. He would have hurtled into the midst of his enemy’s 
 transpoits, and if he had gone down with them, would at least have had the satisfaction of taking 
 hundreds if not thousands with him to the deep, and of putting it out of Napoleon’s power to do 
 further mischief. A year later, waiting to face nineteen French ships with only nine, he wrote 
 with steady resolution to St. \ incent : “The squadron under my command shall never fall into 
 the hands of the enemy, and before we are destroyed I have little doubt but that the enemy will 
 have his wings completely clipped.” 
 
 The refit of the Vanguard was carried out with a despatch which is remarkable as showing the 
 
 British seaman's 
 
 The “Vanguard 
 refits. 
 
 power 
 of re¬ 
 
 source. 
 In four 
 
 days she was again ready 
 for sea, though months 
 would have been re¬ 
 quired had she been 
 sent to an English dock¬ 
 yard. A spare maintop- 
 mast was used to re¬ 
 place her lost foremast; 
 a topgallantmast replaced 
 her topmast. The crews 
 of the other ships lent 
 their aid, the captains 
 their judgment. The 
 blow which Providence 
 had direct was thus 
 quickly repaired by these 
 worthy servants of their 
 country, but there was 
 one irreparable loss which 
 no efforts of theirs could 
 They were not to be seen at the rendezvous. It 
 presently appeared that their senior officer had observed Nelson’s dismasted ship. He had jumped to 
 the conclusion that the Vanguard must run down the Mediterranean to Gibraltar to refit. Was he to 
 stay in hostile waters with a few weak ships ? He answered himself—little understanding the spirit 
 of his admiral—“ No.” And so, thanks to timidity and disobedience, Nelson found himself at one of 
 his most critical moments without fast ships to act as the eyes and ears of his fleet. This was the 
 second stroke of ill-fortune in the Mediterranean; his third stroke of ill-luck, counting Teneriffe. For 
 even the “ Heaven-born admiral ” had to fight his way through failure to success. 
 
 All the while the P'rench agents were complacently commenting on the inactivity of those 
 detestable British. According to their reports, we had three squadrons in the Mediterranean all 
 ^ ^ f doing nothing. But very quickly the tone changed from satisfaction to disquieting 
 
 alarm. The Islanders had now forty-five sail in the Mediterranean. It is 
 wonderful to notice how fear multiplied our real numbers, how “the pictures which the French 
 admirals drew for themselves ” disheartened and enfeebled the action of their navy. 
 
 While Nelson lay setting up the Vanguard's rigging on the Sardinian coast, with all his matchless 
 fire and energy confronting misfortune, his country had chosen him for an enterprise worthy of him. 
 Face to face with her mortal enemy, England must strike her blows with greater audacity; “ the 
 
 d 5 
 
 Charles Dixon.\ 
 
 THE “VANGUARD” DISMASTED. 
 
 overcome. All Nelson’s five frigates had vanished 
 
82 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Bolder action 
 needed. 
 
 St. Vincent rein¬ 
 forced. 
 
 country,” in the words of the Roman statesman, “ must be lifted to greatness by dashing action, 
 
 not by caution and hesitation.” A new order of seaman must lead to victory 
 the perfect fleet. And where should the audacity, the enterprise, the perseverance 
 required be found, but in the victor of St. Vincent, the vanquished of Tenerifte ? 
 Here was the man whom his own untiring energy, rapidity of movement, and boldness of conception 
 marked out as the one chief able to meet Napoleon on equal terms. Here, too, was the man whose 
 personal magnetism could inspire his followers with the passionate enthusiasm that waited upon 
 Napoleon. The eyes of the King, of the First Lord of the Admiralty, and of St. Vincent, all turned 
 with one accord to Nelson. 
 
 A detachment of ships of the line was ordered out from Great Britain to join St. Vincent. Before 
 
 this, “ most secret ” instructions had been sent 
 
 him. Twelve sail of the line 
 from this reinforced fleet were 
 to proceed up the Mediter¬ 
 ranean. They were to go in quest of the French 
 armament now preparing at Toulon, “to take, 
 sink, burn, and destroy it.” This done, they were 
 to remain as long as possible within the Straits. 
 The despatch continued in words which would 
 have fired the most irresolute : “ When you are 
 apprised that the appearance of a British squadron 
 in the Mediterranean is a condition on which the 
 fate of Europe may at this moment be stated to 
 depend, you will not be surprised that we are 
 disposed to strain every nerve and incur consider¬ 
 able hazard in effecting it.” Whatever the object 
 of the French, whether Ireland, or—as the Ad¬ 
 miralty seemed to think—Portugal, the defeat of 
 the armament would be a great achievement for 
 the British Navy. And yet the despatch went on 
 to own that the discovery of the French at sea 
 would be a matter of mere chance, their destruc¬ 
 tion in harbour difficult, if not impossible. Still, 
 their fleet might be blockaded, and then there was 
 reason to suppose that Austria would renew the 
 war with France. 
 
 The commander of this most important and 
 hazardous expedition might be St. Vincent, if he 
 
 chose to go, but if he did not 
 go—and, reading carefully, it 
 is plain that he was not wanted 
 to go — should be “Sir Horatio Nelson, whose 
 acquaintance with that part of the world, as well 
 as his activity and disposition, seem to qualify 
 him in a peculiar manner for that service.” Risks, 
 it was again repeated, must be run. Success was 
 all-important for Britain. The despatch rose in 
 a continual crescendo of exhortation to bold and 
 daring action. 
 
 The designation of Nelson for this command 
 h. c. Scppings Wright.] w as due in no small degree to the efforts of Sir 
 
 getting a topmast aloft at sea. Gilbert Elliot, now Lord Minto. He had told the 
 
 Kelson designated 
 to command. 
 
1798-] The Admiralty designates Nelson to Command. 
 
 83 
 
 Murmurs at this 
 choice. 
 
 First Lord that, from his own personal experience, Nelson was “ quick and sharp with the enemy,” 
 trusted by his subordinates, and possessed of political courage. The Duke of Clarence, well remem¬ 
 bering old West Indian days, and the burning zeal of the 
 
 young captain in his country’s service, had 
 worked upon the King. But the Sea 
 Lords of the Admiralty murmured at send¬ 
 ing “ so young and inexperienced an officer ” ; they would have 
 preferred the dulness and caution of some grey-head; they 
 could not understand that youth in the man of war is of 
 itself a recommendation. In St. Vincent's fleet there were 
 not less open murmurs. There were two admirals junior to 
 St. Vincent and senior to Nelson ; both in a way good men, 
 but of mediocre ability and no genius. They complained that 
 this young and rash rear-admiral was preferred to themselves. 
 And thus it came about that no small load of responsibility 
 hung upon the necks of Lord Spencer, the head of the Ad¬ 
 miralty, and Lord St. Vincent. How if their young protege 
 should fail? What would the country and the Navy say? 
 
 The moment the reinforcements from home were in sight 
 the fleet for the Mediterranean, which had been held in 
 readiness night 
 and day, weighed 
 and disappeared. 
 
 It counted eleven 
 sail of the line, 
 all seventy-fours, 
 in the finest state 
 of efficiency and 
 discipline, and 
 commanded by 
 men whose names 
 were to be glori¬ 
 ous for ever. 
 
 Known thereafter 
 the band of brothers,” its 
 
 G. Chinnery .] [Painted in 1812. 
 
 SIR GILBERT ELLIOT, FIRST EARL MINTO. 
 
 1751-1814. 
 
 Educated in the Pension Militaire at Fontainebleau, 
 where he had Mirabeau for a schoolfellow and David Hume 
 for guardian. Entered Christ Church, Oxford, 1768, called 
 to the Bar 1774, M.P. for Morpeth 1776, and became a close 
 friend of Edmund Burke ; was appointed Civil Commissioner 
 at Toulon in 1793, Viceroy of Corsica 1794. By his orders 
 Nelson seized Elba in 1796. Elliot was directed to evacuate 
 Corsica in October of that year and went to Naples, and 
 in 1797 to England. On the voyage he was present at the 
 Battle of St. Vincent. Raised to the peerage as Baron 
 Minto 1798, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 
 at Vienna 1799. F.R.S. 1803, President of the Board of 
 Control 1806, and later in the same year appointed Governor- 
 General of India. Recalled 1813. Died at Stevenage and 
 buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 the chosen band,” 
 
 captains were in the flower of their 
 
 Nelson reinforced. . , , A-JenHc 
 
 age, young, mured to war, mends, 
 
 and deep in the confidence of Nelson. They had been 
 
 made and formed under the vigilant eye of St. Vincent, 
 
 of whom all agreed that he never failed to discover 
 
 merit, or overlooked incompetence. The gallant Trou- 
 
 bridge, Nelson’s friend of twenty-five years, commanded ; 
 
 under him were the gigantic Hallowed, who had toiled 
 
 with Nelson before Calvi; Miller, most excellent as an 
 
 officer, most virtuous as a man, who under Nelson had 
 
 tamed the Theseus's mutinous crew to discipline; Samuel 
 
 Hood, a veteran of the night attack at Teneriffe and of 
 
 [From an Engraving published in * 79 L 
 
 St. Vincent’s blockade of Toulon; Louis, whom Nelson 
 afterwards sent away to water just before Trafalgar, 
 that he might not miss the battle; Foley, brilliant as 
 a seaman, and quick almost as Nelson himself, Westcott, 
 whose infinite promise was cut short by the untimely hand 
 
 H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, AFTERWARDS 
 KING WILLIAM IV. 
 
 It has already been told (page 24) how Nelson made the acquaint- 
 ~e of Prince William, on the introduction of Admiral Digby. me 
 ince retained a warm regard for Nelson, and did his best to push 
 ; interests at Court: not always successfully, fof he himself was 
 en in disgrace with the King. H.s good offices, however, were 
 value in 1798 at a most important crisis. 
 
Nelson and His limes. 
 
 1798. 
 
 of death ; and Thompson, soon to be famous for his desperate and heroic defence of his fifty-gun ship 
 against a French seventy-four. "With Nelson were Saumarez, after Nelson and Froubiidge the ablest 
 sea-officer of his day; Berry, whose fortune always brought battles—a hero already of countless pitched 
 engagements; and Ball, who had towed his admiral off the rocks of Sardinia. Colhngwood s name 
 alone was missing from this record of mighty men of valour ; he was left to fret his soul oft Cadiz. 
 
 Nelson’s heart must indeed have risen as he looked at these men and their ships. W ith them 
 there would be no hanging back, no want of support, no need of signals. Their judgment would 
 
 interpret his ideas and interpret them correctly. They brought him orders to find 
 Nelson’s orders. and destroy the enemy ’ s fl ee t, but under no circumstances to let the French get 
 
 to the west of him, or between him and Jervis. Fie was to exact supplies from neutrals if these would 
 not grant them. “ Sensible of your zeal, enterprise, and capacity,” St. Vincent concluded, “ at 
 
 Gould 
 
 [Audacious). 
 
 Foley 
 
 [Goliath). 
 
 Westcott 
 
 [Majestic). 
 
 Thompson 
 
 [Leander). 
 
 Hallovvell 
 
 [Swift sure). 
 
 Miller 
 
 ( Theseus). 
 
 Berry 
 
 ( Vanguard]. 
 
 A portrait of Captain Hardy, of the Mutine brig, will be found cn a later page. 
 
 R. Smtrke, R.A.] [Fio?n the Engraving by Bromley & Lcnney. 
 
 “THE BAND OF BROTHERS ” : THE CAPTAINS WHO FOUGHT WITH NELSON AT d HE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 the head of a squadron of ships so well appointed, manned, and commanded, I have the utmost 
 confidence in the success of your operations.” The junction was formed on June 7, 1798, off Toulon. 
 Nelson already knew of the departure of the French from Toulon. He had looked into the port the 
 moment his ship was refitted. But now it fell calm, and, raging for action, he could do nothing but 
 wait. “ You may be assured I will fight them the moment I can reach their fleet, be they at anchor 
 or under sail,” he wrote to St. Vincent. 
 
 Being without frigates, he could not send fast ships to discover the French course. There was 
 nothing for him to do but to guess their destination, which was even now secret, and hurry thither 
 
 with his battleships. The calms ended, and he stood down the Mediterranean from 
 Toulon, in eager chase, his fleet of fourteen ships of the line divided into three 
 squadrons, two of which were to assail the F'rench warships, if he met them, and the other to sink their 
 
 No Frigates. 
 
 Saumarez 
 
 [Orion). 
 
 Troubridge 
 
 [Cullodcn). 
 
 Darby 
 
 (. Bellerophon). 
 
 Louis 
 
 [Minotaur). 
 
 Peyton 
 
 [Defence). 
 
 Ball 
 
 [Alexander). 
 
 Hood 
 
 [Zealous). 
 
1798.] 
 
 Lady Hamilton as Diplomatist. 
 
 85 
 
 Off Naples. 
 
 G. Romney.] [From the Mezzotint by H. Scott Bridgwater , 
 by permission of Leggatt Bros ., Cheapsidc. 
 
 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 transports. But the vast French armament, with its three hundred sail, was nowhere to be seen or 
 found. The wind blew steadfastly from the north-west; before it he ran between Corsica and Elba, the 
 gloomy mountains of either in full sight from his deck. Telamon 
 Bay was an empty sheet of water. At Civita Vecchia he got 
 his first authentic news. A Tunisian ship had spoken a Greek 
 at sea who had a fortnight before seen the French off Sicily, 
 steering east. Nelson ran towards Naples to obtain more 
 information. 
 
 At Naples he could get no news, though he sent Trou- 
 bridge to try his persuasive tongue upon the Queen and the 
 
 Neapolitan Ministers. To Sir William 
 Hamilton he wrote, begging him to obtain 
 for the fleet the free use of Sicily. By treaty with France, 
 
 Naples was bound not to admit more than four ships of any 
 Power at war with France. But being a weak state she was 
 between two mill-stones, the terrible British fleet at sea, and 
 the equally terrible French army on land. If she yielded readily 
 to Nelson’s demand, the French might seize this excuse for 
 war, for which she was not yet ready. If she refused Nelson's 
 demand, the British fleet would have great difficulty in obtain¬ 
 ing provisions, and might have to leave the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Queen of Naples herself had persuaded Lady Hamilton 
 
 to write to St. Vincent for help. And now Lady Hamilton is said to have gone to her on Nelson's 
 
 behalf. The Minister’s wife may have pointed out that 
 the way out of the difficulty would be a private letter 
 to the Sicilian governors, instructing them to make a 
 great deal of fuss on the surface, and to supply Nelson 
 with everything under the rose. That Nelson believed 
 himself deeply indebted to Lady Hamilton at this junc¬ 
 ture is established beyond dispute by his own words. 
 And from her and the Queen, Troubridge presently 
 brought back word that the French were off to Malta, 
 and an order to the Sicilian governors to supply the 
 fleet with provisions. 
 
 In Nelson’s mind the conviction was already grow¬ 
 ing that the goal of the French was Alexandria and 
 
 Egypt; that thence they meant to 
 move troops overland to Suez and 
 so to India, where at that time we were engaged in a 
 dangerous struggle with Tippoo Sahib. 1 his idea as it 
 occurred to Nelson was actually in Napoleon’s brain. 
 “ I should like,” he had written, “ to take with me 
 the Citizen Piveron, who was for some time employed 
 as agent to Tippoo Sahib ; he might be sent to India 
 to open relations with that country.” No point in our 
 great sailor’s career is more remarkable than this extreme 
 sagacity in divining the aims of the French. “Follow 
 
 Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A.] [From ihe Engraving by H. Hudson. YOU!" OWn impulse,” St. VlUCent Once told NelsOIl when 
 
 sir william Hamilton, i 73 o-,8o3. asked for orders. The impulse of genius is rarely wrong. 
 
 Bo™ in Scotland. Was Ambassador at Naples 1764-1800, f.r.s. Without cruisers, without positive information, told bv 
 
 1761, knighted 1772, Privy Councillor 1791. He communicated a series 7 r 
 
 the British secret agents that the French destination 
 Hamilton!”* 6 '’ second wife being beautiful “ Emma ’ ^ was Ireland or Portugal, Nelson had guessed correctly. 
 
 Steers for Egypt. 
 
86 
 
 A 7 cl son and His Tunes. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 His ardent 
 pursuit. 
 
 A. Barraud.] 
 
 
 {After 11 Drawing by N. Pocock , about 1800. 
 SCYLLA AND MOUNT ETNA. 
 
 Nelson’s course lay between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis, renowned in classical story. The passage, however, 
 is not now of the dangerous character attributed to it by Homer. 
 
 He saw day at last through the mist of uncertainty. “ If the French fleet is not moored in as strong 
 a port as Toulon, nothing shall hinder me from attacking them, and with the blessing of Almighty 
 God I hope for a most glorious victory,” he wrote. And to Lady Hamilton he promised to return 
 
 crowned either with 
 laurel or cypress. 
 
 From first to last in 
 this wonderful pursuit, 
 he nei¬ 
 ther va¬ 
 cillated 
 
 nor hesitated. Absolute 
 inflexibility of purpose 
 marks his conduct. 
 Coming fast down the 
 east coast of Sicily he 
 saw, six leagues away, 
 the smoke of Stromboli, 
 and learnt that Malta 
 had fallen and that his 
 quarry was gone. The 
 information came from 
 a Ragusan ship, and was 
 
 in part false. The date of the French departure from Malta was given as June 16, 1798, whereas 
 the expedition did not really leave till June 20. Had Nelson steered straight to Malta from the point 
 at which he heard the news, he would have caught the French at sea. Had he even been able 
 to examine the master of the Ragusan ship, he might have torn the truth from him. But the 
 stranger had been boarded by the little brig which was his one sorry cruiser. The foreign ship 
 was gone three hours, and back he neither could nor would go after her. He had no frigates to 
 send to Malta. No, he must trust his own judgment and act upon his own responsibility. To 
 St. Vincent he wrote a letter, passionately defending his course against possible attacks, and expressing 
 his fixed resolve to go to Egypt. “ Was I to wait patiently till I heard certain accounts ? If Egypt 
 was their object, before I could hear of them they would have been in India.” This was his defence. 
 Action must be taken ; risks must be run. “ To do nothing I felt was disgraceful.” 
 
 The wind, he knew, had for some days blown from the west, and therefore it was most 
 unlikely that this great expedition was 
 
 steering westwards. 
 
 The French escape T H 1 
 
 . , . , * On Tune 22, Nelson 
 
 by a hair s breadth. J 
 
 had cause once 
 
 more bitterly to rue the cruel loss 
 of his frigates. Two French frigates 
 were seen far away through the haze. 
 
 He afterwards learnt that the form 
 of a French battleship had been dimly 
 made out from the Lcander. But this 
 latter fact he did not know at the 
 time. And yet there, close at hand, 
 veiled in the kindly mist and so pre¬ 
 served from destruction, was the vast 
 French armament. With a single frigate 
 
 he must have discovered it. That night the French heard the frequent report of the British 
 signal-guns, so near were the two fleets. The French turned more to the north, and Nelson 
 steered for Alexandria. 
 
 — Anderson .] 
 
 [/'"rom a Sketch dated 1802. 
 
 VALETTA, MALTA. 
 
17 98 -] 
 
 A lexandna Empty. 
 
 3 7 
 
 Empty Alexandria. 
 
 On the 28th he was off that port. It was empty. The shock was terrible. Not only, it would 
 seem, was his judgment proved to be unsound, not only was fame lost for ever, but the French might 
 
 possibly have got behind him and be working any mischief. The suspense of the 
 long and ardent chase culminated in the extremest agony of heart, which left its 
 indelible traces upon him. Years after he told men that he had been near dying of a broken heart. 
 Failure upon failure had been his lot within the past year; misfortunes had crowded upon him. “Want 
 of frigates,” he cried in his anguish, would be found stamped upon his heart. 
 
 Sadly he sailed from Alexandria, and as his ships vanished below the horizon to the north-east, 
 the sails of the French came up to the north-west. He had missed them by a day. A few hours’ 
 
 delay would have saved him all his tortures of mind. And yet, with such a man, 
 delay at such a moment was impossible. So he steered for Asia Minor, and 
 thence in due course back to Sicily to provision his fleet. He met with difficulties. The Governor 
 of Syracuse, into which port he put, had, it would seem, received fresh private orders enjoining him 
 to make protests on the surface; and therefore he objected when he saw the fourteen seventy-fours 
 entering the harbour. But as this, though highly to Nelson’s disgust, was only done to satisfy the 
 French, in the end he gave Nelson all that was wanted. “ Thanks to your exertions,” wrote Nelson 
 to the Hamiltons, “we have victualled and watered.” On July 23, after only three days’ delay, he 
 sailed for Egypt once more, now convinced that the French were there. 
 
 A day too early. 
 
 His long quest was drawing to its close. On the voyage he had many talks with his captains. 
 He set before them his objects, his plan of battle, that no man might have the terrible responsibility 
 
 of disobeying, which had fallen to him at St. \ mcent. All possible situations 
 Councils of war. considered by this council of war. The men he led were impregnated with 
 
 his ideas. If he found the French at anchor he had determined to double upon their van, attacking 
 only a portion of their fleet with the whole of his fleet. The general outlines came from his active 
 brain the details were left to the captains, whose judgment he could trust. In the crisis of action 
 signals would thus be unnecessary; delay there would be none; the British fleet could rush instantly 
 upon its enemy. Time to Nelson, as to Napoleon, was a thing of infinite value. “ Time,” he said 
 once, “time is everything. Five minutes makes the difference between a victory and a defeat.” 
 “Time!” said Napoleon, “even when I had nothing to do, I felt I had no time to lose. 
 
 Meanwhile Admiral Brueys’s Armada, feebly manned and fatuously commanded, anchored off 
 Alexandria. Then, for the first time, the French knew that Nelson was in command of the great 
 ’ squadron their frigates had seen. They heard that he had been off Alexandria, 
 Doings of the French. ^ he WQuld not come back . “Five days; give me but five days,” 
 
 Napoleon prayed of his star. With furious haste the troops were disembarked—no enemy appeared. 
 
83 
 
 Nelson and His limes. 
 
 1798. 
 
 And then Napoleon marched inland, giving Brueys strict orders either to take the fleet into the harbour 
 of Alexandria, to place it in a strong position in Aboukir Bay, or to move it to Corfu. But Alexandria 
 could not be easily entered by large ships; the fleet had not enough provisions to retire to Corfu; and 
 therefore Aboukir Bay remained as the only choice. There thirteen ships of the line and four frigates 
 anchored, and there they remained in the teeth of repeated orders to go to Alexandria. 
 
 With the departure of Na¬ 
 
 poleon the watch had lost its 
 
 mainspring. 
 
 Brueys's inaction. . . 
 
 The timid, 
 
 hesitating Brueys, with his in¬ 
 subordinate officers, mutinous 
 crews, and rotten, ill - found 
 ships, did nothing. He took no 
 precautions against an attack, 
 though he actually wrote to 
 Napoleon, “The enemy could 
 with equal force destroy my 
 whole fleet by attacking it in 
 detail, if I was foolish enough 
 to wait for him at anchor.” 
 
 Strangely blind to his danger, 
 he lay inactive, whilst the 
 British fleet ranged the sea in 
 furious search for him. The 
 Bay of Aboukir stretches many 
 miles between the Rosetta mouth 
 of the Nile and Alexandria. Its 
 shores are sandy and the water 
 deepens very slowly. At the 
 western extremity the banks run 
 far out to sea and give shelter 
 
 from north-westerly winds. Here is a small island on which Brueys built a useless battery. It was 
 useless because it was 2,500 yards away from the nearest French vessel, and with the guns of the 
 time could not reach an enemy alongside this ship. 
 
 The French anchored in a single line, starting 1,500 yards to the south-south-east of the island. 
 The direction of the line was generally north-north-west and south-south-east, but it had a slight 
 
 bend in the centre. The ships were not brought so close together as to prevent 
 an enemy passing between them. The leading French ship was not, as she 
 should have been, placed on the very edge of the shoals, so that the British could not get in between 
 her and the shore, though every primer of tactics directed that “ the van ship should be placed so 
 near the land that it should be impossible for the enemy to pass between it and the shore,” a hint 
 
 which was not lost sight of by Nelson. Each vessel had one anchor out; if the enemy appeared, a 
 
 second was to be dropped. At the head of the line were placed the worst and oldest ships, so rotten 
 that they would scarcely bear the shock of their own guns. The fleet was so short of provisions and 
 water that the four frigates with it could not be sent out to watch for the coming of the enemy. 
 
 The admiral’s feebleness must have exasperated Napoleon. Time after time Napoleon wrote order¬ 
 ing him off to Alexandria, and he held councils and made excuses, but did not move. “ Everything 
 
 is going wonderfully well,” he replied, “ and you are marching to the conquest 
 of Egypt with a giant’s steps.” Could he have seen what was imminent! On 
 
 August 1 the wind blew from the north-west down his line. The boats of the ships and a large 
 
 number of the men were on shore getting water. The captains were sitting at table in the flagship. 
 Not a single vessel was watching outside the Bay. Suddenly, a little before two in the afternoon, a 
 
 ]V. H. J. Boot.] 
 
 THE EASTERN HARBOUR, ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 [From a Photograph. 
 
 The French position. 
 
 Enemy in sight.” 
 
1798.] 
 
 s 9 
 
 Nelson at last finds the French fleet. 
 
 ya.*T*s»»K'ST;iss!sswjaaa«i*»aemit;a»P4ss6WK2«ia 'mn 
 
 ff#8Era®«wp.sccci«awsu»2C!*»imi»«n*taom;i 
 
 .v.klT' «Wl*vw> ..Uf<rj ■«•*•' AfffvMjnMWMCTI' *>“" -*»• -*3-iw- .fi, 
 
 ■Basnsaapa&ase^^ 
 
 . -...Ui«,ULO.J 4.. *-0 V.v.fc «.».!►*,rtciv<»i/-»< »» r'<> {•**'“S -®-<*rt« )«AlUKll U.K.-C t*. > Wi.iL«v 
 
 a$a»«ssy$ac»S»^^ 
 
 ssixadamMssaE^^ 
 
 
 &*&ass. 
 
 ue»tnffc.y«- 
 
 (r;ivt>fo 
 
 -.‘.I-Va; 
 
 The French hold 
 a council of war. 
 
 French seventy-four made the signal: “Strange sails in sight.” Then came the signals: “Enemy in 
 sight”: “Enemy is moving on the Bay.” The news fell upon that ill-starred fleet like a thunderbolt. 
 At once the flagship, the gigantic Orient, signalled the recall of the boats watering. They did 
 
 not, however, return at once. Then, 
 
 as the menacing 
 sails rose on the 
 horizon over the 
 sandy spit which bounded the east of 
 the Bay, a council of war was called 
 —a pretty contrast this with Nelson’s 
 council held days before the hour of 
 action arrived. Brueys wanted to 
 know whether he should up-anchor 
 and stand out to meet the English. 
 
 D. Roberts , R.A .] 
 
 CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLES, ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 [Sketched in 1839. 
 
 These obelisks, almost the largest stones which were ever quarried, were originally erected at 
 On (Heliopolis, near the present village of Matariyeh, Cairo), by I’hothmes III., probably between 
 is50 and 1600 n.c., and bear inscriptions in honour of that Pharaoh, and of the later Raineses II. 
 They stood in front of the College of the Priest^ at On when Moses studied there Removed to 
 Alexandria in the reign of Augustus Caesar (possibly in accordance with an order of Cleopatra’s, 
 with whose name they have ever since been associated , they were re erected in front of the 
 Caesareum, or Temple of the Caesars, and on that spot, at the time of the Battle of the Nile, tine 
 was still standing, as shown in the picture. The fallen one was taken possession of by the British 
 in 1801, and the officers and men of the army and fleet contributed about .£7,000 out of their pay 
 to secure its removal to England. The work of removal then commenced was abandoned when 
 we evacuated Egypt, and it was not till 1877 that the great monolith was removed to London at 
 the expense of Sir Erasmus Wilson, and set up (18781 on the Embankment. It is 68 feet 5^ inches 
 high. The one which, in the picture, remains standing, is 69 feet 6 inches high, and now adorns 
 Central Park, New York. 
 
 for doing so at all costs. The 
 
 One of his admirals was 
 
 others, however, remembering the weak, undisciplined crews, 
 asked how this would be possible. How could the fleet put 
 to sea when there were not enough men at one and the 
 same time to handle the guns and work the sails ? How 
 could the guns be fought in a sea-way when at each dis¬ 
 charge the breeching rings tore themselves out of the rotten 
 sides with the recoil ? It could not be done. And so this 
 fleet, pre-doomed to hopeless defeat, with its unready, 
 vacillating admiral, prepared at anchor to meet the terrible 
 onset of the British. 
 
 As the afternoon advanced men were taken from 
 the frigates to strengthen the crews of the battleships. 
 
 The vessels cleared for action upon 
 the seaward side, heaping up the 
 lumber of casks, cases, and other incumbrances 
 towards the shoals. Orders were given to get up the topgallant 
 yards. Brueys had even now hopes that the British would not 
 could steal away when night fell. Many other things 
 and excitement were overlooked or became impossible, 
 seem to have as yet rejoined, was a most serious 
 
 They clear for 
 action. 
 
 THE ROSETTA STONE. 
 
 So named from its having been found near the Rosetta mouth 
 of the Nile. It was discovered by the French in 1798 among 
 the ruins of Fort St Julian, passed into British hands by the 
 Treaty of Alexandria, and was deposited in the Bi itish Museum 
 in 1802. It bears an inscription in honour of Ptolemy V. in three 
 different characters : (1) hieroglyphics, the language of the Egyp¬ 
 tian priests ; (2) demotic, the language of the people ; (3) Greek. 
 It thus furnished the first clue to the meaning of the hieroglyphic 
 inscriptions which cover the monuments of Ancient Egypt. 
 
 on the side that was turned 
 sails and bend them to the 
 attack that evening, and that he 
 should have been done, but in the hurry 
 The absence of the boats, which do not 
 hindrance. Without them, springs or ropes 
 
 could not be attached to the anchor cables, to slew the French ships round in case it was tequiied 
 to alter their position. 
 
9 ° 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1798. 
 
 *-'- **•*;■ :±iSt* c,*-'-s2 
 
 7^ **pa?"' s - , :• • • 
 
 TV. Pococj l-.] 
 
 r From the Engraving by J. Fittlcr. 
 THE OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 Straight at their prey came the British, without a moment’s delay. Nelson viewed the French fleet 
 with the eve of a “ seaman determined on attacks He had looked into Alexandria and found there no 
 T E 1‘ h tt k French fleet- Not till four o’clock had one of his seventy-fours, the Zealous, 
 signalled the French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay. The British fleet took in 
 for a fresh breeze was 
 
 sail 
 
 blowing—and prepared for 
 battle. At last Nelson’s 
 run of evil fortune had 
 ended. The drums in all 
 the ships beat to quarters; 
 the men doubled to their 
 stations with fierce ardour; 
 an anchor in each ship was 
 carried astern, and a cable 
 led from the capstan. Ad¬ 
 vancing along the French 
 line before the breeze, each 
 ship was to anchor not by 
 the bows but by the stern. 
 
 With very little sail set, 
 the cable had only to be 
 paid out or veered to allow 
 the ship to go ahead. All 
 
 this was known beforehand, full preparations had been made, and in the last minutes before the attack 
 there was no need for frantic signals. The British crews were in the highest spirits—certain of victory. 
 
 Nelson did not wait for elaborate evolutions. What though the enemy lay in a Bay of which 
 
 he had no charts; protected — for 
 
 Brueys could not 
 as yet be sup¬ 
 posed to be a fool 
 —by strong batteries ? To win any 
 great action risks must be run. The 
 fleet formed “ line as convenient,” 
 and bore down in very straggling 
 array. Each moment was precious, 
 for the hours of daylight were num¬ 
 bered, and when night fell navigation 
 in these unknown waters would be 
 trebly difficult. Hood and Foley in 
 the Zealous and Goliath raced for the 
 lead. The Goliath won. They paid 
 not the slightest attention to a 
 French ship which tried to draw 
 them on the shoals. Foley had a 
 French atlas with a very correct 
 chart: Hood an English map which 
 was hopelessly wrong, so that it 
 was well the Goliath took the lead, 
 to his side. As the British came into 
 of a French cruiser, and spoke Nelson’s 
 out pilots, but they came too late to be 
 
 The “Goliath” 
 leads in. 
 
 F. T. Jane .] 
 
 “THE MEN DOUBLED TO THEIR STATIONS WITH FIERCE ARDOUR.” 
 
 Fortune, so far against Nelson, was now inclining 
 the Bay an Arab dhow ran out, despite the guns 
 ship, the Vanguard, which came sixth, 
 of much use. 
 
 She brought 
 
1798 .] 
 
 Room to swing , room to anchor, 
 
 9 l 
 
 > y 
 
 Behind Foley came the rest of the British fleet with the exception of the Swiftsure, Alexander, 
 and Culloden, which had been some way off when the French were sighted. All were entering a 
 
 „ , .. strange port without pilots, and almost without charts, but there was no hesitation. 
 
 No hesitation. r ’ 
 
 Soundings were taken carefully as the ships stood in; all gave the treacherous 
 banks as wide a berth as possible. The battery on the island fired a few fitful shots, and then, 
 as these fell short, abandoned the game. 
 
 As Captain Foley came in he looked for the anchor-buoy of the leading Frenchman, the Guerrier. 
 
 It would lie exactly above her anchor, at the place where she had dropped it, and would mark water 
 
 „ deep enough to float his ship. He saw that the space between the anchor-buoy 
 
 “Goliath’s” course. , . . 
 
 and the ship was 200 yards, ample for his passage. The words of his great 
 
 chief came into his mind: “Where there is room for an enemy’s ship to swing, there is room for one 
 
 of ours to anchor.” He turned inwards, passed between the Frenchman and the shore, as the guns 
 
 Charles Dixon.] 
 
 THE “GOLIATH,” LEADING THE BRITISH VAN, CROSSING THE BOWS OF THE “GUERRIER.” 
 
 of the French van opened a steady, well-sustained fire; ran by the Guerrier s bow, raking her with 
 a deadly broadside at the closest range; came-to with the anchor astern, which did not however bring 
 the Goliath up immediately; and began his battle with the Conquerant, the second in the French line. 
 It was noticed that the lower-deck guns of the French ships were not run out on the landward side ; 
 that the upper-deck ports were cumbered and obstructed with bags, boxes, and lumber. These not 
 only prevented the French crews from working their guns, they were also a prolific cause of splinters 
 when struck by the British shot. 
 
 The action had now become brisk in the French van. Great banks of smoke rolled up and veiled 
 from the rear the incidents of the fight. Only the continuous and increasing roar of the cannonade 
 
 told that the battle was waxing more furious. The scene was one which trans- 
 Battle in the van. cended Lhe sublime . The sea was serene; the sky clear; the sun had now 
 
 set ; the brief tropical twilight was fading to night upon the vast desert and upon the still waters. 
 The glorious hues, the refreshing cool of the divine eastern evening were heeded by none of the men 
 now struggling in Aboukir Bay. Through the falling gloom and the murky atmosphere of smoke the 
 flashes of the guns gained in brilliancy. The sails of the British two-deckers loomed up through 
 
 the obscurity and moved slowly down the French line. At the masthead of each flew the white 
 
 ensign : each was ready to hoist at her mizzen-peak four lamps placed in one horizontal line as a 
 
 distinguishing signal. Days before all the measures for a night attack had been concerted. Nothing 
 
 was left to chance, or to the inspiration of the last moment. 
 
9 2 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Of all actions a battle by night is most terrible, and makes the severest demands upon the courage 
 and discipline of crews. Skulking cannot so easily be seen: confusion is an almost necessary incident: 
 
 panic is more probable in the dark than in daylight: friend is liable to fire into 
 A night action. friend.: the operations of handling sails and anchors are necessarily impeded. All 
 this, however, told in favour of the British, whose disciplined crews and skilled commanders 
 would be at a vast advantage compared with the insubordinate Frenchmen and their raw captains. 
 It was afterwards said of this battle, and said with truth, that it was wonderful, if only for this, 
 that every British captain did his duty. There were no laggards in the fleet. 
 
 The Zealous followed the Goliath, passed inside, anchored where the Goliath had meant to anchor, 
 and opened on the Gucvrier a fearful fire. The French captains had not yet returned from the Orient; 
 
 their boats were rowing back hurriedly; their ships were without leaders. But 
 
 English double on , , • , 
 
 „ , the ships 
 
 the French van. f 
 
 companies 
 
 did their best, and there was 
 no want of courage on their 
 part. Behind the Zealous came 
 the Orion, Audacious, and Theseus, 
 all of which anchored in suc¬ 
 cession about the head of the 
 French line, inside it, and opened 
 their murderous fire. On her 
 way to her place the Orion 
 collided with a French frigate 
 and drove her reeling and leak- 
 
 wind N.N.E 
 
 / _jll'NBOUKCJR OR 
 
 Nelso n> . 1 • 
 hotter') ( 
 
 f 
 
 # d 
 
 y® 
 
 /» 
 
 if 
 
 BATTLE 
 
 or THE NILE. I. 
 
 REFERENCES, 
 a Culloden 
 b Leander 
 
 c Alexander 
 d Su/iftsure 
 e Zealous 
 f Audacious 
 g Goliath 
 h T.heseus 
 k Orion 
 1 Vanguard 
 m Minotaur 
 n Defense 
 o Bejler.ophon 
 
 p Majestic 
 q Guerrier 
 r Conquerant 
 s Spartiate 
 t Aquiton 
 u P. Souuerain 
 v Franhlin 
 w Orient 
 x Tonnant 
 y Heureux 
 z Mercure 
 
 1 G.Tell 
 
 2 Genereux 
 
 * 
 
 •pP ....British 
 ~J?rcnch 
 
 Timoleon 
 
 to the shoals. The 
 Theseus fired every gun double 
 or treble shotted. The Auda¬ 
 cious stood straight between the 
 two leading French ships and 
 raked them right and left with 
 two broadsides as she passed. 
 
 The Guerrier and Conquerant had 
 their sides torn to pieces. The 
 rotten timber flew in showers of 
 splinters, carrying death with it 
 under the fearful hail of iron. 
 
 Gaps showed large enough to take 
 a coach and four: three port-holes were beaten into one: the French decks were crowded with killed 
 and wounded. Their guns were heavier and less easily worked than the British weapons, and the loss they 
 inflicted on the British ships was out of all proportion less than that which they suffered themselves. 
 
 Nelson in the Vanguard came fifth. Even whilst the bulkheads were being taken down, the guns 
 cast loose, and the decks sanded, Nelson, whose impatience had now given way to calmness, sat 
 down to dinner. He rose with the words, “ Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage 
 or Westminster Abbey.” Steering into the cloud of smoke he anchored on the outside of the French 
 line, to the eastward, the first to do so, abreast of, and very close to the third French ship, the Spartiate. 
 The British seamen under the heavy fire, with men falling each moment, coolly furled sail and dropped 
 anchor. Next in the progress came the Minotaur and Defence. These also anchored in succession 
 abreast of the French van. The last two were more unfortunate. The Bellerophon missed her 
 comrades in the dense obscurity: she ran past them, and did not anchor till right abreast of the 
 120-gun Orient, which greeted her with a terrific fire. The Majestic ran even further and nearer the 
 French rear. She collided with the Heureux; the British captain was killed: then getting free and 
 anchoring she began her unsupported battle with the Mercure. 
 
1798.1 
 
 The British Attach 
 
 93 
 
 From the original Etching ] [by James Gillray. 
 
 THE EXTIRPATION OF THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. 
 
 This then was the situation : Eight British ships had gathered round the six leading Frenchmen. 
 The other seven Fiench ships were out of the battle, except for the Orient engaged with the Sellerophon 
 
 French van crushed. and the Mercure firin g steadily into the Majestic. Half the French line was being 
 crushed: the other half was 
 
 doing literally nothing. How was it that the 
 French rear ships did not cut their cables and 
 stand into the din and tumult of the battle ? 
 
 The wind was against them it is true, and no 
 signals were made by the Orient, but one brave 
 French captain in the very rear had already 
 spread his topsails as a last mute appeal. The 
 indecision and timidity of the French admiral 
 had infected his subordinates. They remained 
 passive spectators of the tremendous combat 
 before them, waiting hopelessly for their turn 
 to come, when the British moved fonvard. 
 
 Already the French van was in terrible plight: 
 its vessels were w'ater-logged and immovable, 
 whereas the British ships, thanks to the wind 
 
 and the plan of anchoring by the stern, could move backwards or forwards. The masts of the Guerrier 
 came dowm under the Theseus's fire, and the wreckage falling over her battery masked many of her 
 guns. On her upper-deck all her guns had been dismounted. So terribly wounded was she that she 
 nearly parted amidships. At a quarter to ten she struck her flag. 
 
 Nearly an hour before the Conquerant had struck. She was all but dismasted; her guns were 
 dismounted; the flying wads of the British guns set her constantly on fire. Her loss was simply 
 
 appalling. And now' reinforcements were reaching the British. The Culloden, 
 hurrying into action, had struck on the shoal, and could not be towed off for 
 
 all the efforts of the Leander. She had been far behind the other ships of the 
 
 squadron, and could not follow their course. She took soundings, but the w'ater shoaled very suddenly, 
 and in a moment she found herself hard aground. The Swiftsure and Alexander came on under a 
 press of sail, astern of her, and gave her a wdde berth. No one could fail to sympathise with her 
 
 gallant captain. Under Troubridge’s eyes a great battle was going forward in which he had no share. 
 
 Bitter indeed must have been his reflections under this unmerited misfortune. His comrades were “ in 
 
 the full tide of happiness ”—battering to 
 pieces the French fleet. He alone was 
 out of tire fight. The Swiftsure, under 
 Hallowell, passed the Bcllcrophon and 
 anchored outside the Orient; the Alex¬ 
 ander, standing through the line, anchored 
 inside her. Right ahead of the Orient, 
 and raking her with every broadside, the 
 gallant little Leander took her place. 
 
 The battle w'as passing to the French 
 centre. Already the Bcllcrophon, in terrible 
 
 plight, w'ith one-third 
 of her crew killed or 
 wounded, had had to 
 cut her cable and drive along the French 
 line to the depths of the Bay. As she 
 
 The “ Culloden’s ’ 
 mishap. 
 
 The French centre 
 attacked. 
 
 — Anderson.] 
 
 [From the “ Naval Chronicle," 1802. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 gave way she passed the Swiftsure. She carried no lights: there was the utmost confusion on board ; 
 and for some minutes she was taken for a French ship. So good, however, was the discipline of 
 the Swiftsure, so great the judgment of her captain, that no shot was fired into the stranger till her 
 
94 
 
 A el son and His Times. 
 
 1798. 
 
 nationality was ascertained. Thus she escaped a deadly peril. The French heard the tumult on 
 board the Bcllerophon —the cries of her men as the masts came crashing down, and the exhortations 
 of her officers. They affected to believe that she had struck, which was not the fact. And now the 
 overwhelming concentration of three British ships upon the Orient, with their fast and deadly fire, 
 
 began to work its effect. Flames showed on the poop of the immense 
 three-decker: the splinters and debris and the pails of paint standing about 
 the deck took fire readily, and every gun on the Alexander, Swiftsure, 
 and Leander was trained on the fast-gathering conflagration. The pumps 
 of the French ship were shattered; her buckets splintered to matchwood; 
 her crew could not live in the iron hail which beat steadily upon the 
 stern. More and more enemies arrived from the defeat of the French 
 van. It was about nine that the fire was noticed, just at the time when 
 the French van was ceasing its resistance. 
 
 H. Coish .] 
 
 The Spartiate was still 
 
 holding out against 
 
 The “Yanguard’s” 
 
 the 
 
 Vanguard 
 
 battle. 
 
 Ernest Prater .] 
 
 NELSON WOUNDED IN THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 and Mino¬ 
 taur, but 
 her battle was hopeless. A 
 heap of cartridges took fire 
 and exploded, dismaying her 
 gallant crew: the Audacious, 
 fresh from the conquest of 
 the Conquerant, was turning 
 her guns upon the sorely- 
 beset Frenchman ; officer 
 after officer had been slain on deck or sent down to the ghastly cock-pit, the scene of so much human 
 agony. Now seven, now only two, of her guns could reply to the British fire. The water was 
 mounting fast in the hold: the pumps could no longer keep it under. 
 
 But the Vanguard had not passed scatheless. The British flagship, 
 raked by the Aquilon which lay next to the Spartiate, and pounded 
 by the Spartiate’s broadsides, had lost over a hundred men. In her 
 forward battery the crews of the guns had been thrice renewed. 
 
 The heap of dead grew greater; bodies were at each instant thrown 
 into the sea to keep the guns clear. Still there was no slackening 
 of her fire. In the storm of shot Nelson himself was badly wounded. 
 
 As he stood on the quarter-deck, directing the fire of his ship, a 
 piece of iron struck him on the head and cut loose a great flap of 
 skin, which hung down over his right eye, blinding him. The blood 
 poured from his wound, the agony was intense; he reeled with the 
 words, “I am killed: remember me to my wife”; and was caught 
 by Captain Berry. They carried him down to the cock-pit; the 
 surgeon came to him at once, but he refused to take his turn 
 before his brave followers. His injury, he thought, was mortal. 
 
 He sent his last message to Lady Nelson; he had the Minotaur 
 
 H. Coish .] 
 
 [From the originals nosv in 
 Portsmouth Dockyard. 
 
 FIGUREHEAD AND STERN ORNAMENTS 
 OF THE “ BELLEROPHON.” 
 
 THE “ BELLEROPHON,” DISABLED, 
 DROPS OUT OF ACTION. 
 
 / 
 
1798 .] 
 
 95 
 
 The “ Orient ” takes fire. 
 
 hailed that hei captain, Louis, might come and receive his thanks for his valiant support of the 
 I anguard. The meeting of the two drew tears from all. The wound, however, proved to be only 
 skin-deep, but the shock of the blow had more serious after-effects than the surface injury presaged, 
 d he head was bound up and the admiral placed in the bread-room to be safe from the French fire. 
 
 At eleven the Spartiate’s resistance ended, and she struck, the fifth French ship to do so; two 
 hours before, the next vessels in the line, the Aquilon and Peuple Souverain, had ceased their action 
 The “ Orient ” on fire an< ^ ^ a d been taken possession of by the British. The van was beaten. Next 
 again to the Peuple, Souverain was the Franklin carrying Admiral Duchayla’s Hag, 
 and next to the Franklin the blazing Orient with Admiral Brueys’s flag. The French commander-in¬ 
 chief, early in the fight, had been stricken in the neck and leg: he gallantly refused to leave his post. 
 As the British ships gathered round the Orient a shot cut him almost in two. He still lived, and 
 
 when they would fain 
 have carried him be¬ 
 low, feebly begged his 
 officers to let him die 
 on deck. His suffer¬ 
 ings were not pro¬ 
 longed. Already the 
 sinister blaze of the 
 poop was casting its 
 glare upon the dense 
 clouds of smoke which 
 poured up from the 
 beaten flagship. The 
 flames were licking 
 her tarred rigging and 
 running fast along her 
 newly - painted sides. 
 About half-past nine 
 her loss was con¬ 
 sidered certain. Her 
 men were ordered 
 from her guns, but in 
 the ardour of battle 
 
 they still fired steadily in a most gallant manner. The French ships round her fell into terrible 
 confusion. The Tonnant, Heureux, and Mercure cut their cables, fouled each other, and drove ashore. 
 The British ships veered to give her room, and drenched everything in readiness for the inevitable 
 explosion. But they did not intermit the steady fire upon their unfortunate target. The heroic defence 
 of the Orient against such overwhelming odds will be to the lasting credit of the French Navy. 
 
 Nelson, from the bread-room, climbed to the Vanguard's quarter-deck at Captain Berry’s summons. 
 The glare caught his eye instantly, half blind though he was. Little black figures were silhouetted 
 
 against the dazzling glow as the men of the Orient leaped for life into the water; 
 in the foreground were the dark hulls of the dismasted enemies. Nelson ordered 
 
 G. Amaid, A.R.A. Front the original in the] 
 Fainted Hall , Greenwich. 
 
 [By permission of the Lords Commissioners 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE NILE: THE BLOWING UP OF THE “ORIENT.” 
 
 Nelson’s humanity. 
 
 his one boat that would float to go to the help of the drowning men. The other ships were directed 
 to follow his example; our fire, it would seem, was no longer turned upon her. All eyes were riveted 
 on the blazing ship; the cannonade slackened. Almost exactly at half-past ten there came a terrific 
 rush of flame; the fire reached her magazines ; they exploded, carrying the bodies of men and frag¬ 
 ments of blazing debris sky-high; then darkness settled over the sullen sea, and a dense cloud of 
 impenetrable smoke marked where the finest ship of the French fleet had fought her last splendid 
 action. She took with her to the deep the money which the French Republic had stolen or extorted 
 from Rome and Switzerland : £'600,000 was lost in her and has never been recovered. It lies in the 
 shallow waters of Aboukir Bav to this daw 
 
9 6 
 
 A T eIson and His Times. 
 
 1 798- 
 
 The “ Orient’s ” 
 surviYors. 
 
 The battle pauses. 
 
 British 
 
 French 
 
 “ 4^1 French captured 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 Wind 
 
 a 
 
 Zealous 
 
 1 
 
 Swiftsure 
 
 b Audacious 
 
 m 
 
 Guerrier 
 
 c 
 
 Goliath 
 
 n 
 
 Conquerant 
 
 d 
 
 Orion 
 
 0 
 
 Spartiate 
 
 a 
 
 Theseus 
 
 p Aquilon 
 
 f 
 
 Alexander 
 
 q 
 
 P.Souuerain 
 
 s 
 
 Vanguard 
 
 r 
 
 Franklin 
 
 h 
 
 Defence 
 
 s 
 
 Orient 
 
 k 
 
 Leander 
 
 
 
 N.N.E. 
 
 *fT 
 
 BATTLE of THE NILE. II. 
 
 Just before the ORIENT blew up. 
 
 Terrible were the experiences of her survivors. “ I threw myself into the sea through a port-hole,” 
 said one, “ and, though I could not swim, reached a yard floating in the water on which I waited for 
 
 the explosion. Nearly 400 men had taken refuge on the masts which floated 
 
 round the ship. The explosion_ 
 
 came. The water swallowed us 
 up, and only sixty regained the surface. The wreckage 
 to which we clung was attached by a rope to the 
 sunken hull of the Orient; and there we remained in 
 the same place till daybreak, exposed to the cannonade 
 of the French ships, which killed eight and wounded 
 many of our number.” A French lieutenant had barely 
 time to reach a half-burned spar when he was enveloped 
 in a pitch-black hurricane of smoke, swept away with 
 fearful rapidity by the force of the explosion, and buried 
 deep in the water. Captain Casabianca and his son were 
 swimming in the water—they perished in the explosion. 
 
 For many minutes after this terrible event the crews 
 on either side remained horror-struck and breathless. 
 
 The cannonade ceased everywhere. 
 
 The profound darkness and silence 
 succeeding the brilliant blaze and tumultuous uproar 
 oppressed the nerves. Many of the British ships were set on fire by burning fragments from the 
 Orient; the Alexander, which lay closest to her, was set alight in several places. A port-fire fell into 
 the British ship’s main royal and started a dangerous fire; but Captain Ball had made his preparations 
 with judgment. Sails and shrouds had been soaked; his crew, with discipline and order, got the 
 fire under. The Franklin renewed the battle after the long pause. Her resistance was heroic; to the 
 last Duchayla fought her with the words, “ Fire, fire steadily: the last shot may give us victory.” 
 
 But the odds grew ever heavier 
 against him. With two-thirds of 
 his crew out of action, and only 
 three guns serviceable, he struck 
 his flag. The Tonnant, his neigh¬ 
 bour now the Orient had gone, had 
 disappeared — the battle paused 
 once more. 
 
 Even before the Orient blew 
 up the victory of the British was 
 
 certain. The 
 
 Victory assured. 
 
 great three- 
 decker is said to have struck 
 some little time before the explo¬ 
 sion, but this is uncertain. She 
 was a beaten ship, or so Nelson 
 believed, before she caught fire; 
 and though her ensign staff was 
 found, the French colours were 
 not on it. Delivered from fear 
 of death, with the tireless energy 
 which ever marked him, and dis¬ 
 daining the rest which the surgeons told him was imperative, Nelson had sent for his secretary in the 
 bread-room. His secretary was also wounded, and when he looked upon his blind and wounded 
 admiral, the tumult of emotion would not suffer him to pen a word. Nelson himself took up the 
 
 David Orme.l 
 
 \_From a Print in the possession of Messrs. I!. & E. Emanuel , Portsea. 
 
 THE QUARTERDECK OF THE “VANGUARD”: NELSON WITNESSING THE 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE “ORIENT.” 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE NILE AT THE MOMENT OF THE BLOWING-UP OF THE FRENCH FLAGSHIP “ ORIENT.” 
 
9 8 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 pen and wrote in deep devotion the words which struck his countrymen not less than the victory 
 itself. “ Almighty God,” he wrote, “ has blessed His Majesty’s arms in the late battle by a great 
 victory over the fleet of the enemy.” 
 
 And in the same earnest spirit of 
 Cromwell, he made the order to the 
 ships of his fleet: “ Almighty God 
 having blessed His Majesty’s arms 
 with victory, the admiral intends 
 returning public thanksgiving for the 
 same at two o’clock to-day, and he 
 recommends every ship doing the 
 same as soon as convenient.” Then, 
 weary and worn, he went to bed. 
 
 Sleep was, however, out of the ques¬ 
 tion. Not for a moment did he 
 slacken or relax his superintendence 
 of the battle. 
 
 Towards morning the battle was 
 
 MEDAL COMMEMORATIVE OF THE VICTORY OF THE NILE. 
 
 Struck nt the expense of Mr. Alexander Davison (an old friend of Nelson’s, who had been appointed 
 agent for the prizes won in the battle), and distributed by him in gold to the captains, in silver to the 
 lieutenants and warrant officers, in gilt metal to the petty officers, and in copper to the seamen and marines. 
 
 Reaping the harvest. 
 
 renewed, though the British crews 
 were so tired that in the intervals of the cannonade they dropped asleep beside their guns. The 
 French rear was assailed. The Heureux and Mercure, now fast aground, were raked and compelled to 
 
 strike. The Tonnant was dismasted and on the shoals, but without a single 
 
 boat her crew could not escape, though she was not for 
 the present molested. The Timoleon, more fortunate and 
 less severely engaged, was also on the shoals; she was set on fire and her 
 crew were able to get away. The frigate Artemise was likewise abandoned 
 by her men and burnt. It was now that the Guillaume Tell and Genereux, 
 under Admiral Villeneuve, to be yet more famous hereafter for his disastrous 
 defeat at Trafalgar, made a rush for the open sea. Accompanied by two 
 frigates they got away. Nelson, prostrate with exertion and the pain of his 
 wound, was not quick enough in giving the orders for his ships to chase. 
 Perhaps he expected captains of such tried resolution to act on their own 
 judgment and press the victory to the utmost. Perhaps, if he had given 
 orders earlier, the damaged ships and battle-worn crews could not have 
 executed them. The four French vessels were exceptionally fast sailers; 
 they were already far ahead of the Zealous, Goliath, Audacious, and Leander, 
 which he directed to chase, when the French movement was noticed. A 
 few minutes showed the hopelessness of the errand, and the signal of recall 
 was hoisted. Four enemies out of seventeen had eluded him. 
 
 Of the thirteen French ships 
 
 of the line, one, 
 
 Nelson thirsts for 
 annihilation. 
 
 [From the original in the Museum 
 of the Royal United Service 
 Institution, by permission of the 
 Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty. 
 
 [From the original in the Painted Hall , Greenwich , 
 by permission of the Lords Commissioners of 
 the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON’S SNUFF-BOX, 
 
 Made from timber of the Orient, mounted with silver. 
 
 the Tonnant, 
 lay helpless 
 in the Bay, 
 still flying 
 the tri-coloured flag. Eight had 
 struck; one, the Orient, lay at 
 the bottom with her vast treasure 
 in her hull: another was blazing 
 on the shoals. Two only had 
 escaped. And yet so exigent was 
 Nelson’s nature, that he regarded 
 the escape of a single ship as 
 
 MAIN-ROYAL MASTHEAD OF 
 THE “ORIENT.” 
 
 This masthead stood in the hall of 
 Merton Place when Nelson and the 
 Hamiltons resided there. 
 
iygS.] 
 
 Not Victory , but Conquest. 
 
 tarnishing the glory of the victory. He wrote to Lord Minto:—“The Mediterranean fleet has been put 
 into our power to annihilate; I regret that one escaped, and I think if it had pleased God that I had 
 
 not been wounded; 
 not a boat would 
 have escaped to 
 have told the tale.” 
 
 Yet he did not 
 blame his captains. 
 “ Greater exertions 
 could not have been 
 made, and I only 
 mean to say that 
 if my experience 
 could in person 
 have directed those 
 exertions of indi¬ 
 viduals, that Al¬ 
 mighty God would 
 have continued to 
 bless my endea¬ 
 vours.” To most 
 
 A udacious. Golia th. 
 Chas. Dixon .] 
 
 Vanguard. 
 
 Orion. Peupte Souverain. Theseus. Tonnant. 
 
 [After a Sketch by Jas. Weir , Captain of Marines , of the “Audacious 
 
 CLOSE OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 A new order of 
 battle. 
 
 men it would have seemed that the capture or destruction of eleven out of thirteen line-of-battle ships was 
 quite enough. But the man who had three years before written “ Now, had we taken ten sail and had 
 allowed the eleventh to escape when it had been possible to have got at her, I could never have called 
 it well done,” was not likely to rest satisfied. And yet, as he said himself, “ It was not victory; it was 
 conquest.” Victory with him was always pressed to the utmost possible limit. ‘ Many, it has been said, 
 “know how to win battles; few how to use victories.” On this use of his victories rests in no small 
 degree his pre-eminence as a man of war. 
 
 The Nile was the first of a new order 
 of the battles at sea. Not since the defeat 
 
 of the Armada had the 
 
 British Navy won such 
 
 laurels. The First of June, 
 
 St. Vincent, Camperdown, mark a steady 
 
 ascent, each victory greater than the last, and 
 the Nile was their culmination. On the First 
 of June our action was feeble, our victory 
 insignificant. At St. Vincent, with an inex¬ 
 perienced enemy, we only took four ships. 
 
 At Camperdown, if our adversaries were 
 
 superior in quality to the French, and if they 
 shot better, our force was superior, yet eight 
 of the Dutch nineteen ships escaped. At the 
 Nile, of a total of fourteen British ships of 
 
 the line, one had run aground; the number , , d bi „„ er s hi ps and mounted 
 
 of battleships was therefore the same on each side. But the I ie bb , beaten off 
 
 more gens. The experience of the battle when the Bcllerophon, 74 , -as, « >>ou o so, jteat- ott 
 by the Orient, iso, proved that the large ship had a great .“^-er_the small.^ 
 
 skill and the absolute incapacity of the French admiral whic g , heroically. They 
 
 victory. It must not be forgotten that the French slops’ companies fou S ht ”° S attacked 
 
 were mainly composed of undrilled, untrained longshoremen-not seamen. And 5 
 by the finest officers and men that Great Britain could produce. 
 
 ^ fl ^ [ Fr y,t/ie original lithograph. 
 
 C. H■ Seaforth .] 
 
 ACTION BETWEEN H.M.S. “LEANDER” (5° GUNS) AND 1 HE 
 “GEN&r£UX” (74), August 18, 1798. (See pnge 101.) 
 
IOO 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Sir J. Reynolds , P.R.A .] 
 
 [From the Mezzotint by Chas. Townley. 
 
 The loss of the British ships was extraordinarily small. Apart from the Bellerophon, Majestic, and 
 Vanguard, none of them had suffered very severely. 
 
 Of 7,400 men and boys engaged, 
 
 218 were killed and 678 wounded: 
 not a heavy butcher’s bill for such great results. 
 
 The Zealous, which had been amongst the foremost 
 in the fight, -only lost altogether eight men. This 
 was simply wonderful, and proves the bad shooting 
 of the French. The captain of the Theseus observed 
 that they fired much too high, and ran in “under 
 the arch of their shot” with impunity. Of course 
 the fact that our ships were making the attack and 
 that they could change their position, whilst the 
 French could not, saved us many lives. The Leander, 
 which had' raked the Orient and Franklin late in the 
 battle, had not a man killed : yet she inflicted fearful 
 loss. The broadsides of the French ships near her 
 were unable to bear upon her, and the men she had 
 disabled were injured by long range shots. As for 
 the French, the slaughter in their ships was horrible. 
 
 The loss of the Orient was never exactly known, but 
 the total figure of French killed, drowned, wounded, 
 and missing is put by Nelson himself at 5,225 out 
 of 11,200 engaged. If the French fell, they at least 
 showed no cowardice in their fall. They lacked skill, 
 but displayed the most splendid courage. 
 
 The effect of this signal victory on the French 
 Navy was stunning. It never recovered from the consciousness of inferiority which the Nile impressed 
 upon it. All prospect of success in the Egyptian expedition was destroyed. Napoleon, far from 
 
 threatening India, had now only 
 
 to think how 
 
 A stunning blow. 
 
 he should save 
 his arm}'. The blow was a terrible 
 one for the French soldiers to 
 support. They saw themselves 
 thousands of miles from Toulon, 
 in an enemy’s country, with the 
 British fleet between them and 
 their homes. Letters intercepted 
 by Nelson’s ships showed the dis¬ 
 content which reigned. “We are 
 all in the greatest consternation 
 here ” wrote a member of the 
 expedition to his wife. 
 
 When the battle was over, 
 on August 2, the Culloden was 
 
 hauled off the 
 
 Thanks to God. 
 
 shoals, severe¬ 
 ly injured, and possession was 
 taken of the Tonnant. Then, in 
 the presence of the prisoners, 
 thanks were returned to God, an 
 
 GEORGE JOHN, SECOND EARL SPENCER, 175S-1834. 
 Succeeded to the Earldom 1783, First Lord of the Admiralty, Dec. 1794- 
 Feb. 1801, Home Secretary 1806-7. In his earlier years he was known as 
 Lord Althorp, and he collected the famous Althorp Library. 
 
 From the original Etching J 
 
 [by Thos. Rowlandson. 
 
 ADMIRAL NELSON RECREATING WITH HIS BRAVE TARS AFTER THE 
 GLORIOUS BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 This drawing is not, of course, intended to represent an actual occurrence, but to typify the good feeling 
 e\isting between the admiral and the men of the fleet. On the extreme right, however, are two officers 
 who, wrapped in blankets, look jealously askance at the festive scene. 
 
i? 98 .j 
 
 A a tion a l Rejoi ci ngs. 
 
 101 
 
 act of devotion which made a deep impression upon the French. An order reminded the British 
 sailors that their victory over “riotous ' and “lawless” Frenchmen had been due to discipline and 
 
 good order—a significant hint to the crews, fresh from the 
 mutinies of Cadiz and Spithead. Finally the damage to the 
 ships was repaired as far as possible. The horrible traces of 
 battle were removed, the dead buried, the prisoners, who could 
 not be victualled in our ships, sent ashore, where they were 
 promptly incorporated in Napoleon’s army. Despatches to 
 Lord St. Vincent were sent in the Lcander announcing the 
 victory—the despatches which Nelson had begun in the very 
 heat and excitement of the battle. Seldom has a man 
 written more nobly or modestly of a signal achievement. 
 Nelson himself took no credit. He praised the “ high state 
 of discipline of the squadron,” “ the judgment of the captains, 
 the valour of the officers and men.” He barely mentioned his 
 wound, and it is a fact that he would not allow himself to 
 be included in the official return of wounded, which gave only 
 677 as the total. 
 
 On her way home the Leander was taken after a fight 
 which covered her with glory. The Genereux was her captor; 
 
 and the French sailors, enraged at their 
 defeat in Aboukir Bay, plundered her crew 
 and treated them with disgraceful severity. 
 Duplicate despatches had, however, been sent in the Mutine 
 by way of Naples and Vienna. It was in this roundabout way that the news reached England on 
 October 2, exactly two months after the battle. There had been deep suspense at the want of news, 
 and murmurs at Nelson’s failure to catch the French earlier. “What is your favourite hero about . J 
 The French fleet has passed under his nose," his friends heard in the streets. They could only answer 
 that they knew him well, and that 
 would do something 
 
 [F» out the original in the Painted I/all , Greenwich , 
 by permission 0/ the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty. 
 
 LORD NELSON, WOUNDED AT THE NILE. 
 
 This painting wns sent to Indy Parker, wife of Admiral 
 Sir Peter Parker, by Nelson himself. It represents him 
 at ths moment when the Orient blew up; but it is not 
 considered a good likeness. 
 
 Suspense in 
 England. 
 
 And now something more 
 
 in the end he 
 capital.” 
 
 than “ capital ” had been effected. 
 After eight weeks of unwearying pur¬ 
 suit he had run down the enemy’s 
 fleet and annihilated it. Once more 
 the coaches ran out crowned and 
 decorated : the admiral’s great deeds 
 had lifted him and his country to 
 the summit of glory. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the nation 
 was tremendous. London was illumi¬ 
 nated : the news¬ 
 papers expressed 
 the deep grati¬ 
 tude of the country. They did not 
 stint praise. Most delighted, perhaps, 
 of all was Lord Spencer, whose 
 choice Nelson had been. In the 
 long weeks of waiting he had had 
 to bear the brunt of many attacks 
 for sending so young a man, but 
 now his judgment was vindicated. 
 
 Enthusiasm at the 
 victory. 
 
 From the original in the Pointed Hall,] 
 Greenwich. 
 
 [By permission of the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty . 
 
 GOLD SWORD HILT PRESENTED TO NELSON BY THE CAPTAINS OF THE 
 FLEET PRESENT AT THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 It bears the following inscription The Captains of the Squadron under the orders of Rear- 
 Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, K.B., desirous of testifying the high sense they entertain of his prompt 
 decision and intrepid conduct at the attack of the French fleet in Beqmer Road, off the Nile, tie 
 1st August 1798, request his acceptance of a sword, and as a further proof of their esteem and 
 regard, hope that he will permit his portrait to be taken and hung up in the room belonging to tie 
 Egyptian Club, now established in commemoration of that glorious day. Dated on board of His 
 fv ’a shiD Orion this rrd day of August 1798. Jno. Saumarez, I. Troubndge, H. D. Darby, 
 Thus Cuts P I. Peyton Alex. Jno. Bail, Sami. Hood, D. Gould. Th. Foley, I< Willett Miller, 
 Ben. Hallowell. E. Berry, T. M. Hardy.” The illustration shows also a portion of the coat worn by 
 Nelson in the battle. 
 
102 
 
 Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Meagre rewards. 
 
 From the originals in the Painted Hall, Greenwich .] [By permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 DRESS SWORD AND GOLD-HANDLED SCIMITAR. 
 
 The scimitar, with gold handle and sheath, was presented to Nelson by the Sultan of Turkey after the Battle of the Nile. 
 The dress sword is the one which was worn by Nelson, and which was placed upon his coffin when lying in state. 
 
 “Joy, j°y. j°y to you, brave, gallant, immortalized Nelson,” wrote Lady Spencer with all a woman’s 
 exuberant emotion. 
 
 Yet the country did not 
 reward him as it should 
 
 have 
 done. 
 
 On October 6 he was 
 gazetted Baron Nelson of 
 the Nile and of Burnham 
 Thorpe, the lowest step 
 in the peerage. For vic¬ 
 tories which could not 
 compare with the Nile 
 Duncan had been made 
 a Viscount and Jervis an 
 Earl. It is true that 
 
 Jervis only received two steps in rank for the battle of St. Vincent, as the Government had before that 
 event designated him for a peerage. But still the fact remained that he and Duncan were both 
 given two steps against Nelson’s one. It is difficult to discover rhyme or reason for this strange 
 niggardliness. Peerages should be rewards for the servants of the nation, not for the supporters of 
 part)’. They are proper honours for great benefactors of their country. But even in George III.’s 
 
 time the politicians, whilst quite ready to share rewards 
 amongst themselves, were strangely blind to those who 
 were really worthiest. The explanation—or such explana¬ 
 tion as is possible—of this slight to Nelson is contained 
 in this absurd letter of Lord Spencer: “In congratulating 
 your Lordship on this high distinction, I have particular 
 pleasure in remarking that it is the highest honour that 
 has ever been conferred on an officer of your standing 
 in the service, and who was not a commander-in-chief, 
 and the addition to the title is meant more especially to 
 mark the occasion on which it was granted, which, how¬ 
 ever, without any such precaution, is certainly of a nature 
 never to be forgotten.” 
 
 This ridiculous punctiliousness was, we may be certain, 
 due to Nelson’s enemies at the Admiralty. As a matter 
 
 of fact, the Ministry could not dim 
 Nelson’s laurels. Its action only re¬ 
 flected on its own want of humour and inability to 
 understand merit. It was an apt illustration of red-tape; 
 and with justice the criticism was passed in Parliament 
 that by this procedure rank was placed above merit in 
 the distribution of rewards. Nor was the pension granted 
 
 Rank before merit. 
 
 Besides the objects repre¬ 
 sented on this page, the Sul¬ 
 tan presented to Nelson a 
 pelisse of scarlet cloth, lined 
 with sable fur, and the mag 
 nificent diamond aigrette 
 shown in the portrait on 
 page 107, and conferred upon 
 him the Turkish Order of the 
 Crescent, which, indeed, was 
 instituted specially for the 
 purpuse of honouring Nelson. 
 
 From the originals in the Fainted Hall , Greenwich .] {By permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty . 
 
 TURKISH CANTEEN AND IVORY AND SILVER MUSKET PRESENTED TO NELSON BY THE 
 SULTAN OF TURKEY AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
1798.] 
 
 Nelson s Rewards. 
 
 103 
 
 Honours. 
 
 Nelson all that he had a right to expect: £3,000 a year had'been 
 bestowed by England and Ireland upon the victors of St. Vincent 
 and Camperdown : Nelson got only £2,000. A poor man—for his 
 generosity to his family and his hospitality in his fleet kept him 
 poor in spite of his increasing pay and pensions—he felt this in¬ 
 justice keenly. He could at least console himself with the thought 
 that he had done his duty. 
 
 Honours and rewards flowed in to him from all sources. The 
 City of London, to which he had presented Admiral Duchayla’s 
 
 sword, presented him in return with a sword 
 of honour worth two hundred guineas, and 
 congratulated the King on this victory so unexampled in naval 
 history. Lord Minto, in the House of Lords, showed that his 
 friend was no mere man of the sword. “In him,” he said, “ I have 
 witnessed a degree of ability, judgment, temper, and conciliation, 
 not always allied to the sort of spirit which, without an instant's 
 hesitation, can attack on one day the whole Spanish line with his 
 single ship, and on another a superior Lrench fleet, moored and 
 
 fortified within the islands and shoals 
 of an unknown Bay.” 
 
 Lrom the East India Company, 
 whose possessions he had saved from 
 
 JEWEL OF THE SARDINIAN ORDER 
 OF SAN JOACHIM. 
 
 With the original ribbon worn by Lord Nelson; 
 conferred in recognition of the victory of the Nile. 
 
 GOLD STAR OF THE TURKISH 
 ORDER OF THE CRESCENT. 
 
 Worn by Lord Nelson ; conferred 
 in recognition of the victory of the 
 Nile. 
 
 Generosity of 
 foreign monarchs. 
 
 from the 
 with dia- 
 a box set 
 
 mminent danger, he received the 
 splendid gift of £10,000, of which he 
 it once made over £2,000 to his 
 lather: from the Emperor of Russia 
 
 a gold box set with diamonds: 
 
 Sultan a plume of triumph, set 
 monds: from the Sultan’s mother 
 vith diamonds worth £1,000: from the King of Naples the sword 
 vith which Charles III. of Spain had conquered Naples; and 
 rom the King of Sardinia a box set with diamonds. In shoit, 
 liamond-studded boxes rained upon him. And from his personal 
 riends came a still sweeter shower of congratulation. St. \ incent 
 .vrote exulting that his judgment of Nelson had been proved by 
 ivents correct: Hood, smarting in undeserved retirement, praised 
 lis victory as “ the most complete and splendid history recoids : 
 Collingwood could not express his joy at “ the complete and 
 glorious victory ” he had gained; and Captain Locker wound up 
 vith, “ How happy you have made me, you can easier conceive 
 than I describe.” 
 
 To Nelson and to all the captains who had fought in the 
 battle, the King granted a medal. Berry alone was knighted. 
 
 The wounded seamen and marines received 
 Naval medal. ^ j ar g e sum 0 f money from the Sultan and 
 
 from the Patriotic Lund, and all would, of course, share in the 
 prize-money which came from the captured htench ships. 
 
 [ The illustrations on this page a*e reproduced 
 from the originals in the Fainted Hall. 
 Greenwich , by permission 0/ the Lords 
 Commissioners of the Admiralty ] 
 
 GRAND CROSS OF THE NEAPOLITAN 
 ORDER OF SAN FERDINANDO. 
 With the original ribbon worn by Lord Nelson. 
 
104 
 
 Nelson and His Times . 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Nelson and 
 Napoleon. 
 
 On August 8 Nelson had not recovered from the effects of the terrible blow upon his head. He 
 could only write with difficulty, and was constantly sick. A day later he sent off a trusty lieutenant 
 to India with the news of his victory. His letter to the Governor of Bombay is chiefly interesting 
 for its allusion to Bonaparte, whose despatches he had 
 
 captured. “ There is so much bom¬ 
 bast in his letters,” said Nelson, 
 
 “ that it is difficult to get near the 
 truth; but he does not mention India. He is what is 
 called organising the country, but you may be assured 
 is master only of what his army covers. Bombay, I 
 know, is the first object of the French, but I trust 
 Almighty God will in Egypt overthrow these pests of 
 the human race.” Nelson’s violent hatred of his enemy 
 jars a little on our less passionate time. The French 
 could speak of him with admiration ; for them he had 
 
 His mind had not yet shaken 
 off the effects of the tremendous 
 anxiety of his breathless pursuit. 
 
 “ Were I to die this moment,” he 
 wrote to Lord Spencer, “ want of 
 frigates would be found stamped 
 on my heart. No words of mine 
 can express what I have, and am, 
 sufferin 
 
 nothing but detestation. 
 
 Prizes burnt. 
 
 for want of them.” 
 
 It was now that he received 
 from St. Vincent orders to detach 
 
 all the ‘ships 
 that he could 
 spare for an attack upon Minorca. 
 The British ships were again in 
 condition to take 
 of the prizes, by 
 exertions of his 
 
 the sea; and 
 the immense 
 captains, the 
 
 ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 The illustration shows the honourable augmentations granted by the 
 King after the Battle of the Nile. '1 he arms granted in 1797 to Sir 
 Horatio Nelson, K.B., were: Or, a cross dory, sable : a bend gules sur¬ 
 mounted by another engrailed of the field, charged with three bombs 
 fired proper. Crest, on a wreath of the colours, the stern of a Spanish 
 man-of-war, proper, thereon inscribed, “San Josef.” Supporters, dexter, 
 a sailor armed with cutlass and pair of pistols in his belt, proper ; the 
 exterior hand supporting a staff, thereon hoisted a commodore’s flag, 
 gules. Sinister, a lion rampant regardant, proper; in his mouth a broken 
 flagstaff, therefrom flowing a Spanish flag, or and gules. The augmenta¬ 
 tions granted in 1798 were : a chief undulated argent, thereon waves of 
 the sea, from which a palm tree issuant between a disabled ship on the 
 dexter and a ruinous battery on the sinister, all proper; crest, on a naval 
 crown, or, the Chelingk or Plume of Triumph presented to Nelson by the 
 Grand Signior, with the motto, “ Palmam qui meruit ferat.” In the left 
 hand of the sailor a palm branch, and another in the paw of the lion, both 
 proper ; with the addition of a tri-coloured flag and staff in the latter’s 
 mouth. The coronet here represented is that of a viscount, the rank con¬ 
 ferred on Nelson in iFot, after Copenhagen. [In heraldic descriptions 
 stands for gold; argent , silver; gules , scarlet; sable, black; proper, 
 the natural or proper colour; dexter y right, and sinister, left, of a person 
 carrying the shield ; chief, the upper part of the shield; bend , a strip 
 running diagonally across the shield.] 
 
 [From the originals in the 
 Painted Hall, Green¬ 
 wich , by permission of 
 the Lords Commission¬ 
 ers of the Admiralty. 
 
 BADGE OF THE ORDER 
 OF THE CRESCENT 
 AND CROSS OF SAN 
 JOACHIM. 
 
 Worn by Nelson. 
 
 Conquerant, Aquilon, Spartiate, Peuple Sonverain, Franklin, and Tonnant had been 
 patched up enough to go with them. All these six were taken to England, 
 though not without 
 great difficulty. The 
 other three prizes were 
 in a deplorable state, 
 and could not have 
 been got ready for sea 
 in less than a month. 
 
 As expedition was neces¬ 
 sary, Nelson decided to 
 burn them, trusting that 
 
 re- 
 
 jr. F. Young.) 
 
 [Drawn from the original. 
 
 SWORD-HILT IN GOLD, SET WITH DIAMONDS. 
 
 Presented to Nelson by the King of Naples in honour of the victory of the Nile. The stones 
 were afterwards formed into a necklace, and replaced in the sword-hilt by paste. 
 
 the country would 
 pay the loss in prize- 
 money, which was a 
 serious thing for the officers and men of the 
 fleet. It was bad luck for them to be deprived of what they had won in battle, and what was some 
 small recompense for their perils and exertions. “An admiral,” wrote Nelson, “maybe amply rewarded 
 by his feelings and the approbation of his superiors, but what reward have the inferior officers and 
 
1798-] 
 
 Napoleon s Projects Wrecked. 
 
 105 
 
 Nelson sails for 
 Naples. 
 
 men but the value of the prizes ? ” If he was in the future to be well supported, his followers must 
 
 — understand that he would see justice done them. Thanks to his 
 efforts a considerable sum, but less than their real value, was paid 
 for each of the three ships burnt. 
 
 Having sent the pick of his squadron down the Mediterranean, 
 Nelson in the middle of August made sail for Naples with three 
 
 ships of the line. His instructions, it will be 
 
 remembered, required him to remain as long as 
 possible in the Mediterranean, and particularly to 
 watch over Naples and Sicily. At Naples, dealing with secret friends, 
 or, he hoped, now that the great battle had been fought, open allies 
 of his country, he could refit the battered Culloden and 1 anguard. He 
 knew that Naples was preparing for war with France; he would goad 
 her forward, anxious now, as always, for the honour and welfare of his 
 country. Yet he detested his errand. Naples as yet was odious to 
 him; his health was very bad. He left behind him Captain Hood 
 with three ships of the line and four frigates, closely to blockade 
 Alexandria. So vigilant was their watch that Napoleon was greatly 
 embarrassed for want of nev’S. 
 
 Upon Napoleon the tidings of the Nile fell like a thunderbolt. 
 “ I wanted to create a new religion; I saw myself on the high road to Asia, seated on an elephant, a 
 turban on my head, a new 
 
 C. Dixon.] [From Sketch by F. Chesham. 
 
 THE “CULLODEN” ASHORE. 
 H.M. brig Mutine assisting her off the shoals. 
 
 Napoleon’s dismay. 
 
 koran, 
 which 
 
 I should have composed 
 to suit my interests, in my 
 hand. I saw myself assail¬ 
 ing England’s power in 
 India. But fortune de¬ 
 cided otherwise,” he said 
 in after years. The blow 
 was all the more crushing 
 because he stood urgently 
 in need of money to replace 
 the thousands lost in the 
 Orient, and in need of men 
 to fill up the gaps of action. 
 But such w r as the man’s fire 
 and spirit that he did not 
 sit dowrn in despair. He 
 strove to fight his way by 
 Syria to Constantinople 
 and Europe; once more 
 that Navy which he had so 
 much cause to fear crossed 
 his path and confounded 
 his efforts; but Nelson 
 had struck the first great 
 blow. We shall see how he 
 frustrated the far-reaching 
 enterprises of Napoleon in 
 the future. 
 
 , \by permission of Earl Nelson. 
 
 Photographed specially for this Work J 
 
 A CORNER OE THE “NELSON ROOM” AT TRAFALGAR, NEAR SAI.ISBURA , 
 
 THE SEAT OF EARL NELSON. 
 
 The handsome silver cup, which fans the “presented b’y'"the Turkish Company* orMLchmmsOTLgh.Ihe Levant, 
 Susannah (grandmother of the present Earl). It was presen tea oy ■ , of the Nile. The Neapolitan cane and 
 
 in acknowledgment of the service rendered ^dson, Horatio Nelson Atkinson whose 
 
 telescope were certainly used by the admiral^ ^1 he “««^ w ? v en^Dy nim^t j ^ at Trafalgar. I he other 
 
 ly, and was knocked pieccN wuai r 
 
 into th°e W hoid U of ^ 7 Tict'iry, before goint; ^rm^whh^ "> <™* iswe “- 
 
 £#£ J 2 VESK KfcTs^^ The sugar-basin also came from the W* cabm. 
 
 E 5 
 
A. Bar rand.] 
 
 VILLA MAN I ACE, NELSON’S SEAT AT BRONTE, SICILY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NELSON AND LADY HAMILTON, 1798-1800. 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 39-41.) 
 
 At the Summit of Fame—Loss of Health—Melancholy—Evil and Good—Great Men Severely Judged—Nelson and Napoleon 
 —Esteem or Love ?—The Marriage Childless—Love and Duty—Lady Nelson’s Attitude—Nelson’s Disobedience—His 
 Separation from His Wife—Lady Hamilton—Her Early Life—Protected by Greville—Her Charm—Painted by Romney 
 —Modesty of Her Life—She is Sold—Decoyed to Naples—Position at Naples—The Ladies Judge Her—The Men 
 Favourable—Her Attitudes—Her Virtues—Sir William Hamilton’s Part—Naples Rejoices at the Nile—Nelson Meets 
 Lady Hamilton—Her Emotion Genuine—Falls in Love —Tria Juncta in Uno —Nelson Urges Naples to War—A 
 Propitious Moment—Fall of Naples—Nelson and his Stepson—Preparations for Escape—The Escape—The Royal 
 Family Sail for Palermo—Nelson’s Melancholy—His Zeal Lost—Sir W. Sidney Smith—Malta and Naples—A French 
 Fleet in the Mediterranean—A Singular Present—Waiting for Battle—Events at Naples—The Capitulation Denounced 
 —Caracciolo—He is Captured—Tried—Executed—Malicious Stories—An Extraordinary Incident—Keith in Command— 
 Nelson Disobeys him—Disobeys again—Nelson left in Command—A Remarkable Fete—Nelson Disappointed— 
 Captures the Genereux— Nelson leaves Malta — His Work Done—He cannot Live Inactive. 
 
 HE victory of the Nile had placed Nelson at the very summit of human fame. Copenhagen 
 
 and Trafalgar might confirm but could not augment his glory. He now stood forth in the 
 
 . eyes not only of his country, but also of Europe and the world, as the 
 
 At the summit . .... 
 
 of fame. saviour of civilisation, and the one successful opponent of the great 
 
 Revolution. As yet but thirty-nine years of age and a junior rear- 
 admiral in rank, he was by the common consent of all, the ablest officer our Navy had produced. 
 
 Tried by failure and success he had won his proud position, not so much by fortune’s help as by 
 
 his own zeal and sagacity. The long chase which preceded the Nile had proved his clear judgment, 
 as the battle itself had for the first time fully disclosed his greatness as a fighting admiral. 
 
 But the anguish of that furious quest for the French, the terrible anxiety of those weary days, the 
 
 frantic disappointment of empty Alexandria, acting upon a nature so eager and so high-strung, had wrought 
 
 r ., ... an inevitable effect. This extreme tension had been followed by a severe injury to 
 
 Loss of health. . j j j 
 
 his head which may have affected the brain, and by all the further reaction of a 
 stupendous and dazzling success. His constitution, naturally weak, and even before the Nile enfeebled 
 by the tortures which the loss of his arm had caused him, now seemed upon the verge of giving way. 
 
 Worn by the incessant strain, and in his exhaustion standing in need of rest and repose, he was now 
 
 steering to Naples- no longer the Nelson of the past. A subtle change had come over his character, 
 
17g8. 1 
 
 Stricken with fever. 
 
 107 
 
 L. Guzzardi .] 
 
 the body reacting as it invariably does upon the mind. In all men who surpass their fellows, it has 
 
 been said from of old, there is a taint of madness and 
 melancholy. His present feebleness exaggerated this 
 original cast. 
 
 “ I am now up, but very weak both in body 
 
 and mind from my cough and fever,” he wrote to 
 
 „ , , , St. Vincent on this voyage, in 
 
 Melancholy. J 
 
 September 1798, two days before 
 
 his arrival at Naples. “ I never expect, my dear 
 Lord, to see your face again : it may please God that 
 this will be the finish to that fever of anxiety which 
 I have endured from the middle of June.” For 
 eighteen hours his life had been despaired of. His 
 mind had been thrown off its balance; his emotion¬ 
 ality and susceptibility to passion—always, even in 
 the hour of health, strong features in his character— 
 had been intensified. The yearning for sympathy and 
 affection, which, acting upon his officers and men 
 secured from them their eager devotion, was deepened 
 by his physical prostration, and this too at a moment 
 when he was going to meet one of the most beautiful 
 and attractive women of his time. 
 
 The relations of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton 
 , . , . ,,, , cannot be omitted from a life which attempts to give 
 
 [From the origiml in the possession of Mrs. Alfrea r ° 
 
 Morrison, kindly lent for the purposes of this Jl ork. ^ tril 0 piCtUTG of* tll6 hd'O. To 
 
 nelson WEARING THE CHELINGK. Evil and Good. rertnin facts and idealize 
 
 This portrait was painted in Naples in 1799. A full-length portrait by PP c " 
 
 the same artist was presented by Nelson to the Sultan in acknowledgment , rharartpr which We SO deeillv admire at the 
 
 of His Majesty’s gifts ; and another, also full-length and life size, hangs in ine CliardCiei WHICH W C bO UCCpt} dcnnne, dl LHC 
 
 the Board Room of the Admiralty in Whitehall: in all of them the head 
 is practically the same. A small copy is in the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 The face is unmistakably that of a man worn down with anxiety. i he 
 marks of the wound on the forehead over the right eye are clearly traceable. 
 
 The Chelingk, or Plume of Triumph, in the hat was sent to Nelson 
 bv the Sultan, and consisted of thirteen fingers covered with diamonds. 
 
 ’The centre diamond and the four surrounding it were estimated at the value 
 of /5.000, and there were at least 300 others of smaller size. A holograph 
 letter accompanied this magnificent gift, stating that the Chelingk had never 
 before been presented to any but Mussulman victors. 1 1 was reported that 
 the jewels had formerly adorned the brows of an Imperial Princess. 
 
 expense of truth, is to sacrifice to our preju¬ 
 dices and to mar the portrait. In Nelsons life, 
 as in the life of every man, there is evil as well 
 as good. To ask of the hero perfection is to 
 ask that he shall be divine. We must judge him 
 by the standard of his own day, and set the 
 good against the evil, striking the balance. His 
 fair name has nothing to dread from truth: the 
 peculiar circumstances and temptations of his life, 
 and the seeds of weakness sown by suffering in 
 his country’s service, will extenuate his faults. 
 
 There are, however, certain facts which all 
 should remember in following his career. W e ha\e 
 
 access, as it were, to his heart 
 in the private letters which 
 he wrote. These were never 
 neant for the stranger’s eye. But it is one of 
 he penalties of greatness that its thoughts and 
 
 ic ts_even its most secret thoughts and acts 
 
 -are canvassed by posterity and examined with 
 
 Great men 
 severely judged. 
 
 G. Romney ] 
 
 [From ihe Engraving by G. Zobel , by permission 0/ 
 Messrs. P. & D. Colnagki <V Co., Pall Mall East. 
 
 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. 
 
Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 10S 
 
 microscopic attention. A hasty complaint, a foolish word spoken in the heat of anger or in the 
 distraction of agonizing pain, live to all time, and the circumstances which called them forth are 
 forgotten. The obscure individual hides his secrets; they are not thought of, much less studied with 
 attention. The great man can hide no secrets: his heart is open; he stands before the penetrating 
 gaze of after generations naked and bare as at the Judgment Day. And thus as his life is more 
 closelv examined than that of other men, we must be more reluctant to condemn. 
 
 Men are divided into two classes. 
 
 There is the 'cool, calculating man who 
 
 never loves, but only 
 uses women for his 
 own end. Such was 
 Napoleon. “Love,” he said, “love was 
 not made for me. For what is love? 
 A passion which forgets the whole world, 
 to see and remember only the loved 
 object. I certainly was not so made as 
 
 Nelson and 
 Napoleon. 
 
 Esteem or loye? 
 
 to yield to such a forgetfulness.” Such 
 men may be the greatest, for they turn 
 neither to right nor to left in their 
 course, but they are rarely lovable. They 
 never really live. They lack the human 
 element; their nature is barren and cold, 
 if infinitely strong. Others, like Nelson, 
 pine for woman’s tenderness and sym¬ 
 pathy. To them life without love is 
 unendurable. And they are just the men 
 who are prone to cross the line drawn by 
 morality and convention. 
 
 Hitherto Nelson had not been swept 
 off his feet by any enduring passion. 
 
 With curious insight 
 the Duke of Clarence 
 had warned him, when he married Mrs. 
 
 Nisbet, that his feeling for her was 
 “ esteem ” rather than “ love.” As the 
 years went on the accuracy of this judg¬ 
 ment was vindicated. Nelson’s relations 
 with his wife were those of regard rather 
 than passion, and of respect rather than 
 devotion. She was an honourable, upright woman, but was by no means suited to be the wife of 
 a hero. She gave him no inspiration; she failed to touch in him the springs of greatness. Yet 
 after all it must be confessed that she loved her “ dear and gallant admiral,” to use her own words* 
 
 tenderly ; that in a hundred small ways she sacrificed herself for him, if on great occasions she failed 
 
 to rise to his spirit; and that her very anxiety for his welfare whilst he was worshipping at another 
 shrine makes his conduct more painful to posterity. 
 
 The marriage was childless, a natural disappointment to a man who, if only in his country's 
 interests, was eager to leave posterity behind him. There was then no bond to draw the two 
 
 together. Nelson’s heart stood empty, because as yet he lacked experience in 
 
 chihNess^ 6 l° ve anc ^ ^ e ' As ^ vec ^» not in the secluded hothouse of the young ladies’ 
 novel, but in the tumultuous field of life where, hide it as we may and cover 
 it as we may from sight, the sexual element plays a great part, one so emotional as he was certain 
 to succumb. 
 
 G . Romney .] 
 
 [From an Engraving by Thos. Chcesman. 
 THE SPINSTRESS. 
 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
1:798.] 
 
 Nelson no Libertine , 
 
 109 
 
 Up to the hour when he met Lady Hamilton, one interest and one only had governed his 
 life. Duty had been his watchword, glory 
 
 •- 
 
 
 Love and duty. 
 
 G Romney .] 
 
 [fn the National Gallery. 
 
 BACCHANTE. 
 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
 Lady Nelson's 
 attitude. 
 
 his reward. But now in the storm and fire of love he 
 learnt the old, old lesson. What was glory beside the 
 
 tender glance of a woman’s eyes ? 
 There were times when, for the object 
 ot his love, he seemed ready to sacrifice all—fame, reputa¬ 
 tion, and a great career. The same terrible strenuous¬ 
 ness which marked his manner of making war, marked 
 also his manner of making love. It is easy for us to 
 sit in judgment and condemn, but honesty will tell us 
 there are few men whose life does not contain such a 
 passage. “ Not even the gods can love and be wise,” 
 says the old proverb. Slowly the balance of his mind 
 returned with returning health, continuous action, and 
 the joy of possession. The stress of the storm passed 
 away and left him calm and happy. In Lady Hamilton’s 
 society he found that sympathy which he desired; his 
 private life was empty no longer. 
 
 The saddest feature in this strange tragedy of love 
 was the sorrow which his action caused his wife. Her 
 
 conduct was discreet and blameless: 
 be her faults what they may, she 
 loved him to the last, and was always 
 ready, it would seem, to forgive and forget. But when 
 Lady Hamilton had taken, as she quickly did take, in his eyes the position of his lawful wife, 
 his other and wedded wife would not have been a true woman if she had looked on and condoned. 
 By what strange sophistries of the intellect 
 Nelson arrived at this conviction, we need not 
 stop to consider. It is sufficient that he did 
 so persuade himself, and it explains much in 
 his conduct. His deep piety did not suffer in 
 this mental storm. He assuredly was no hypo¬ 
 crite, and though his life became a lie, he could 
 still look up to God. Even in those last hours, 
 when the soul puts off all its disguises and 
 the feet go down to the waters of death, he 
 never seems to have questioned the upright¬ 
 ness of his own conduct. 
 
 Men who are upright in all other respects 
 may, we must admit, fail in this one matter. 
 
 This may not agree with 
 copy-book morals, but it is 
 at least the teaching of life. 
 
 Great men have been curiously unfortunate in 
 their relations with their wives. ^ et Nelson 
 was no libertine. His devotion to his mistress 
 never wavered: no other woman disputed her 
 ascendancy in his heart. The perturbation of 
 mind which marked his stay at Naples and 
 Palermo, when the sense of duty to his wife g. Romney.] 
 was struggling with passion, died away as passion 
 conquered duty. His duty to his country he 
 
 Nelson's 
 
 disobedience. 
 
 [From the Mezzotint by M. Carmack, by permission of 
 Mr. Mendoza, St. James's Galleries. 
 
 NATURE. 
 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
I IO 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1798. 
 
 From a Photograph 
 
 by the Photochrow Company .] 
 
 NAPLES. 
 
 never wholly forgot. In his own touching words allowance must be made for a man aged prematurely 
 by war, worn by care, half-blind, and ailing in health. A tenderer and kindlier commander-in-chief 
 than Lord Keith might have played better on a noble heart, and, by not making too much of Nelson’s 
 foibles, have saved his reputation from the reproach w'hich reputed acts of disobedience impute. 
 Nelson’s disobedience arose at least as much from his chafing against the command of a mentally 
 inferior superior, and from a sense that his services were not appreciated, as from his desire to be 
 near his loved object. This does 
 not condone his action, but it 
 may extenuate it. Nor should 
 it be forgotten that it was his 
 character to judge for himself, to 
 act in the boldest manner, and 
 to shrink from no responsibility. 
 
 In the West Indies and at St. 
 
 Vincent he had disobeyed at the 
 possible cost of fame and a career. 
 
 Stubborn and headstrong on the 
 wrong side, determined and un¬ 
 wavering on the right, the man 
 who risked Minorca was the man 
 who, confident in his own judg¬ 
 ment, swept after Villeneuve to 
 the West Indies, after Brueys to 
 the Nile. 
 
 Until his arrival at Naples, 
 
 he had never wavered in his attachment to his wife. Soon after landing he told a friend of Lady 
 
 Hamilton that the happiest day of his life had been that upon which he married 
 His separatum rom ^ ac jy Nelson. But, by the natural incidents of a sailor’s life, he had seen little 
 of her since the war began. Between 1793 and 1798 he had only spent in her 
 society the six months when he was recovering from the effects of his wound at Teneriffe. This 
 
 separation from wife and home exposes the sailor 
 to peculiar temptations. The discomforts of life 
 on board ship are and must always be great, 
 and grow more repellent with advancing years: 
 the absence of sympathy, since an officer of high 
 rank cannot by the customs of our service asso¬ 
 ciate much with his inferiors in rank, is, for 
 such a character as Nelson’s, the hardest burden 
 of all. He was placed alone on a solitary 
 eminence. His intimate friends, Troubridge, 
 Hallow T ell, Collingwood, Ball, and Berry, must 
 on active service be frequently separated from 
 him and had at all times their own duties to 
 look after. His intercourse with them was 
 necessarily limited. Is it then wonderful that 
 under such circumstances he longed to be on 
 shore in the Hamiltons’ well-appointed palace 
 rather than in his leaky, lonely state-room on board the Vanguard; to dine in Lady Hamilton’s 
 company rather than with half a dozen very junior officers or by himself? 
 
 The woman who won his love has from that day to this stood in the pillory. She has been 
 depicted as a painted courtesan, uncomely, vulgar, immoderate, tasteless, disreputable. No calumnious 
 story about her has been too black to win belief. The spiteful pens of her own sex have laboured 
 
 From the original in the possession of Lady Llangattock,'\ 
 by whose permission it is here reproduced. 
 
 SILVER INKSTAND (FORMERLY GILT) ON POLISHED WOOD 
 STAND WITH ORMOLU HANDLES. 
 
 Bearing the inscription roughly scratched beneath it: “ William and Emma Hamilton 
 to Nelson, Duke of Bronte, their dear friend.” Made at Naples in 1799. 
 
1798.] 
 
 111 
 
 Lady Hamilton s Early Life . 
 
 to take away what poor shreds of reputation the other left her. The squalor of her later years, the 
 Lady Hamilton untruthfulness of her later statements, the increasing coarseness and vulgarity of 
 her life as it approached its climacteric, must almost inevitably bias many against 
 her earlier days. \et, when she met Nelson she had been sinned against rather than sinning: her 
 
 character had not as yet changed for the worse. 
 
 respectable Cheshire parents, Lady Hamilton 
 
 remarkable beauty 
 
 nttrartprl thp attention nf men .SI 
 
 Her early life. 
 
 Born of 
 entered life 
 
 From a Pencil Drawing in the possession of Earl Nelson. 
 Reproduced by his permission. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 village. 
 
 tenderness which appealed to all that was best 
 
 Cheshire 
 
 as a servant. Her great and 
 
 attracted the attention of men. She be¬ 
 came the mother of a child, probably by 
 a naval officer, Captain Payne, who sailed with Nelson to the 
 Baltic in 1781. He abandoned her and she earned money in 
 a perfectly honest, if not very respectable, manner by posing 
 as Hygeia in the “ Temple of Health ” of a quack named 
 Graham. There was nothing indecent about this performance, 
 as has been insinuated by the malevolent. From the “Temple 
 of Health ” she passed under the protection of Sir Harry 
 Fetherstonhaugh, a boisterous Sussex squire. With him she 
 lived, it would seem, for a year, till her giddiness alienated his 
 affection and he turned her, then expecting the birth of a 
 child, upon the world. So far it will be seen she had been 
 the prey of men. Penniless and miserable she returned for 
 a short space to the service of the quack Graham, and then 
 eventually became the mistress of Charles Greville, son of 
 Lord Warwick and the nephew of Sir William Hamilton, who 
 was our ambassador at the Court of Naples. 
 
 Greville established her in a small house near the Edgware 
 Road, at Paddington Green, which was then a country 
 He educated her and treated her with a certain 
 
 modest 
 
 in 
 
 her. 
 
 Though 
 
 she lived only in a very 
 
 Protected by 
 Greville. 
 
 way, though from his cir¬ 
 
 cumstances Greville could 
 not and did not make her 
 a large allowance, she was supremely happy. 
 She fell in love with him. Unfortunately for 
 her he was an eminently cool, calculating 
 person, and though ready enough to maintain 
 a cheap and beautiful mistress, had not the 
 slightest intention of marrying her. But he 
 spoke of her and treated her as a lady, and 
 introduced her to the painter Romney. 
 
 Romney quickly began to worship at her 
 shrine. It was not only that she possessed 
 
 an almost perfect loveli- 
 Her charm. . , 1 
 
 ness; it was not so much 
 
 her chestnut hair, her beautiful eyes and her 
 irresistible mouth that fascinated, as a cer¬ 
 tain force of character. “Surely,” says the 
 admirable editor of her letters, “ she possessed 
 that charm or fascination—the venustas which 
 the Roman poet celebrates in his mistress 
 ,-hich in the long run tells more than mere 
 
 James Gill ray.] \- From the ° ri £ inal Etching published in 1798. 
 
 JOHN BULL TAKING A LUNCHEON. 
 
 “What, more frigasees? Why, where do you think I shall find room to stow 
 all you bring in? 
 
 with France.) 
 
 W 
 
 a woman an irresistible power for 
 
 beauty, and which, combined with beauty may render 
 or for evil. No mere personal beauty in face of the 
 
I I 2 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 11798. 
 
 Painted by Romney. 
 
 From the unfinished Painting 
 by himself. 
 
 [In the National Portrait 
 Gallery. 
 
 GEORGE ROMNEY, 1734-1802. 
 
 Born at Dalton, in Lancashire, the son of a cabinet¬ 
 maker, whose business he learnt. Articled to an itinerant 
 portrait-painter in his twenty-first year, he married, in 1756, 
 a young woman who had nursed him in fever, and in 1757 
 obtained the cancellation of his indentures and set up for 
 himself, first at Kendal, then (1762) in London. In 1773 he 
 visited Italy and studied there, and in 1775 he took a large 
 house in Cavendish Square, London, and acquired a great 
 reputation as a portrait-painter. In 1797 he retired to Hamp¬ 
 stead, and afterwards to Lancashire, and died at Kendal. 
 He painted over twenty pictures of Lady Hamilton. 
 
 Modesty of her life. 
 
 disadvantage of lack of early education, could by itself have given her the extraordinary ascendancy 
 
 which she exercised over men.” For the point is that the 
 men she dominated were not shallow fools, but men who have 
 left their mark upon their times, or men of exquisite and 
 fastidious taste. Greville, Hamilton, Romney, and Nelson—even 
 the first two—were men of distinction or of the highest genius. 
 
 That many women hated her for this peculiar charm is 
 only what we should expect. Her relations with Romney were 
 
 strictly proper. She inspired his genius 
 and he idealized her beauty. Graceful, 
 bewitching as the Lady Hamilton of his paintings is, an 
 exquisite miniature amongst the Nelson relics shows that he 
 hardly flattered her. The lady of his pictures reflects the 
 painter’s regard and admiration : even the famous Bacchante 
 —and she sat only for the head of this—did not offend the 
 squeamishness of her time. That she had a very distinct 
 sense of the proprieties is proved by her refusal when at 
 Naples to be painted in a somewhat low dress. 
 
 To Romney she was his “ divine lady.” Strangely un¬ 
 happy in his own married life, he found in her society that 
 
 charm and consolation which his own wife 
 could not give. Even the frigid Greville 
 was as near falling a victim as a soulless connoisseur can be. 
 “She is naturally elegant,” he said of her, “and fits herself 
 easily to any situation ... I know her disinterestedness to 
 be such that she will rather encounter any difficulty than 
 distress me . . . She has avoided every appearance of 
 giddiness, she has vanity and likes admiration . . . She is no fool, but there is a degree of nature 
 in her that she has the same pleasure in a narrow and 
 confined line as in a more extensive one.” She was, 
 he owned, honest, truthful, and “ the prettiest woman 
 in London.” Having become possessed of her, he now 
 proceeded to sell her to his utmost advantage, for he 
 was a gentleman who went in for bargains. 
 
 His uncle, Sir William Hamilton, had consider¬ 
 able estates and was childless. His wife had but 
 
 lately died, and Greville feared that 
 he might take another and have 
 In that case Greville would lose the 
 estates to the enjoyment of which he looked forward. 
 
 The happy idea struck him that his mistress might 
 be disposed of to his uncle, who, he thought, was much 
 too good a man of the world to marry her. As an 
 immediate return for this shameless traffic, Greville 
 hoped for help in meeting his creditors. Accordingly his 
 uncle, who was over in England, was invited to meet her. 
 
 A bargain was struck. To tear her away from 
 Greville was no easy task, as she was devoted to him. 
 
 “ Give me one guinea a week for 
 
 everything and live with me and From a Miniature.} [In the possession of //. Nelson Ward, Fsq. 
 
 I will be contented,” she wrote to him in her sad sir william Hamilton. 
 
 , 1 1 1 r'l 1 1 . -nt 1 1 . ■ , His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador at the Court of Naples, 1764-1800. 
 
 slovenly hand. She was decoyed to Naples by a trick (a« footnote on page85.) 
 
 She is sold. 
 
 children by her. 
 
 Decoyed to Naples. 
 
1798-] 
 
 Sir William Hamilton marries “Emma." 
 
 1! 3 
 
 Position at Naples. 
 
 —a harsher word might be used—and presently told by the object of her love that she was to play 
 the part of Sir William Hamilton’s mistress. “ For God’s sake send me one letter, if it is only 
 a farewell. Sure I have deserved this for the sake of the love you once had for me,” she wrote in 
 her sorrow to her old lover. Her indignation at his suggestion 
 was passionate. “ You made me good, you have abandoned 
 me . . . but oh ! Greville, you cannot, you must not give me 
 up.” She might as well have written to a stone as to this 
 
 icy philosopher. 
 
 Sir William Hamilton’s attentions to her were delicate. 
 
 He flattered her vanity by engaging eminent English painters 
 
 to paint her portrait. He hired singing 
 masters to improve her singing, till her voice 
 enraptured all but the most critical. With native quickness she 
 acquired Italian, and became a personage at Naples. Her good 
 humour, charm of manner, and absence of all pretension won 
 her friends, even amongst the very particular English ladies who 
 passed through Naples on the grand tour. In time she became 
 the mistress of her elderly adorer, and then married him, and 
 Greville was left to regret the excessive adroitness, of his plans. 
 
 She bore her husband, however, no children, and, as time went G Romney.] 
 on and the cruel smart of her abandonment was forgotten, was 
 in great measure reconciled to Greville. She gained a high 
 position at the Neapolitan Court. The Queen became her 
 intimate friend, and thus by the odd caprice of fortune 
 the ex-maidservant played a distinct role in the diplomacy of 
 England. To her the Queen communicated a cypher letter of great importance, which, before Spain 
 
 joined France against England, revealed the Spanish 
 intentions. The British Ministry made little use of 
 this information, and yet it might have been ver) 
 serviceable. 
 
 The judgments of women on Lady Hamilton are 
 bitter in the extreme. Mrs. St. George who met hei 
 
 at Dresden is the bitterest of all; 
 in her envy, malice, hatred and all 
 uncharitableness, she has a kindly 
 word neither for Lady Hamilton nor for Nelson. She 
 was, however, obviously jealous, which may explain the 
 tone of her remarks. According to her, Lady Hamilton 
 “ resembles the bust of Ariadne; the shape of all her 
 features is fine, as is the form of her head and par¬ 
 ticularly her ears; her teeth are a little irregular but 
 tolerably white; her eyes light blue with a brown spot 
 in each; her eyebrows and hair are dark and hei 
 complexion coarse. . . • She is bold, forward, coait>e, 
 
 and vain. Her figure is colossal, but except- 
 
 [From the Mezzotint by ft. Meyer . 
 
 THE HON. CHARLES FRANCIS GREVILLE, 
 1749-1809. 
 
 Second son of Francis, 8th Baron Brooke (created 
 Earl bf'* Warwick 1759k Greville was a Fellow of the 
 Royal Society. He died unmarried. 
 
 The ladies judge 
 her. 
 
 S’ 
 
 [Specially photographed /or this II ork. 
 
 From a Miniature .] 
 
 LADY HAMILTON., 
 
 This beautiful portrait is from a miniature, painted from life, in the 
 possksion of H. Nelson Ward, Esq her grandson by whose ktndness 
 it is here inserted. It is on ivory, the gram of which is visible in the 
 photograph. 
 
 assumin^. 
 
 ing her feet, which are hideous, well-shaped. 
 
 I think her bold, daring, vain even to folly, and stamped 
 with the manners of her first situation much moie 
 strongly than one would suppose, after having lepie- 
 sented Majesty and lived in good company fifteen yeais. 
 Her ruling passions seem to me vanity, avarice, and 
 love for the pleasures of the table. 
 
I I A 
 
 [1798. 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 1 
 
 The judgment of the men was kindlier. Hamilton, we have seen, was devoted to her; Greville’s 
 opinions we know; Fetherstonhaugh, her first protector, spoke of her in after days with respect and 
 
 regard; Romney’s devotion to her never wavered. Sir Gilbert Elliot is more 
 The men favourable. un f avoura bi e . p e tells us that her figure was monstrous; she was “all nature and 
 
 yet all art ”; her manners perfectly unpolished and “ of course very easy, though not with the ease 
 of good breeding, but of a barmaid ”; that she had considerable natural understanding, and had taken 
 no little application and pains to improve herself. 
 
 In one respect all agreed that she excelled. She might sing a little out of tune, but she was 
 perfect as an actress. Her famous “ attitudes, when she posed in various characters in a series 
 
 of Tableaux Vivants, 
 
 Her attitudes. 
 
 were refined, sur¬ 
 passed all expectations, and showed her 
 in a very favourable light. Even the 
 captious Mrs. St. George has praise for 
 them. “I saw her,” she wrote, “repre¬ 
 sent in succession the best statues and 
 paintings extant. She assumes their 
 attitude, expression, and drapery with 
 great facility, swiftness, and accuracy. 
 
 She stands at one end of the room 
 with a strong light to her left and 
 every other window closed. ... It 
 is a beautiful performance, amusing to 
 the most ignorant and highly interest¬ 
 ing to the lovers of art. The chief of 
 her imitations are from the antique. 
 
 Each representation lasts about ten 
 minutes. It is remarkable that though 
 coarse and ungraceful in common life, she 
 becomes highly graceful and even beauti¬ 
 ful during this performance.” “ Her 
 attitudes,” said a traveller who saw 
 them at Naples, “are, beyond descrip¬ 
 tion, beautiful and striking.” 
 
 Nor, in spite of Mrs. St. George, 
 was she the coarse bad woman that 
 
 lady represents her. 
 
 Her virtues. 
 
 She never forgot her 
 
 G. Romney .] 
 
 [.From the Mezzotint by H. T. Grcenhcad. By permission 0/ the 
 publishers , Messrs. H. Graves <Sr' Co. 
 
 MIRANDA. 
 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
 old friends or her mean relations. Her 
 mother lived with her; she pensioned 
 her grandmother, in the days before she 
 met Nelson, when her own allowance 
 was painfully small, and it must have needed real self-denial on her part to spare the money. She 
 was generous and humane; to her came the Neapolitans to beg for mercy; she could never see pain 
 without endeavouring to assuage it. Beautiful, good-natured, impressionable, ambitious, and enthusiastic, 
 she was the woman to attract and to be attracted by a man of Nelson’s temperament. 
 
 Of Sir William Hamilton little need be said. He plays a singular and not altogether dignified 
 part in this remarkable trio. Of dissipated life, cultured tastes, and some scientific attainments, he was 
 
 now in his dotage, and his wife managed his diplomacy for him. He was of good 
 Sir William Hamilton’s r r , . J . r 
 
 p art< iamily, had great influence, and from the fact of his being George III.’s foster- 
 
 brother was not unknown at Court. Whether he saw and condoned the relation 
 between Lord Nelson and his wife must remain uncertain. The difficulty of supposing that he did not 
 
I 79 8 -l 
 
 Nelson s Reception at Apples. 
 
 F. Rchberg .] 
 
 SOME OF LADY HAMILTON’S “ATTITUDES.” 
 
 “Sir William Hamilton,” wrote Walpole to Miss Berry, “has actually married the Gallery of Statues.” 
 
 Hanover Square, September 6, 1791. 
 
 [Drawn from Nature at Naples . 
 
 The marriage took place at St. George’s, 
 
 is only equalled by the difficulty of supposing that he did. He was a man of the world in the worst 
 sense, and could not have been altogether blind, and the words of his will, in which he testifies to 
 the friendship of Lord Nelson, read like some grim joke of a dying cynic. In any case he deserves 
 small commiseration. He had originally taken up Lady Hamilton as a garment to be discarded when 
 he grew tired of it; in enticing her to Naples he had acted without a spark of honour; and it was 
 a strangely just retribution that he who had done evilly by her should in his turn evilly be done by. 
 
 At Naples the news of the Nile was received by the Court with the wildest joy. Now at 
 last the Queen was delivered from the French nightmare, and all could breathe freely. To the 
 
 Hamiltons as to every patriotic Englishman such a victory in such an hour of 
 Naples rejoices at ^rial to our country brought peculiar exultation. The young captain whom they 
 had so honoured five years or more before had fulfilled their anticipations. 
 Proud to identify herself with his name, Lady Hamilton, when the despatches of victory arrived, 
 drove with them in an open carriage through the streets, wearing on her forehead the legend 
 “ Nelson and victory,” a piece of demonstrativeness which drew the plaudits of the crowd. 
 
 When Nelson's coming was announced the whole city went forth to meet his gloriously 
 battered Vanguard. The King of Naples in his barge, and Sir William and Lady Hamilton with 
 a band playing “ Rule Britannia,” headed the procession of boats. d hey came alongside; Lady 
 Hamilton climbed to the quarter-deck and looked once more upon the man she had known yeais be¬ 
 fore, What she saw appealed 
 
 to every 
 tender 
 motive in 
 
 her. Five years of war had 
 
 Nelson meets Lady 
 Hamilton. 
 
 ONE OF LADY HAMILTON’S 
 ATTITUDES. 
 
 Sketched from Nature at Naples by F. Rehberg, by 
 instruction of Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 wrought a vast and remark¬ 
 able change. The man before 
 her had aged perceptibly, for 
 in the stress of battle men 
 grow old quickly. His body 
 was torn and mutilated; his 
 right arm gone; his right eye 
 sightless; upon his forehead 
 showed the dressing of his 
 latest wound. Pale, feeble, 
 
 CARICATURE OF LADY HAMILTON IN THE 
 SAME ATTITUDE. 
 
 This caricature, published in 1807, unkindly claims to 
 be a corrected version of the original drawing. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 116 
 
 1798. 
 
 Her emotion genuine. 
 
 and tottering, his outward state contrasted wonderfully with the glory of his achievements. This 
 then was the price at which he had purchased greatness for himself and victory for his country. 
 “ Oh ! God, is it possible ? ” she cried, and fell back swooning. 
 
 Lady Hamilton was no exception to her sex; she was even more emotional and more enthusiastic 
 than the average. But those who have seen in her conduct only an elaborate piece of acting wrong 
 
 her assuredly. Few could have looked without emotion upon a man who had 
 sacrificed himself so much and so often. How he appealed to the common people 
 of his race we know. “ Many were in tears, many knelt down and blessed him as he passed,” 
 says his biographer of his last progress to Trafalgar. And if these are not to be accused of acting 
 
 why should she ? There are times 
 when demonstrativeness is no fault, 
 when these very signs of affection 
 come as the honourable reward for 
 glorious services. 
 
 In character Nelson was eminently 
 loveable. He believed the best of all 
 
 the men about him 
 and reaped the 
 fruit in their devotion. But this very 
 tendency to idealize his surroundings 
 
 
 
 
 
 Falls in love. 
 
 Bennet.\ 
 
 {From the “Naval Chronicle 1810. 
 CASTELLAMARE, NAPLES. 
 
 From a Sketch made about 1800.] 
 
 THE BAY OF NAPLES. 
 
 stood him in bad stead with Lady 
 Hamilton. He saw only her virtues 
 and not her manifest faults. He be¬ 
 lieved his country and himself to be 
 deeply in her debt, and she appealed 
 to him as a woman of masculine 
 patriotism. Dazzled by the glitter 
 and splendour of Court life which he 
 had never seen before, flattered by all, 
 honoured by the condescension of the 
 King and Queen of Naples, the cyno¬ 
 sure of every eye, he felt his head turning. Lady Hamilton was always at his side. She had thought 
 for his physical feebleness; she nursed him and danced attendance upon him, eager to honour the 
 greatest man in that superb Navy of which Lord St. Vincent called her the patroness. Her singular 
 attractiveness was not exercised upon him in vain. He fell in love with her, and she with him. 
 1 hat he saw his danger is evident from what he writes. A week after his arrival he told one ot 
 his captains: “Never again do we come to Naples”; a fortnight later, “Naples is a dangerous place, 
 and we must keep clear of it.” But the fire of passion extinguished good resolutions. The Spartan 
 firmness and simplicity had gone out of him for a time. He could not tear himself away from 
 the object of his affection, and, unfortunately, the train of events soon made it almost impossible for 
 him to leave Naples, even if he had wished to do so. 
 
 His letters when Lady Hamilton was near became in his own words a “glorious jumble.” 
 His heart and his head were “all in a flutter.” Grim old St. Vincent must have smiled as he 
 “ Tria Juncta in Uno ” reac ^ ^ese strange effusions, but he showed Nelson a delicate tenderness which 
 betrayed his own affection for his eager subordinate. He humoured his failings, 
 believing that Nelson and Lady Hamilton were only a “pair of sentimental fools.” Nelson wrote 
 
1798.] 
 
 Neapolita 11 Cor nip iion . 
 
 11 7 
 
 early in October, soon after 
 
 his arrival, to his wife telling her that “ his pride was 
 
 in 
 
 being 
 
 From a contemporary Engraving .] 
 
 THE KING OF NAPLES. it had 
 
 Ferdinand IV. of Naples and I. of Sicily. 
 
 a mag¬ 
 nificent army on paper, but the rotten¬ 
 ness of the country 
 
 Nelson urges Naples ^ ev ; dent tQ Nel . 
 to war. 
 
 son; “A country of 
 fiddlers and poets, whores and scoun¬ 
 drels,” he said contemptuously. The 
 Administration was corrupt from top to 
 bottom. “A Neapolitan ship of the line 
 would cost,” he allowed, “ more than ten 
 English ships’ fitting out. All are plun¬ 
 dering who can get at public money or 
 stores.” But his passion was to over¬ 
 throw the French. His rage was kindled 
 by news from England that each moment 
 invasion was apprehended. A fleet of 
 
 her husband, the son of his dear father, and in having Sir William 
 and Lady Hamilton for his friends.” This singular conjunction, one 
 of Nelson’s “glorious jumbles,” must with the reports already current 
 have awakened her alarm. She should, one would have thought, have 
 sailed for Naples immediately she heard of the great battle and of her 
 husband’s serious wound. It was her plain duty to be with him, but 
 she delayed till too late. Had she possessed but one tithe of Lady 
 Hamilton’s exuberant susceptibility to emotion she might have saved 
 her husband’s reputation from reproach, her own life thenceforward 
 from bitter sorrow and regret. The wheels of her chariot tarried, 
 and when she wrote, again and again suggesting that she should come, 
 Nelson’s heart had already surrendered. 
 
 The first thing which Nelson did publicly on his arrival was to 
 egg the Neapolitan Court on to war with France. The victory of 
 the Nile had kindled fresh hope in Europe; Austria and Russia were 
 arming, though as yet they had not entered the fray. As for 
 N aples 
 
 “— 
 
 /Ar l/t-fior J.brd JVtlsrn t» 
 hr -nil* -,U> hm u hu qvrd 
 . fim/t/i and the It'ecJm 
 V'ptlt pr PM ffeifland 
 
 U’fwt Jji t'fu ihirii rr' that 
 three ifanrr SrlrttlPOS pue 
 Chap turn fsa/znrr.i jp nm.-fi ,tl$m 
 
 ffiify JSvUrttm -j-au at ran - trftt fiftw 
 
 jeur imp It fynirf i/'/fvtf Self men thu ■ 
 
 a tire >\p* ’he runes are s* srmnp'ft 
 tt/urrf J Jfnt t/unUte ten. let Uf/ 
 trC'h f crm. tier'i a pcap 
 
 Woodward .] 
 
 SAILORS IN ARGUMENT. 
 
 These old salts at least have no doubt of Nelson’s claim to a wisdom greater than Solomon, 
 his good health and the wooden walls of old England. 
 
 From the Painting originally in the J 
 Possession 0/ Lady Hamilton. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAPLES. 
 Daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa of 
 Austria, and sister to Marie Antoinette. 
 
 [ From the original Etching in the possession 0/ H. Nelson Hard, Esq. 
 
 merchant 
 ships be¬ 
 calmed in 
 Hollesley 
 
 Bay sent Lady Nelson’s heart into her mouth. His own wife and 
 his own father were in peril; people hardly dared to live near the sea, 
 and Bath was filling with nervous refugees. “ Down ! down with the 
 French ” he cried impetuously, and fell upon the miserably weak and 
 fatuous’ King Ferdinand, with the fiery exhortations of a Roundhead. 
 “The boldest measures are the safest,” was a motto always in is 
 mouth. But what was a wise proverb for Great Britain had no app 1- 
 cation for the Neapolitans. The King was a coward, his officers 
 disaffected and incapable, his soldiers inefficient. . 
 
 Yet the time was propitious. Napoleon was far away in Fgyp , 
 he might at any moment return, when the opportunity would pass 
 The French army in Italy was weak and scattered. A good geneia 
 ,ith a respectable army, and such the Neapolitan looked to be, could 
 
 w 
 
Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 [1798- 
 
 118 
 
 destroy the 
 
 French with ease. Unhappily the man sent to command was Mack, an Austrian 
 officer, ridiculously incompetent. He took the field against the French, and 
 A propitious was u ’ tterly and completely beaten in the shortest of campaigns, though only 
 moment. forty Neapo iit a ns were killed. As Nelson had been the prime mover in the 
 
 war much of the responsibility for this disaster fell upon his shoulders 
 He had orders to protect Naples and Sicily, but only 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fall of Naples. 
 
 small fleet to secure this object. 
 
 Several of his ships were 
 
 block¬ 
 ading 
 
 Malta; others were watch¬ 
 ing the French in Egypt; 
 two were with him. The 
 King of Naples, far from 
 being anxious to act on 
 Nelson’s advice and die 
 “ sword in hand ” was 
 perfectly willing to be 
 kicked out of his kingdom. 
 No Neapolitan cared for 
 this Spanish Sovereign 
 whose one interest in 
 this life was sport. The 
 French marched rapidly 
 on Naples; there were 
 ominous signs of disaffec¬ 
 tion in the city. It was 
 secretly decided to burn the Neapolitan fleet and to remove the royal family to Sicily. 
 
 As yet there had been no intermission of Nelson’s zeal. The British Ministry warmly approved 
 of his somewhat indiscreet Neapolitan war; he was active as ever, for whilst all these events were 
 
 in progress he had __ 
 
 Carle Verneti] 
 
 [From a contemporary Engraving. 
 
 LEGHORN. 
 
 Showing the entry of the French, July 27, 1796. 
 
 Nelson and his 
 stepson. 
 
 sailed to Malta to 
 look after the block¬ 
 ade and to Leghorn to seize that place, 
 thence returning to Naples. His relations 
 with Lady Hamilton, were, however, ex¬ 
 citing comment in the British fleet. It 
 was apparently about this time that his 
 stepson, Captain Josiah Nisbet, who had 
 saved his life at Teneriffe, had a most 
 unpleasant altercation with him. Nisbet 
 was only a boy; he had been promoted 
 far too early—though at Nelson’s express 
 request ; “ he is,” said the current opinion 
 of the fleet “ no great thing ”; and he 
 afterwards by curious misconduct—dining 
 constantly, though a captain, in the gun-room with the junior officers of his ship—drew down Nelson s 
 censure. Irritated by the talk he heard, and by the evident attentions of Nelson to Lady Hamilton, 
 he broke out after dinner, when he had been drinking heavily, in a violent attack upon the two in 
 their presence. The scene was all the more painful because Nisbet was deeply attached to his step¬ 
 father, because he had saved his life, and because he had some ground for his reproaches. Though 
 this occurrence estranged the two, it did not altogether part them. After Copenhagen Nelson appears 
 to have interested himself in his stepson, yet, perhaps, he never forgave him. 
 
 Fro?n a Sketch ] 
 
 VALETTA, MALTA. 
 
 [made about 1835. 
 
1798 -] 
 
 Escape of the Royal Family 
 
 i 1 9 
 
 In the midst of a population either disaffected or else passionately eager for the royal family’s 
 stay at Naples, the embarkation for Sicily was a matter of no small difficulty. A subterranean 
 
 passage, the existence of which was a 
 
 Preparations for , . , r , , , 
 
 secret, led trom the palace to the shore. 
 
 escape. r 
 
 This would facilitate the escape of the 
 fugitives, but the King of Naples was eager to take his 
 property with him. Accordingly his gold, jewels, and 
 pictures were sent by night to the Hamiltons’ house, and, 
 under the label “ provisions,” taken thence on board the 
 Vanguard. Sixty thousand ducats w r ere smuggled off i 
 
 in 
 
 ■ •••<:• .. 4 
 
 T. Ro 7 u/andson.] [From a Coloured Print in Greenwich Naval 
 Museum, by permission of the Lords Com- 
 missjoners of the Admiralty. 
 
 UNIFORM OF A MIDSHIPMAN, 1795-1812. 
 
 this way. Meantime the Hamiltons packed their household 
 goods and sent them also on board. Each day the danger 
 grew. The French rapidly drew near, and the mob of 
 Naples suspecting the departure of this cowardly King was 
 in a frenzy of excitement. A supposed French emissary, 
 but really one of the King’s messengers, was seized and 
 killed by the crowd in the streets. 
 
 The night of December 21, 1798, was fixed for the 
 escape. Fady Hamilton and her husband had to attend 
 
 a party at the Turkish Minister’s house. 
 
 The escape. ... 
 
 Their absence would have caused sus¬ 
 picion and they came, but stole away to the palace early, 
 having ordered their carriage to wait for them and supper 
 to be prepared at their house. This w T as done to divert 
 attention from their movements. Joining the royal party 
 they entered the subterranean passage in safety. The 
 
 trembling fugitives stole down it and met Nelson with a party of seamen near the seaward end. The 
 
 British sailors, armed only with cutlasses, for the report of fire-arms would have attracted attention, 
 
 had arrived in the Vanguard's barge at the wharf near the 
 
 passage. Close at hand were four other boats, similarly 
 armed and provided with grapnels. All the boats of the 
 squadron, each with a carronade on board, had assembled 
 farther out, waiting the signal for help, which was to be 
 made by burning false fires. The night was dark and 
 stormy; no cry came over the w r ater; the lights of Naples 
 were not dimmed by any signals for help. Favoured by 
 the obscurity the boats with their royal load rowed softly 
 off, and the fugitives were soon safe on board the Vanguard. 
 
 After two days’ delay, during which other refugees 
 were taken on board the British squadron, the ships sailed 
 
 for Palermo. The weather w r as extra- 
 The royal family Qrdinaril bad and the royal family 
 
 sail for Palermo. , , , T _ . 
 
 suffered accordingly, whereas Lady 
 
 Hamilton was perfectly at home at sea. She nursed the 
 sick fugitives, and in her arms one of the young princes 
 died of sea-sickness. At Palermo Nelson remained for nearly 
 five months. He lived in the Hamiltons house, contributing 
 his share to the expenses of the establishment, and trans¬ 
 acting all his business there. Open table was kept for 
 naval officers and British refugees. Meantime the King 
 of Naples had quite resigned himself to his fate. “The 
 King, God bless him!” said Nelson, “is a philosopher.” 
 
 T. Rowlandson.] [From a Coloured Print in Greenwich L ava. 
 
 Museum, by permission of the Lords Com¬ 
 missioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 UNIFORM OF A LIEUTENANT, 1795-1812. 
 
I 20 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 *' [1798-9. 
 
 He spent his time in hunting and shooting, and cared not one rap for the loss of Naples, which had 
 now blossomed out into the full-fledged Parthenopeian Republic, under French protection. 
 
 The calamities which had befallen Naples, and the inward struggle between passion and duty, brought 
 
 upon Nelson one of those 
 fits of 
 
 Nelson’s 
 melancholy. 
 
 melan- 
 c h o 1 y 
 was pecu- 
 His health 
 the midst 
 
 to which he 
 liarly subject, 
 declined. In 
 of flatterers, at the height 
 of his glory he found no 
 happiness. “Vanitas, va- 
 nitatum, omnia vanitas,” 
 is a text which has an 
 eternal significance. “ My 
 only wish,” he said, “ is 
 to sink with honour into 
 my grave, and when that 
 shall please God, I shall 
 envy none but 
 passed away, 
 shock; “ you, 
 
 Lady Parker, 
 woman upon 
 
 P. cte IVint.] 
 
 {From an Engraving published in 1822. 
 
 PALERMO. 
 
 WJ 
 
 meet death with a smile. I am ready to quit this world of trouble and 
 those of the estate six feet by two.” The glad elation of his earlier years had 
 ‘There is no true happiness in this world, he cried. His spirits had received a 
 ho remember me always laughing and gay, Avould hardly believe the change, he told 
 Failing in health, sorrowing at heart, finding consolation only in the presence of the 
 whom more and more his affections centred, he passed the weary days. In that 
 seductive climate where the virile Greek lost his energy and the hardy Norseman his daring, good 
 resolutions melted. His vast correspondence, however, was in no wise neglected. He lose very 
 early and finished his work by the evening, which he spent with the Hamiltons. There was already 
 much unpleasant talk about this intimacy. Lady Hamilton is said to have played high at cards, and 
 
 Nelson, by the common 
 story, was ruining himself. 
 “ Nelson,” the gossips re¬ 
 ported, “used to sit with 
 large parcels of gold be¬ 
 fore him and generally go 
 to sleep, Lady Hamilton 
 taking from the heap 
 wdthout counting, and 
 playing wdth his money 
 to the amount of £500 
 a night.” His letters, 
 how r ever, show the latter 
 rumour to have been quite 
 untrue. Men are natu¬ 
 rally prone to believe 
 the worst; yet Nelson’s 
 friends were convinced, 
 and with reason on their 
 side, that his affection 
 for Lady Hamilton had 
 
 not gone beyond the platonic stage. They looked on and lamented his infatuation, but they owned 
 it quite explicable. 
 
 Carle Vernet.] 
 
 [From a contemporary Engraving. 
 THE TAKING OF NAPLES, January 22, 1799. 
 
Sir IV. Sidney Smith. 
 
 i 21 
 
 1 799 *] 
 
 His zeal lost. 
 
 J. Eckstein .] [From the Engraving by G. & G. Cook. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR W. SIDNEY SMITH, 1765-1840. 
 
 Born in Westminster; was a midshipman under Rodney, 
 and a post-captain at nineteen. Served with the Swedish navy 
 against Russia, and with Lord Hood against France in 1793 
 at the surrender of Toulon. He was afterwards captured by 
 the French, but escaped after two years’ imprisonment. In 1799 
 he relieved *4 ere, and he was wounded in the Battle of Alexandria 
 in 1801. M.P. for Rochester 1802; resumed active service 
 1805 ; G.C.B. 1815. He died in retirement at Paiis. 
 
 “ His zeal for the public service seems entirely lost in 
 his love and vanity, and they all sit and flatter each other 
 
 all day long,” said Lord Minto, one of 
 his best and oldest friends; “ but,” he 
 adds, “ it is hard to condemn a hero, as he is on his own 
 element, for being foolish about a woman who has art enough 
 to make fools of many wiser than an admiral.” To us who 
 know the sequel, who can view each incident in his life in 
 the light of the future as well as of the past, this judgment 
 appears harsh. His zeal was not lost; it was only momen¬ 
 tarily obscured. Few human lives do not contain seasons 
 when the inward light burns feebly; posterity judges not 
 by a part but by the whole. 
 
 Contributing to his depression was the appointment of 
 Sir William Sidney Smith to a command within his com¬ 
 mand, in a curious semi - independent 
 Sir W. Sidney Smith. c . . , 
 
 position. In sending out Smith the 
 
 Admiralty showed a singular tactlessness, and their mistake' 
 had serious results. Smith, it is true, saved Acre, and beat 
 back Napoleon’s army from the walls of that Syrian fortress, 
 but he ran counter to Nelson’s sound instincts by con¬ 
 cluding a convention which would have allowed the French 
 to withdraw from Egypt. “ I consider it nothing short of 
 madness to permit that band of thieves to return to Europe,’ 
 said Nelson, and the convention was disallowed. Smith was 
 disliked by his fellow-officers, as all bumptiousness and 
 affectation, and he made himself somewhat ridiculous by a personal challenge to Napoleon at 
 
 Acre. Napoleon answered: “When you bring a Marlborough to fight me, I will meet him. 
 
 Malta was another 
 
 anxiety to Nelson. The 
 blockade was protracted ; 
 
 troops 
 
 Malta and Naples. 
 
 could 
 
 not be obtained for a 
 vigorous siege, and the 
 Russians, our nominal 
 allies, had designs on the 
 place. Nelson was deter¬ 
 mined that they should 
 not have it. Meantime 
 the tide of French con¬ 
 quest on the mainland of 
 Italy was ebbing. Trou- 
 bridge, with a small squad¬ 
 ron, was blockading the 
 coast; an insurrection in 
 the Neapolitan King’s in¬ 
 terest had broken out in 
 Calabria, and the feeble 
 Republic was tottering to 
 its fall. To Nelson and 
 his fleet the Neapolitan 
 F 
 
 D Roberts, R.A.] 
 
 [.Sketched from Nature in 1839. 
 
 ST. JEAN D’ACRE. 
 
 Bonaparte, being deprived of his sea-transport and threat^ b ;Y J reS olute man, was reinforced by Sir W. Sidney 
 and, after seizing Jaffa, laid siege to St lean d Acr «-® u J‘““j t oT command He met and defeated a flotiUa carrying 
 Smith, who arrived opportunely with the -Tigre and the and , mounting the guns on the walls manned 
 artillery and ammunition for the French, capturing seven out I7 cg—and was characterized by desperate 
 
 *- ” •*»** 'sis » »«•>*. 
 
 them against Napole 
 fighting on both sides, 
 
12 2 
 
 Nelson and I I is limes. 
 
 [ 1799 - 
 
 A French Fleet in the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 revolutionists were hateful from every point of view. Though the King was not a fine figure, most 
 of the rebels had been guilty of base perfidy to him. They were disloyal subjects, the friends of 
 France, and the enemies of Great Britain. As the war dragged 
 on, as the rapacity and excesses of the French armies grew, so 
 hatred of them waxed in Nelson’s and Troubridge’s minds. 
 
 The French proclaimed death to every “rebel” against their 
 authority, to all who rang alarm-bells, or who spread unfavour¬ 
 able reports. The adherents of the King replied with equal 
 savagery. The head of a revolutionist was cut off and sent to 
 Troubridge. He wrote on the letter which accompanied it “A 
 jolly fellow,” and apologised to Nelson for not sending the head 
 itself, because of the heat. Such ferocity seems to us of our 
 day simply horrible. But the furious passions of the time, the 
 almost religious detestation of the French which filled our naval 
 officers, and the odious misdeeds of the republicans, must not 
 be forgotten. 
 
 It was at this moment that a great danger threatened 
 Nelson. The French admiral Bruix with a very large fleet 
 
 escaped from Brest. His captains were 
 unskilled and his crews unused to the sea, 
 else he would probably have destroyed the 
 British Mediterranean fleet which was scattered in detachments 
 
 up and down that sea. 
 
 Fifteen ships were off 
 Cadiz, one at Gibraltar, 
 four were at Minorca, 
 four at Naples, three at 
 Malta, one at Palermo, 
 and two at Acre. Against 
 
 these, nineteen French and twenty-five Spanish ships were 
 available. The crisis was one demanding nerve and judg¬ 
 ment. One of two risks must be run ; either Minorca which 
 we had just conquered must be hazarded, or Sicily. Nelson 
 ordered his ships, which numbered eight in all, to assemble 
 off Sicily. They came in fast from Naples, and from Malta. 
 He himself had decided to stand by Sicily, when the push 
 
 came, to hold 
 up the hands 
 
 ^ of the weak 
 
 Sicilian court, 
 and to inspire 
 that moral con¬ 
 fidence which 
 his presence 
 alone could 
 give. In his 
 “ dreary and 
 un comfort- 
 
 Jcs. Muller .] [Drawn at Vienna , 179^. 
 
 BARON CARL VON MACK, 1752-1829. 
 
 Born at Neuslingen, in Franconia, he entered the Aus¬ 
 trian army as a trooper in a dragoon regiment. As Quarter¬ 
 master-General of the Army of the Prince of Coburg, he 
 directed the operations of the campaign of 1793, and was 
 employed in negotiations, first with Dumourier, and after¬ 
 wards with the British Ministry. He was received with 
 distinction by both George 111 . and Pitt. He commanded 
 the Neapolitans in 1798 and surrendered to the French, but 
 escaped from Paris in 1800. Appointed to the command 
 of the Austrian Army in 1805, he was defeated by Soult 
 at Memmingen, and surrendered to Napoleon at Ulm. 
 with 20,000 Austrians. Returning to Vienna, he was tried 
 by court-martial and condemned to death, but the sen¬ 
 tence was commuted and he was released after a year’s 
 imprisonment. 
 
 A. Maurin.\ [From an Engraving . 
 
 ADMIRAL EUSTACHE BRUIX, 
 1761-1805. 
 
 Entered the French mercantile marine 
 at the age of fifteen; was present as 
 Garde de la Marine in three battles with 
 Rodney. Ensign 1781, lieutenant 1786, 
 captain 1793, rear admiral 1798; prepared 
 the Expedition intended for the landing in 
 Ireland 1799, and in 1803 was made ad¬ 
 miral and commander in-chief of the flotilla 
 in the North Sea. 
 
 T. Medlands.] 
 
 [A/ter a Sketch by a French Naval Officer^ about 1800. 
 BREST HARBOUR. 
 
 able” Vanguard 
 
 he met the 
 
 rest of his ships. Fear he had none. “We shall cut a very respectable figure,” he wrote: “the 
 squadron under my command shall never fall into the hands of the enemy.” And yet he owned to 
 
1799-j 
 
 Memento Mori. 
 
 123 
 
 Captain Hallowell. 
 
 A singular present. 
 
 R. J. Hainerton .] 
 
 [From an Engraving. 
 
 the tension of excitement : “ to fight is nothing, but to be con¬ 
 tinually on the stretch for news and events of the greatest importance 
 is what I find my shattered carcass very unequal to.” Sleep aban¬ 
 doned him in his anxiety; headaches and sea-sickness distressed him. 
 
 In this frame of mind he received a singular present from 
 That officer had marked with sorrow the effect 
 of the flatteries of the Court upon his admiral’s 
 character. He cast about how to remind him 
 that he too was mortal, and discovered a way. At the Battle of 
 the Nile he had carried off a part of one of the Orient's masts. 
 
 From this he had a coffin made ; the wood of the mast was used, 
 and the iron bolts of the ship were hammered into nails. On 
 the bottom was pasted a certificate that every part of the coffin 
 was made from the Orient. This solemn reminder he now sent to 
 Nelson with a letter:— 
 
 “ My Lord,—Herewith I send you a coffin made of part of the 
 Orient's mainmast, that when you are tired of this life you may be 
 buried in one of your own trophies; but may that period be far 
 distant is the sincere wish of your obedient and much obliged 
 servant, 
 
 “Swiftsure, 
 
 “ May 23, 1799.” f 
 
 The gift came on board the Vanguard, and the seamen who 
 knew the odds that threatened were convinced that it portended some 
 fierce and fearful battle. “We shall have hot work of it indeed,” they said. Nelson was touched by 
 the present ; it sympathised with his own feelings, and he had it placed for some time in his cabin. 
 
 “ I would risk my life,” he 
 wrote to Lady Hamilton, “much 
 
 less my com¬ 
 mission, to 
 serve my country. I do not 
 approve of an officer’s care of 
 himself.” He made ready for 
 battle, and drew up a codicil to 
 his will, leaving Lady Hamilton 
 the diamond-studded box given 
 him by the Sultan’s mother. It 
 
 OSLJK. 
 
 SIR BENJAMIN HALLOWELL-CAREW 
 (CAPTAIN HALLOWELL), 1760-1834. 
 
 Bom in Canada. Entered the navy at an early 
 age, and was appointed by Sir Samuel Hood acting- 
 lieutenant of the Alcide in 1781 ; served in the 
 actions off the Chesapeake, and at St. Christopher’s 
 and Dominica. Commander 1700, post-captain 1793. 
 He temporarily commanded the Robust and the 
 Courageux and then served as volunteer at Bastia, 
 Calvi, &c. He was present in the Battle of St. Vin¬ 
 cent, and commanded the Swiftsure (74) off Cadiz 
 and in the Battle of the Nile. Captured by the 
 French in 1801 he was speedily released. Served 
 under Sir S. Hood in the Leeward Islands, and in 
 the Tigre took part in the chase of Villeneuve, 1805. 
 Rear-admiral i8n, K.C.B. 1815, commander-in-chief 
 on Irish coast 1816-18, and at the Nore 1821-24, vice- 
 admiral 1819. Succeeded to estates of the Carews 
 of Beddington 1828. Admiral 1830, G.C.B. 1831. 
 
 Waiting for battle. 
 
 A. Barraud .] [After a Sketch about 1830. 
 
 FORT NUOVO, NAPLES. 
 
 _ 
 
 — Bennett .] 
 
 [From the “ Naval Chronicle 1812. 
 FORT UOVO, NAPLES. 
 
 is significant of his changed feelings that 
 no letter of farewell to his wife remains. 
 The battle, however, tarried. The vast 
 French fleet did absolutely nothing, but 
 ran straight for Toulon. Fortune had 
 once more saved Nelson and his fleet. 
 His ships scattered when the emergency 
 had passed, and he steered for Naples. 
 
124 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [ 1799 - 
 
 Hayter , Senr.] [In the possession oj Lieut.-Col. 
 
 Stanhope Holmes. 
 
 SIR EDWARD JAMES FOOTE, 
 
 1767-1833. 
 
 Was in the actions on the Dogger Bank, 1781, 
 and at Dominica, 1782. Commanded the frigate 
 Niger at St. Vincent, where he took the San Josef 
 in tow after her capture by Nelson. As captain of 
 the frigate Seahorse , off the Neapolitan coast in 
 1799, h e vvas one t ^ ie signatories of the Armistice 
 which Nelson annulled. Rear-admiral 1812, \ ice- 
 admiral i82r, K.C.B. 1831. 
 
 On his arrival there he found a singular state of things existing. The loyal Neapolitans under 
 Cardinal Ruffe, aided by Turkish and Russian troops, had entered the town and besieged the Forts 
 
 of Uovo, Nuovo, and St. Elmo, in which were the French and the revolutionists. 
 Events at Naples. Captain p oote of the British Navy with a 
 
 frigate and some small craft had co-operated in the siege. On 
 June 23, 1799, one day before Nelson’s coming, Forts Uovo and 
 Nuovo, which were garrisoned mainly by Neapolitan insurgents, 
 capitulated. The terms granted by Cardinal Ruffo were exception¬ 
 ally favourable, and were only agreed to by Captain t oote with 
 extreme reluctance. The Cardinal granted immunity to men who 
 from the Court point of view were detestable rebels. The garrisons 
 were to march out and be transported to Toulon. Captain Foote 
 gave way, and the capitulation was duly signed. Nothing, however, 
 had been done to execute it when Nelson appeared in his flagship. 
 
 He was indignant at the mere idea of a capitulation. Unconditional 
 surrender was all that he would grant. And therefore he instantly 
 annulled the armistice and informed the insurgents of his determina¬ 
 tion and his future intentions. 
 
 This step can only be justified by recollecting the extreme 
 
 bitterness and passion which marked the times—the hatred and 
 
 detestation which Nelson felt for these disloyal 
 
 The capitulation revolutionists, and the exaggerated affection for 
 denounced. . 
 
 the Neapolitan Court which he had acquired 
 
 at Palermo. He claimed to have been entrusted by the Neapolitan 
 Court with supreme authority, but the commission was probably only verbal; at least, no trace of 
 a written-document remains. If the French fleet had appeared, Nelson knew the capitulation would 
 at once have been disregarded; he therefore, now that the British fleet had come instead, persuaded 
 
 himself that all obligation had 
 passed away. Napoleon would 
 not have hesitated for a moment 
 to annul such an armistice : the 
 laws of war under exceptional cir¬ 
 cumstances sanction such an act; 
 the British Government warmly 
 approved of Nelson’s conduct. 
 And yet we cannot repress the 
 feeling that, however easily his 
 action may be justified, he failed 
 to abide by the spirit of inter¬ 
 national law. He may not have 
 been faithless or treacherous, as 
 has been pretended, but he may 
 be accused of disregarding equity, 
 with the cruellest of results for 
 the miserable prisoners. 
 
 Forts Uovo and Nuovo sur¬ 
 rendered at discretion on June'25, 
 
 but St. Elmo 
 held out for 
 In the 
 
 interval occurred the most canvassed incident of Nelson’s life, the execution of Caracciolo. Caracciolo 
 was a Neapolitan noble, aged forty-seven, who had served with credit in the royal navy of Naples. 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 f by F. Frith 6 ^ Co., Reigate. 
 
 THE CASTLE OF ST. ELMO, FROM THE LARGO DE PALAZZO, NAPLES. 
 In the foreground is a portion of the Colonnade of the Royal Palace. 
 
 Caracciolo. 
 
 more than a fortnight. 
 
I799-] 
 
 Capture of Caracciolo . 
 
 W ith many protestations of devotion he accompanied the King to Palermo, but presently went off on some 
 excuse to Naples and joined the insurgents, and this though he was warned by the King to “avoid meddling 
 in politics.” At first British offi¬ 
 cers who had known him did not 
 credit his treachery. It was sup¬ 
 posed by Nelson and Troubridge 
 that he had been compelled to 
 serve in the rebel navy. Then 
 the news arrived that he had 
 been appointed to the chief com¬ 
 mand, that he had had ample 
 opportunities to escape, if he had 
 wanted to do so, and that he had 
 attacked and fired into loyal Nea¬ 
 politan ships, causing loss of life. 
 
 There could be but one opinion 
 as to his behaviour. 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by E. L. P. Jones, Welshpool. 
 
 THE “FOUDROYANT” ASHORE AT BLACKPOOL. 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Priestley Sons, Egremont. 
 
 H.M.S. “FOUDROYANT,” AS ALTERED AND REFITTED IN 1892. 
 
 The Foudroyant, 80 guns, 2,055 tons, was launched at Plymouth in 1798, 
 and named after a ship which had been captured from the French forty yenrs 
 previously. She served as Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean in 1799. 
 
 1892 she was sold to a German firm to be broken up, but was repurchased, re¬ 
 masted, and brought to Blackpool for exhibition. Here, during a heavy gale 
 on the 16th June 1897, she parted her cables and went ashore, her crew being 
 rescued by the lifeboat. She was finally destroyed by the storm of 28th Novem¬ 
 ber 1897. 
 
 He was in one of the forts which capitulated, but 
 fled probably before the armistice was concluded, 
 
 and certainly long before it 
 
 He is captured. 
 
 was annulled. The breach of 
 the capitulation had therefore nothing to do with 
 him and did not affect him. He was arrested in 
 disguise by peasants, and brought bound, in rags 
 and in a miserable plight, on board the Foudroyant, 
 which had now replaced the Vanguard as flagship. 
 No British officer could have had the slightest sympathy with him, but his condition excited some pity. 
 His fetters were struck off, he was offered food, and was finally placed in a cabin under vigilant guard. 
 
 The moment Nelson heard of his capture he ordered a court-martial of Neapolitan officers to be 
 summoned on board the Foudroyant to try him for rebellion and firing upon his King’s colours. It 
 
 has been questioned whether Nelson 
 had any authority to do this, and 
 it must remain a doubtful point. Still if he had no 
 authority, the obedience of the Neapolitan officers is 
 simply inexplicable; the conduct of Troubridge at Naples 
 in pardoning and punishing is as extraordinary; and 
 Nelson himself is convicted of a signal insult to the 
 King of Naples and the Neapolitan navy. Where Nelson 
 had no authority to punish or call court-martials, as in 
 the case of a Portuguese officer, who, he considered, 
 richly deserved punishment for burning certain Neapolitan 
 ships before orders to do so had been issued, he did not 
 interfere. On the other hand are his infraction of the 
 armistice and his general attitude at Naples. The court-martial assembled. Caracciolo made the 
 
 absurd defence that his patrimony was at Naples, and that if he had not joined the rebels he would 
 
 Tried. 
 
 {From the original formerly in the possession of Lady Nelson, and 
 now the property of Messrs. Crichton Bros., Old Bond Street. 
 
 SILVER DOG COLLAR, 
 
 With engraved inscription: “The Right Hon. Lord Nelson nileus. 
 This litt'e relic is interesting as showing that Nelson, or more probably 
 Lady Nelson, had, in 1799 (for that is the date of the hall-mark), a dog 
 named after the famous victory of the previous year. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 L 1 799 - 
 
 I 26 
 
 A. Barraw-i.\ [From a Photograph . 
 
 PORTA FELICE, PALERMO, AND 
 THE MARINA. 
 
 have lost it. He went on to reflect upon the royal family by way of excuse. Thus proved a seditious 
 and malignant traitor out of his own mouth, one fate, and one only, could await him. The court- 
 martial sentenced him to death by hanging on board his own flagship in two hours’ time. 
 
 A British officer who had behaved as he did would have been strung up as sharply and as igno- 
 miniously. A military force engaged in war can have no mercy upon deserters—least of all when 
 
 Executed. 
 
 these bear arms against their own 
 
 flag. Nor do the circumstances of civil war 
 
 Malicious stories. 
 
 excuse such dereliction of duty on the part of officers. At noon of the day of 
 the culprit’s capture the verdict was in Nelson’s hands. He sanctioned the sentence, postponing by 
 three hours the execution. There was no intelligible reason why he should have shown mercy. 
 Caracciolo was from every point of view one of the very worst and most guilty of the rebels. If 
 Napoleon had been dealing with such a man, he would have shot him without pity, and shot him instantly. 
 Executions on active service are carried out as soon as the sentence has been confirmed. And so at 
 5 p.m. that evening the miserable wretch was hanged at the yard-arm of the Neapolitan frigate Minerva. 
 
 It does not appear that Ca¬ 
 racciolo in his defence invoked 
 
 the protec¬ 
 tion of the 
 armistice, which was his only 
 possible claim to mercy, or that 
 he contested Nelson’s authority 
 over the Neapolitan navy. But 
 there is a very unpleasant flavour 
 about the affair. In our time, 
 unused as we are to war, we 
 forget that there are occasions 
 where the shedding of human 
 blood is required, and also forget 
 that at this date in Great Britain 
 
 the mildest offences against pro¬ 
 perty were punished with death, 
 and that numbers of criminals 
 were hung every Monday at 
 Tyburn. We expect our own 
 squeamish humanity in this for¬ 
 gotten past, and are liable to 
 censure those in whom we do 
 not find it. If the execution of 
 Caracciolo shocked certain peo¬ 
 ple in England at the time, it 
 was because the real circum- a. Barraud.) 
 stances were not fully known, 
 or because the opposition in its friendship for our country’s enemies and enmity to our country’ 
 friends and servants, for its own purposes distorted the truth, quite as much as because it was felt tha 
 Nelson had not behaved altogether well. Malignant falsehoods were circulated. It was said that Lad 
 Hamilton was present at the execution, and gloated over Caracciolo’s dying agony; that she said t 
 Nelson whilst the body was hanging, “ Come, Bronte, let us take the barge and have another loo: 
 at poor Caracciolo. Both stories are proved by ships’ logs, disinterested witnesses, and circumstantia 
 
 PALERMO. 
 
 {From a Photograph. 
 
1799 -] 
 
 Nelson disobeys Keiths orders. 
 
 127 
 
 An extraordinary 
 incident. 
 
 details, to have been absolutely false. Nelson was not yet Duke of Bronte. Lady Hamilton was 
 dining with him and Lord Northwick in the Foudroyant when the gun announced Caracciolo’s end. 
 Lady Hamilton’s influence, if used at all, was probably exerted in 
 the cause of mercy. Her reputation for tenderness and humanity is 
 proved beyond a doubt by the letters which remain to us from 
 rebels, begging her intercession with the cruel King. Indeed, the 
 officers of the Leviathan, in an appeal to her for an unfortunate 
 family, expressly state, “ we have heard many instances of your 
 Ladyship’s unbounded humanity.” 
 
 The execution of Caracciolo had a curious sequel. After hang¬ 
 ing the required time, his body was cut down and thrown into the 
 
 sea with shot weighing 250 pounds attached to 
 it. Some days afterwards the King of Naples 
 returned for a short space to his capital, and 
 lived on board the Foudroyant. It was now that a fisherman came 
 on board the flagship and told her officers that Caracciolo had 
 risen from the bottom of the sea and was swimming to Naples. 
 
 The story sounded incredible, but on the Foudroyant putting out 
 to sea a few hours later, a body was seen upright in the water 
 approaching the ship. It was Caracciolo’s body after all. A boat was 
 sent, and the corpse was secured, taken on shore, and there buried. 
 
 Whilst Nelson was proceeding to Naples, Lord St. Vincent had 
 gone home. To Nelson, as to the other great officers of the 
 
 Mediterranean fleet, this stern and grim old man 
 was “ our father, under whose fostering care we 
 have been led to fame.” His place was taken temporarily by a 
 Scotchman, Lord Keith, who, if able enough in his own way, was 
 cold and repellent by nature. Both Nelson and Troubridge detested 
 him, and something very like insubordination was simmering amongst 
 
 J. Hoppner> R.A.] 
 
 Keith in command. 
 
 \From the Engraving by 
 R id ley. 
 
 VISCOUNT KEITH, 1746-1823. 
 
 George Keith Elphinstone, fifth son of the tenth 
 Lord Elphinstone, was born near Stirling, and was 
 in 1761 entered on the books of th'e Cosport f44) 
 under Capt. John Jervis, afterwards Earl of St. 
 Vincent. From 1767 to 1769 he served in the 
 East India Company’s fleet, and returning to the 
 Navy was promoted to a lieutenancy in 1770, com¬ 
 mander 1772, post-captain 1775. In 1781-82, 
 while Prince William Henry was under his care, 
 he was actively engaged in American waters, and 
 in 1793-94 in the Mediterranean. Rear-admiral 
 1794. Nominated commander-in-chief of the squad¬ 
 ron in Indian waters 1795. He reduced the 
 Dutch settlement at the Cape. Vice-admiral 1795, 
 created Baron Keith 1797, in which year he was 
 specially appointed to suppress the mutiny at 
 Sheerness. Second in command under St. Vin¬ 
 cent in the Mediterranean 1798, and cominander- 
 in-chief on that station on St. Vincent’s retirement 
 in the same year; admiral 1801, commander-in-chief 
 in the North Sea 1803 and in the Channel 1812; 
 viscount 1814. 
 
 the senior officers of the fleet. 
 
 Keith’s judgment was tried at once. The French put to sea from Toulon with twenty-two ships, 
 and formed a junction with the Spaniards. Minorca was seriously threatened, and the new commander. 
 
 PORT MAHON, MINORCA. 
 
 [Drawn front Nature. 
 
 T. S. Compton .] 
 
 , , , XT 1 Av+orh nil the ships that he could spare to its defence. Nelson 
 
 d!fnoT'lve! rm DelLTately,foThehad already weighed all the 
 
 rather than Naples. His judgment was as usual amazinglycoirec . 1 
 
A e Ison and His limes. 
 
 [1799- 
 
 1 28 
 
 Nelson disobeys him. 
 
 Disobeys again. 
 
 From a Drawing] 
 
 [by Storelli, about 1830. 
 
 SYRACUSE : THE TOWN, HARBOUR, AND ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE. 
 Syracuse was nominally the head-quarters of Nelson under Keith during the siege of Malta. 
 
 signal gift of all, capacity to guess what his enemy’s mistakes would be. But none the less his 
 
 conduct is difficult to defend. He says himself, as if anticipating the verdict of 
 posterity and striving to justify his act, “do not think that my opinion is formed 
 from the arrangements of anyone.” It was not, he seems to say, due to Lady Hamilton’s influence. 
 He persuaded himself that he was still 
 doing his duty, for duty with him was a 
 magical word. He was ready to face 
 the verdict of a court-martial, to lose 
 fame, even life itself. “I regard not my 
 own safety,” he cries proudly. But in 
 
 later years, though he never admitted 
 any motive other than duty, he mani¬ 
 fested uneasiness. “ I paid more atten¬ 
 tion to another sovereign than my' own,” 
 he said, “ I did my duty, to the Sicilify- 
 ing of my conscience.” 
 
 A second and even more peremptory 
 order reached him from Keith. Again 
 
 he turned a deaf 
 
 ear and did not stir. 
 
 “It is better,” he wrote, “to save the 
 kingdom of Naples and risk Minorca, 
 than to risk the kingdom of Naples to save Minorca.” As a matter of fact Minorca was unfortified, 
 and even if lost could be recovered immediately. Finally a third curt demand from Keith “hereby 
 required and directed” Nelson to proceed to Minorca, with the whole or the greater part of his fleet. 
 For the third time he disobeyed. No Admiralty could condone such disobedience, however wise events 
 proved it. At the same time, Lord Spencer was Nelson’s warm personal friend, and he took care 
 
 that the rebuke should be delicately' 
 conveyed. He praised Nelson for his 
 exertions, and he was quite certain that 
 Nelson had acted for the best. And as 
 nothing happened to Minorca, it was diffi¬ 
 cult to show more displeasure to a man 
 who had served his country' so signally. 
 
 Keith presently departed in chase of 
 the French and Spaniards to Brest, and 
 
 left Nelson to fill the 
 place of commander- 
 in-chief. The latter 
 sailed back to Palermo, and remained 
 there nearly a month, living with the 
 Hamiltons, and now suffering much from 
 bad health. He never was really happy' 
 through all these weeks. A mental irrita¬ 
 bility, an exaggerated touchiness is evi¬ 
 dent in his letters. But he pressed his 
 work with zeal and activity. He nego¬ 
 tiated with the Bey of Tunis, “ that well- 
 guarded city, the abode of felicity, humoured the Russians, coaxed the Portuguese, and encouraged the 
 weak Neapolitans. The King of Naples made him Duke of Bronte, a great and picturesque estate on 
 the lower slopes of Etna in Sicily, reputed to be worth £2,000 a year. His leisure time was passed 
 in the society of Lady' Hamilton, and a growing disinclination to leave her side is manifest. 
 
 Nelson left in 
 command. 
 
 /•>«;« the original Etching] \by James Gillray, 1799. 
 
 THE ALLIED POWERS UNBOOTING EGALITE. 
 
 After the Battle of the Nile the French armies in Europe, deprived of the leadership of Napoleon, 
 su tiered many reverses, Holland and Belgium were temporarily rescued from French domination’, 
 the army under Jourdan was beaten beyond the Rhine by the Archduke Charles, and the north 
 of Italy recovered by the Austrians and Russians under Suwarrow. 
 
I 799 ~ I b°°- 
 
 Capture of the Genereux. 
 
 129 
 
 Soon after his return to Palermo the Court held a fete in his honour. A Temple of Fame was 
 modelled in wax, in which stood an effigy of Lady Hamilton holding out a wreath of laurel to 
 
 A remarkable fete. & waxen ima g e °f Nelson, who was accompanied by a waxen Sir William 
 Hamilton. This was true Neapolitan taste. Meantime Captain Ball was 
 pressing the siege of Malta, and Nelson was ready to sell the diamonds given him by the Czar to 
 provide the money necessary for the siege. He actually pledged Bronte to get funds for the payment 
 of troops landed m Malta , for both England and Naples were very remiss in sending money. 
 
 His zeal was not, however, kindly requited. Above all things he coveted the command-in-chief in the 
 Mediterranean, and had begun almost to consider it his, when, to his bitter chagrin, Keith was sent out 
 
 Nelson disappointed once more - It was probably the scandal, as yet without any real foundation, of his 
 life at Palermo which had caused this, quite as much as his disobedience. His physical 
 infirmities were also great. Blindness was coming upon him ; health had deserted him ; he was “ worn out 
 and left-handed as he wrote himself. \\ henever he went to sea, he was distressingly sea-sick. There 
 were no great enterprises to demand his whole attention and task his energies—little but diplomacy and 
 routine. So, when Keith came out, he almost at once began to chafe and yearn to go home. 
 
 Chas. Dixon .] 
 
 THE BRITISH FRIGATE “SUCCESS” ATTACKING THE FRENCH LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP “ g£n£rEUX.” 
 
 The odds, as Nelson said, were great—“thirty-two small guns to eighty large ones”—but the Success, firing first her larboard broadside and then her starboard, 
 “winged” the French ship and delayed her until Nelson in the Doudroyant , with the Northumberland , came up and effected her capture. 
 
 Keith met him at Leghorn and took him with him to Malta, towards which place a French, 
 squadron was reported to be steering. On the arrival of the British fleet, the ships scattered to 
 
 maintain an effective watch. Nelson was ordered to look out to the south-east, 
 
 Captures the p, u f. seeing the object of his admiral, with characteristic foresight stood for the 
 
 «Genereux.” 0 J 
 
 north-west. Once more fortune favoured him. In a heavy sea and a thick mist, 
 on February 18, 1800, he heard the kindling note of cannon through the fog, and steered towards it. 
 Four French sail, one of them a ship of the line, were speedily made out. They were being pursued by the 
 
 British frigate Success, and the ships of the line Alexander, Audacious, and A 7 orthumberland, besides Nelson s 
 own Foudroyant. The little Success drew up to the French battleship, whilst all hearts beat fast at her daring. 
 Firing at the big ship’s masts and sails, she winged the enemy, and enabled Nelson to come up. Resistance 
 was hopeless, and the enemy struck at once, although she fired a shot or two at the Foudroyant, which made 
 a young midshipman turn very pale, and led Nelson to console him with the reflection that the gieat 
 Charles XII. ran away from his first battle. She was the Genereux, one of the survivors of the Nile; and 
 of the thirteen French ships which had fought there, only one, the Guillaume Tell, remained. 
 
 f 5 
 
 now 
 
Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1800. 
 
 130 
 
 Nelson leaves Malta. 
 
 His work done. 
 
 “ Ought I to trust Dame Fortune any more ? ” asked Nelson. He decided that he ought not. 
 Keith presently departed, ordering Nelson to remain and supervise the blockade of Malta, to which 
 
 order Nelson replied by stating that his health would not permit him to remain 
 at sea. He asked leave to turn over his com¬ 
 mand at Malta to Troubridge, and sailed off without getting it. 
 
 In vain did Troubridge entreat him to stay. “ I beseech you,” he 
 wrote, “ hear the entreaties of a sincere friend and do not go to 
 Sicily for the present.” That Nelson was in miserable health seems 
 absolutely certain. “ I am almost finished,” he wrote to Admiral 
 Goodall, who had told him the gossip at home. For the last time he 
 went to Palermo, and in his absence the only French survivor of the 
 Nile, the Guillaume Tell, fell to his “darling child” the Foudroyant. 
 
 “ If you expect to find anything like perfection in this world, 
 you will be mistaken,” he had written to his flag-captain, Sir Edward 
 
 Berry, in words strangely applicable to himself, 
 
 “therefore do not think of little nonsenses too 
 much.” But his best friends were growing anxious and alarmed. 
 
 His work was done; he had carried out his “ dear great Earl of 
 St. Vincent’s orders—to follow the French Mediterranean fleet and 
 annihilate them.” He had applied for permission to go home, and 
 it was now granted. Lord Spencer even urged him to come to 
 England rather than remain inactive at Palermo. On April 24 the 
 Foudroyant sailed from Palermo for Malta with Nelson and the 
 Hamiltons on board. Deep sorrow was upon all the members of 
 the party. Hamilton had been recalled from his post at the 
 Neapolitan Court; Lady Hamilton was soon to part for ever from 
 the Queen, to whom she was deeply attached ; Nelson was leaving 
 the scene of his glories, “a broken-hearted man,” as he said. The woman who had been the associate 
 of his joys and sorrows was with him at his side, nursing him tenderly in his physical prostration. 
 The common sorrow and regret drew them yet closer together. Lady Nelson became “ that person,” 
 
 Lady Hamilton his wife in his own eyes, and, 
 he told her, “in the sight of God.” In June the 
 Foudroyant returned to Palermo and, embarking 
 the Queen of Naples, put out for Leghorn, in 
 flagrant disobedience of Keith’s order that Nelson 
 was not to take a battleship off her station ; the 
 mountains of Sicily faded and fell below the hori¬ 
 zon ; the Mediterranean swelled behind them. 
 
 Yet, even now, amidst this tumult of passion 
 he had not lost sight of his duty to his country. 
 
 “ Mine cannot be an inactive 
 life,” he told Lord St. Vin¬ 
 cent, adding with a hit at 
 Keith “although it may not carry all the outward 
 parade of much ado about nothing^ The party 
 landed at Leghorn—where Nelson met Keith, 
 [Dated 1799. who showed displeasure at his behaviour pretty 
 
 ; or, openly—crossed Italy, then on fire with the news 
 
 of Marengo, to Ancona; and there embarked in 
 Their passage was uncomfortable in the extreme, and Nelson was seriously 
 ill all the time. And thus fortune was bringing home her “ heaven-born ” admiral at the hour of his 
 country’s need from great achievements to the theatre of yet greater action. 
 
 /. Kreutzinger.] [Drawnfrom Life in Vienna 
 in 1799. 
 
 FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT SUWARROW. 
 
 I 73° (?)-i8oo. 
 
 Aleksandr Suvorov- Rymnikski Vasilievitch, 
 usually called Suwarrow, was born in Finland. 
 He fought in the Seven Years’ War, but achieved 
 fume by suppressing the revolt in Poland and 
 taking Warsaw on November 19, 1794. He led 
 the Russians and Austrians against the French in 
 Italy, and drove them across the Alps, but being 
 disappointed of reinforcements had to fall back 
 and was recalled. He died of chagrin. 
 
 He cannot live 
 inactive. 
 
 From Laurie Whittle's Drolls 
 TRUE BLUE 
 
 THE JOLLY TARS OF OLD ENGLAND 
 ALL ALIVE AT PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 a Russian frigate for Trieste 
 
E. Prater .] 
 
 NELSON LANDING AT YARMOUTH, November 6, 1800. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BALTIC AND COPENHAGEN, 1800-1801. 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 41-42.) 
 
 Travels Home—Spiteful Stories—Lands at Yarmouth—The Nation’s Love—Meets Lady Nelson—Doings in England—Returns 
 to Service—Baltic Expedition—The Sacred Dead—The Greatness of his Sacrifice—Love and Duty—Under Sir Hyde 
 Parker—Parker’s Unfitness—Parker’s Orders—Hesitation and Delay—Nelson’s Fiery Appeal—Nelson and Russia— 
 The Approaches to Copenhagen—The Defences of Copenhagen—Nelson’s P'an of Attack—Nelson’s Glory—The Fleet 
 Passes the Sound—The Council of War—The Attack resolved—The Night before the Battle—Nelson’s Dispositions 
 —The Battle opens—Unkindly Fortune—Nelson’s Coolness—The Action general—Obstinacy of the Danes—The 
 Danes Distressed—Bearing of Nelson—Nelson’s Blind Eye—Sir Hyde Parker’s Mistake—The Danes Defeated— 
 Nelson Demands a Truce—His Motives—Nelson leaves the Elephant —A Truce Conclud:d—Nelson in Copenhagen — 
 A Bismarck in Diplomacy — The Copenhagen Dead — Nelson’s Devotion — Sir Hyde Recalled — Ingratitude of the 
 Government—Nelson in Command—Assassination of Paul—Nelson at Revel—But one Nelson—His Life. 
 
 N the summer of l8oo Nelson landed at Trieste and travelled in the company of the 
 Hamiltons and the Queen of Naples to Vienna. His journey through Austria was 
 a triumphal progress. The people crowded out to see him, and honoured him in the 
 
 way that touched 
 him most. He 
 vas the cynosure of every eye; 
 lis name was on every lip. Nor 
 
 was his re- 
 
 Travels home. . . 
 
 ception less 
 
 irilliant at Vienna, where he met 
 lis old friend Lord Minto. There 
 vas, however, tacit disapproval 
 wen here of the notorious inti- 
 nacy with Lady Hamilton, which 
 ed many to look askance at him. 
 3 ut though his best friends feared 
 hat he would be spoilt by flattery 
 ind success, it was not the case. 
 
 . . r ,, • • ; i r in the possession of IT- Nelson H ard , Esq. 
 
 Photographed from the original fabric ] inc r™ c J 
 
 EMBROIDERY OF A DRESS WORN BY LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 „ , , , ■ j r „„ embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks, the words 
 
 A portion of the flounce of a white mu.l > . .... , s pru b a bly made fur the Palermo fete 
 
 s:z;, ittraw - 
 
 1 
 
132 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1800. 
 
 Spiteful stories. 
 
 The Mintos found that he had, with the same old “shock-head,” “the same honest, simple manners. 
 Emma must sit by him at dinner to cut his meat, and he carries her pocket-handkerchief.” And 
 
 he struck these fastidious critics 
 as “kind-hearted, thoughtful, good 
 of heart.” Even his evident vanity 
 they put down to simplicity of 
 nature. 
 
 Nelson’s love, in fact, made 
 him a trifle ridiculous in the eyes 
 
 of Vienna so¬ 
 ciety, though 
 to us it might rather seem that 
 his devotion was pathetic. Sump¬ 
 tuously entertained and feasted by 
 Austrian Archdukes and Princes, 
 he went on with the Hamiltons 
 to Dresden, where he met Mrs. 
 St. George, an English society 
 lady with a very sharp tongue. 
 “ Lord Nelson,” she says, “ is a 
 little man, without any dignity, 
 who, I suppose, must resemble 
 what Suwarrow was in his youth, 
 as he is like all the pictures I have seen of that general. Lady Hamilton takes possession of him, 
 and he is a willing captive, the most submissive and devoted I have ever seen. Sir William is old, 
 infirm, all admiration of his wife, and never spoke to-day but to applaud her. After dinner we had 
 several songs in honour of Lord Nelson, written by Miss Knight [who was travelling with the party] 
 and sung by Lady Hamilton. She puffs tne incense full in his face; but he receives it with pleasure 
 and snuffs it up very cordially.” It was here that Mr. Elliot, the British Minister at the Court 
 of Saxony, uttered the famous prediction of Lady Hamilton : “ She will captivate the Prince of Wales, 
 whose mind is as vulgar as her own, and play a great part in England.” Mrs. St. George represents 
 both Nelson and Lady Hamilton as drinking to excess and talking at the top of their voices, although 
 Nelson was always a very abste¬ 
 mious man. But we need not 
 trouble ourselves more with this 
 ill-natured tattle. It is evident 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 [by the Photochrom Co. 
 
 DRESDEN: THE MARKET-PLACE. 
 
 that Mrs. St. George 
 
 in 
 
 these 
 
 spiteful reminiscences could make 
 no allowance for the failings of 
 a great man; that she misrepre¬ 
 sented and twisted everything to 
 the worst construction, and that 
 she was in no wise touched by 
 Nelson’s more heroic side. 
 
 Thence he made a triumphal 
 progress through Germany amidst 
 
 , , the most ex- 
 
 Lands at Yarmouth. 
 
 traordinary 
 enthusiasm. At Magdeburg the 
 hotel - keeper contrived to show 
 him to admirers, permitting them 
 to look at him for a sum of monev 
 
 From a Photograph\ 
 
 [by the Photochrom Co. 
 
 DRESDEN: THE SCHLOSSHOF. 
 
i8oo.] 
 
 Nels oris Pop ula rity . 
 
 133 
 
 The Nation's love. 
 
 through a window. At Hamburg he was presented with Rhine wine of extraordinary age, and pestered 
 for his autograph. There taking ship he landed at Yarmouth, acclaimed by a mighty crowd, on 
 November 6, 1800, with Lady Hamilton at his side. Immediately on landing Nelson offered his 
 services to the Admiralty. 
 
 Now it was that Nelson reaped the first harvest 
 of his great popularity with the British nation. His 
 
 countrymen had seen him slighted 
 by authority, and their hearts went 
 out to him with all the more passionate gratitude be¬ 
 cause they felt that they had a great debt to pay. To 
 them he was the pillar of cloud and fire which by day 
 and night had shielded Britain from the assaults of her 
 enemies. He appealed to all their noblest emotions, 
 and they, the people- 
 rooms might be—were 
 
 -whatever the talk of the drawing- 
 
 not 
 
 They greeted him as a 
 
 rather 
 
 Meets Lady Nelson. 
 
 blind 
 
 his 
 
 heroic 
 
 side. 
 
 to 
 
 od, 
 
 than 
 
 as 
 
 man 
 
 NELSON IN 1800. 
 
 They looked upon his wounds, his emaciated war-worn 
 frame, and loved him for the sacrifices he had made. 
 Escorted by volunteers, waited upon by mayors and 
 corporations, attended everywhere by vast crowds, the 
 hero came home. “ Adoration and respect,” he told 
 Lady Hamilton, “ there are no honours that can be 
 conferred equal to this.” 
 
 Yet one face was wanting from that welcome. 
 Lady Nelson was not at Yarmouth to meet her hero. 
 
 It is probable that this was due to 
 no 
 
 fault of hers, for no 
 letter from Nelson, tell¬ 
 ing her where he pro¬ 
 posed to land, remains. 
 
 But if so, his very 
 neglect testifies to his 
 growing coldness to 
 her. On her part she 
 must have heard the 
 stories current : her 
 son cannot but have 
 informed her of the 
 strange establishment 
 at Palermo; and natu¬ 
 rally she would be re¬ 
 luctant to meet her 
 husband in the com¬ 
 pany of one whom she 
 suspected to be his 
 
 mistress. She saw him for the first time in a London hotel, and her reception of him was chilling. 
 Had she been a Josephine, she might even now by shutting her eyes have wrought upon his affection 
 and brought about a reconciliation. But her conduct was too upright and too honourable. She had 
 much to forgive: a word, an act on his part would assuredly have touched hei. He was, howevei, 
 
 no mood for tenderness. 
 
 [From the original Marble Bust in 
 the possession of Earl Nelson. 
 
 This bust was executed in Vienna, 
 while Nelson was in that city on his 
 way from Italy to England. It is the 
 work of Franz Thaller and Matthias 
 Ranson, and is believed to be an ex¬ 
 ceptionally good likeness of Nelson at 
 that period of his life, and perhaps on 
 the whole the most satisfactory of the 
 many existing busts. r lhe two sides 
 of the face are here given. The lower 
 illustration is reproduced by permission 
 from the photograph taken for Laugh¬ 
 ton’s “Nelson Memorial”; the upper 
 one has not previously appeared. 
 
 availed nothing. 
 
 dll aci xaj-wj f-'*-** - - j 
 
 That she had cared for his old and ailing father with all a daughter s love 
 The choice had to be made for ever between her and Lady Hamilton, and Nelson 
 
‘34 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [i 800-1. 
 
 :hose Lady Hamilton. 
 
 Sir IV. Beechey ,] 
 R.A. 
 
 {From the original in the 
 possession of Earl Nelson. 
 
 NELSON’S FATHER IN OLD AGE. 
 
 Sir William Beechey, who required his patrons 
 to sit at his studio, painted this portrait at Lady 
 Nelson’s house, out of regard to Nelson* himself. 
 
 He lived with his wife most unhappily through late November and early 
 December, 1800, but left her to her lonely sorrows at Christmas; 
 and early in January, 1801, the final breach came. Nelson is said 
 to have spoken of “ dear Lady Hamilton,” his injured wife to have 
 exclaimed bitterly: “I am sick of hearing ‘dear Lady Hamilton,’ 
 and am resolved that you 
 shall give up either her or 
 me.” But all we know of 
 Lady Nelson’s character from 
 her letters leads us to doubt 
 unkindness or hastiness on 
 her part. They parted, each 
 going his or her own way, 
 and met only once again, 
 when he called on her in 
 mid-January before he left to 
 join the fleet. There was no 
 reconciliation ; but stricken, it 
 may be, with remorse at the 
 thought of the inward sorrow 
 of her who had watched and waited for his coming—watched 
 and waited in vain—he assured her, “ I take God to witness 
 there is nothing in you or your conduct I wish otherwise.” 
 
 Thenceforward she had no share of his heart. In money 
 matters he was generous to her. He assigned her £1,800 a year, 
 or half his' income, and did not forget her in his will. He only wrote to her thrice again; once from 
 Southampton, three lines; once from Torquay, refusing her tender offer to nurse him; and once 
 before Copenhagen, on the eve of action, the one cruel letter that stands in his correspondence. 
 “ My only wish is to be left to myself,” he concluded, after a stern condemnation of her son who 
 
 had saved his life. And 
 he went down to death 
 with another woman’s 
 name upon his lips. 
 
 From London, feasted 
 by the City and drawn 
 by the 
 people 
 
 in his carriage, he went 
 with the Hamiltons on a 
 regal progress to Beck- 
 ford’s magnificent house 
 at Fonthill. On his way 
 he passed through Salis¬ 
 bury, and won the 
 plaudits of the crowd by 
 recognising a seaman who 
 
 Sir IV. BeecheyR.A.] 
 
 {From an Engraving by 
 R. Cardon. 
 
 HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE III. 
 
 <pr w- 
 
 V" 
 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 -1A/- 'V 
 
 CTv-^V 
 
 p-'v—L x- 
 
 
 \NT ort/NT, 
 
 Doings in England. 
 
 /Tty VVi- TuNrt 
 
 \/0 
 
 -ft -tsty/c. 
 
 jA z, v/. — 
 
 6—yA-L j—x- c - <—J 
 
 AA—c- Ta~-rA /iVA*. 
 
 /StS/’ 
 
 
 
 From the original 
 
 [in the British Museum. 
 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF PORTION OF NELSON’S LAST LETTER TO LADY NELSON, 
 AND OF HER OWN COMMENTS THEREON. 
 
 On receipt of this letter Lady Nelson indignantly tore it; but, realizing its importance, stitched the pieces together. 
 
 had fought with him at 
 the Nile, and another who 
 had witnessed the ampu¬ 
 tation of his arm in 
 the Theseus at Teneriffe. 
 He bestowed upon them 
 
iSoi.l 
 
 Cold Reception at Court , 
 
 o - 
 
 0 D 
 
 handsome gratuities. He spent the Christmas of 1800 with Beckford, a relative of Sir William 
 
 Hamilton, and a man of vast wealth 
 but infamous reputation. In January, 
 1801, Nelson was promoted vice- 
 admiral. He had much to worry 
 and distress him in these weeks of 
 inactivity. First, he was in debt to 
 his agents. Then a most monstrous 
 bill for the Peerage conferred upon 
 him by his King and country, had 
 been presented. This, with its absurd 
 fees, he absolutely declined to pay. 
 He was also engaged in a trouble¬ 
 some and painful law-suit, actually, 
 if not nominally, with Lord St. Vin¬ 
 cent, on the subject of prize-money. 
 Moreover, Lady Hamilton was ex¬ 
 pecting shortly to become a mother. 
 Her state caused him tender anxiety 
 and alarm. But what frightened him 
 far more was the reported admiration 
 of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., for her whom he regarded as his “wife in the sight 
 of God.” The attentions of such a Prince were ample ground for disquietude. Finally, the King’s 
 reception of him at Court was cold and ungracious in the extreme. He who had been the darling 
 of the alien Court of Naples, when he came home to his own was slighted and disdained. 
 George III. had not been above overlooking the far more 
 glaring improprieties of the disgraceful Lord Sandwich, but for 
 Nelson, the faithful servant of Britain, he had no honour or 
 respect. The King spoke but a few words to him when he went 
 to Court, and then coldly turned his back upon him. It was 
 probably the intimacy with Lady Hamilton which had excited 
 his displeasure. England, however, atoned for the coldness of 
 this reception. Nelson had the hearts of the people. 
 
 G. Cattermole .] 
 
 [From the Engraving by T. Higham. 
 
 FONTHILL ABBEY, WILTS : THE WEST AND SOUTH FRONTS FROM 
 BEACON TERRACE. 
 
 J. Martin .] [From the Engraving by T. Higham, 
 
 FONTHILL ABBEY: WEST AND NORTH FRONTS FROM CLERK’S WALK. 
 
 G. Cattermole .] [From the Engraving by J . C. Varrall. 
 
 FONTHILL ABBEY : INTERIOR OF THE GREAT 
 WESTERN HALL. 
 
 This unique building, a wonderful combination of grandeur 
 with eccentricity, was designed by James Wyatt for William 
 Beckford, son of Alderman Beckford of London. It was 
 commenced in 1796 and was not finished when Nelson and 
 the Hamiltons were entertained here with lavish hospitality 
 in 1801. One portion of the building was called the Nelson 
 Turret in honour of the occasion. The octagonal tower was 
 278 feet high; the hall here represented measured 68 feet by 
 28 feet and 78 feet from floor to ceiling. 
 
136 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 Returns to service. 
 
 The days of his tarrying were few. His country, now as 
 always, had need of him : duty once more was paramount in his 
 
 heart. Though all private considerations urged 
 him to stay at home, though his doctor urged 
 an operation which would necessarily detain him, though he 
 yearned passionately for rest and to be with his love, though the 
 hour of Lady Hamilton’s labour was at hand, the sense of duty 
 was not quenched within him. On January 17 his flag was 
 hoisted in the San Josef, and cheered by the whole fleet. With 
 noble devotion he wrote to St. Vincent, “ that the service of 
 my King and country is the object nearest to my heart, and a 
 first-rate or sloop-of-war [as flagship] is a matter of perfect 
 indifference.” Yet now we know from the letters he wrote in the 
 belief that no human being, save her he loved, would ever see 
 them, how he wept when he heard the report that he was to be 
 given a bad ship, how he was convinced of some plot to ruin his 
 reputation. “ Nelson shall be first, let jealousy cabal,” he wrote. 
 
 The expedition to the Baltic was preparing, and he was to 
 
 go with it, not in 
 command but har¬ 
 nessed to one of 
 those good men 
 of routine with 
 whose leaden dull¬ 
 ness Britain is 
 wont to ballast the 
 impulsive energy 
 of her great sons. 
 
 From a Photograph} 
 
 [by C. Norman. 
 
 THE NELSON COLUMN AT GREAT 
 YARMOUTH. 
 
 Erected in 1815 to commemorate the landing of Nelson 
 at Yarmouth in 1800 and again in 1801. 
 
 Baltic expedition. 
 
 From the original [in St. Foul's Cathedral. 
 
 MONUMENT TO CAPTAIN MILLER, 1762-1799. 
 
 The bas-relief in the upper compartment, executed by Flnxman, 
 bears the inscriotion *' Capt. R. Willett Miller. This monument is 
 raised by his companions in victory.” The monument below is that of 
 the Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, and faces that of 
 Nelson himself. Captain Miller was born in New York. He is said 
 to have been in all the actions fought by Barrington, Rodney, Hood, 
 and Graves, as well as the destruction of the French fleet at Toulon, 
 and the Battles of St. Vincent and the Nile. He was killed by an 
 accidental explosion during the siege of Acre. 
 
 Denmark, Sweden, and Russia were 
 arming against us in a League of Neutrals, because we 
 
 interfered with their trade. They 
 protested against our right to search 
 their ships for French goods or for articles that might 
 be used in war by our enemies. If we allowed this 
 protest trade would pass to their merchant navies, and 
 our shipping, plundered by French corsairs, must be 
 swept from the sea. It was life or death for us. The 
 amazing imbecility of British statesmen has since, by 
 the Treaty of Paris, waived that right for which 
 hundreds of our countrymen then gave their life-blood. 
 A nation may suffer the deadliest defeats in peace 
 if it closes its eyes to the future and looks only to 
 the enjoyment of the moment. 
 
 In the midst of all his sorrow at parting with 
 the woman he loved, in the midst of real or fancied 
 
 slights, and depressing illness, with 
 blindness coming fast upon him, 
 Nelson still had time to think of those who had fought 
 and fallen for his “dear country.” Captain Miller, the 
 valiant hero of the Captain at St. Vincent and of the 
 Theseus at the Nile, had been killed by an unhappy 
 explosion two years before. Nelson was anxious to see 
 a monument to him whom he had called “ most 
 
 The sacred dead. 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 Birth of Horatia. 
 
 13 7 
 
 The greatness of his 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Sir T. Lawrence , P- ft.A.] 
 
 [From the original Drawing in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 virtuous of men,” raised in St. Paul’s; and if the captains who had fought with him were not willing 
 
 to subscribe, was ready to defray the whole cost. The 
 captains hardly came forward as they should have done 
 for this their “ dear old friend,” and much of the cost 
 ultimately fell upon Nelson. 
 
 A deeper tenderness, a greater proclivity to emotion, 
 mark these anxious days. No other period of his life, 
 
 excepting only that time when he 
 was going forth to certain death, 
 has shown so many of his sublime 
 utterances. The danger to his country and the condi¬ 
 tion of Lady Hamilton stirred his nature to its very 
 depth. He tells one of his friends, “ We are now arrived 
 at the period of fighting for our dear country, and I 
 trust that although we may not be able to subdue our 
 host of enemies, yet we may make them ashamed of 
 themselves.” “You,” he wrote to Lady Hamilton, “have 
 sent your dearest friend, and I have left mine. [Yours 
 is] the conduct of the Roman matron, ‘ Return with 
 your shield, or upon it.’ ” On February 1 he heard at 
 last that Lady Hamilton had been delivered of a 
 daughter—the famous Horatia, who thereafter had a 
 great share of his love. So well was the mystery 
 concealed, Lady Hamilton affecting a cold, that not a 
 soul in the house had an idea of what had happened. 
 Sir William may possibly have guessed, but if so, weary 
 of life and anxious only for peace, he said not a word. The child was placed with a Mrs. Gibson, 
 and there remained some years. Some doubts have been expressed as to whether the child was Lady 
 Hamilton’s, and there is a certain amount of evi¬ 
 dence to prove that it was not. Horatia is supposed 
 by some to have been foisted upon Nelson by Lady 
 Hamilton. But on the whole it is almost ceitain 
 that she was Lady Hamilton s daughter in very 
 reality and not merely in pretence. 
 
 The history of Nelson’s inward life in these days 
 is charged with that infinite pathos which cannot 
 
 but appeal to all generations and 
 Love and duty. ^ ageg wherein << mo rtal hearts 
 
 are touched by mortal things.” Each day he wrote 
 to Lady Hamilton ; each letter breathes a love too 
 deep for words. “ Your letters are to me Gazettes,” 
 he cries to her. Remembering old stories of Sir 
 William Hamilton, dark fears rise within him that 
 the ex-Minister may only be seeking to sell his wife 
 to the Prince of Wales. “ I may not be able to 
 write to you to-morrow, but thou art present ever to 
 my eyes. I see, I hear no one else. Parker sits 
 next me to cut my meat. God knows, he saj-s in 
 allusion to his growing blindness, “ I cannot see 
 
 LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 Signed “Emma, 1791” (the year of her marriage). 
 
 much.” He tells her that he sits with a cruel letter, 
 and, he adds, “ I have scratched out all the scolding 
 words and have read them forty times over, and if 
 
 G. Romney .] 
 
 [In the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 A SIBYL. 
 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
138 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 you were to see how much better and prettier they read I am sure you would never write another 
 scolding word to me. You would laugh to see my tiny innocent amusement.” The picture of the 
 half-blind man sitting in his silent cabin, distracted between the two greatest passions which can appeal 
 to man, duty to his country and love for a woman, scratching out painfully, with the one hand his 
 valour has left him, those bitter words, 
 must move us to deep compassion. 
 
 There is no going back upon the path 
 of duty. Whatever the inward tumult, 
 there is one course which his mind, if 
 it ever contemplates, refuses to mention. 
 
 “ You, my beloved Emma, and my 
 country are the two dearest objects of 
 my fond heart—a heart susceptible and 
 true ” he tells her. My dear friend, 
 
 I know you are so true and loyal an 
 Englishwoman that you would hate those 
 who would not stand forth in defence of 
 our King, laws, and religion, and all that 
 is dear to us. It is your sex that makes 
 us go forth, and seems to tell us—‘ None 
 but the brave deserve the fair.’ ” “ Yet,” 
 he continues, “ I long to get to Bronte, 
 for, believe me, this England is a shock¬ 
 ing place. To walk under the chestnut trees—although you may be shot by banditti—is better than 
 to have our reputations stabbed in this country.” “I never,” he writes to her on the eve of departure, 
 “did love anyone else. I never had a dear pledge of love till you gave me one, and you, thank God, 
 never gave one to anybody else. . . . Think what my Emma will feel at seeing me return safe, 
 perhaps with a little more fame, her own dear living Nelson. Poor Nelson,” he cries distractedly, 
 “everybody except you tears him to pieces, now has he but only you as a disinterested friend that 
 he can unbosom to. My God! My God! look down and bless us. ... A cottage, a plain 
 
 joint of meat and happiness, doing good to the poor, and setting an example of virtue and godliness.” 
 The very incoherency of his utterances testifies to the storm of passion which was tormenting his soul. 
 
 G. Cruikshanki] [From the original Etching published in 1825. 
 
 COMMEMORATING THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 SECTION OF A LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP OF NELSON’S TIME. 
 
 A. The poop. B. Qunrter-deck. C. Upper-deck D Middle-deck E. Gun-deck. F. Orlop. G. Hold. H H. Head. I. Powder-room. 
 
 J. rorecastls, k. State-room. i.. Cabins of lieutenants, masters, and mates. M. Cabins of boatswain, carpenter and mates. N N. Stern Galleries. 
 
 V * ore-mast. 2. Main-mast. 3 Mizen-mast. 4 4 4- Capstans. 5. Bowsprit. 6. Stern-post. 7. Rudder, actuated by chains from the wheel 8 on 
 
 the upper-deck, or by the tiller 9. 
 
 At Torbay his flag was shifted to the St. George, a lighter three-decker than the San Josef, and 
 on February 17 he received orders to put himself under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker— 
 who must not be confused with the Captain Parker, an intimate friend of Nelson, mentioned above— 
 for “a particular service”; and proceeded from Torbay to Spithead. There he applied for three 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 Under Sir Hyde Parker. 
 
 * 39 
 
 Under Sir Hyde 
 Parker. 
 
 days’ leave and obtained it. “ Parting from such a friend is literally tearing one’s own flesh,” he wrote 
 
 to his love on his return. A few days later he joined Parker’s squadron at 
 Yarmouth, and found his new chief nervous “about dark nights and fields of ice.” 
 His desire to be with the woman he loved was so irresistible that “this,” he 
 told St. \ incent, “will be the last service ever performed by your obliged and affectionate friend.” 
 
 The sending of Parker in chief command might well have proved one of the most disastrous 
 mistakes a British Administration ever committed. As it was, it cost hundreds of lives and imperilled 
 
 Parker’s unfitness. 
 
 a great fleet. Procrastinating, hesitating, fearful of all risks, and disliking 
 
 his 
 
 second in command, Sir Hyde Parker proved himself quite unfit for his duties. 
 The expedition was dangerous in the extreme. Our battleships were to be hazarded in shallow waters, 
 in the stormiest season of the year. The one man whose genius, political courage, and insight, 
 fitted him in a peculiar manner for the command, had been ostentatiously passed over. Sir Hyde 
 
 P• J• de Loutherbourg , E.A.] \Fro?n the Engraving by L. Schiavonetti. 
 
 THE LANDING OF BRITISH TROOPS IN EGYPT, March 8, 1801. 
 
 While Nelson was in England, a British expedition commanded by Sir Ralph Abercrombie and escorted by the fleet under the command of Sir Sidney Smith, landed 
 in the Bay of Aboukir in the face of a numerically superior French force. Running and climbing up the sand-hills, the British drove the French from their guns. 
 
 showed him not the least confidence. The plan of campaign and the secret instructions were not even 
 imparted to him, and Nelson began more than ever to suspect some plot to ruin his reputation. “ Sir 
 Hyde,” he tells Lady Hamilton, “ has run his pen through all who could do me credit or give me 
 support,” and to Troubridge he speaks of “jealousy, cabal, and art” against him. 
 
 Burning to return, Nelson, who always valued time and now prized it more than ever, saw with 
 infinite disgust Parker’s delays. “ Ah, my dearest beloved friend,” he wrote to Lady Hamilton, 
 
 “ I see, I feel, what the call of duty makes me suffer.” The admiral was giving a 
 ball and wished to detain the fleet for it, when the Admiralty were informed and 
 peremptorily ordered him to start. He sailed on March 12, 1801, with seventeen ships of the line, 
 eleven frigates and sloops, and a host of bomb-vessels, fire-ships, gun-brigs, cutters, and schooners. His 
 orders were “without a moment’s loss of time” to proceed to Copenhagen and there compel Denmark to 
 withdraw from the Armed Neutrality; then he was to go to Revel, where lay twelve Russian ships of 
 
 Parker’s orders. 
 
140 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 the line, and capture or destroy them ; finally he was to force Sweden to abandon the League, by hostile 
 
 action if necessary. This was a great and stirring mission : it demanded statesmanship as well as 
 
 sheer fighting; fearful apparent odds had to be confronted, for the fleets of the three allied Powers 
 were fully twice the strength of our force despatched : success depended upon rapidity of action, 
 judgment, and skill in negotiation. Six more ships of the line were sent after Parker as a reinforce¬ 
 ment : a seventh was wrecked with terrible loss of life on her way out. 
 
 On • March 21 the fleet anchored at the entrance to the Sound, not far from Elsinore, or 
 
 Helsingor as the Danes call it, where the channel of the Sound narrows and the moss-grown Castle of 
 
 Kronborg disputes the passage. There was still friction between Nelson and his 
 Hesitation and SU p er jor officer. Sir Hyde interfered in such details as the arrangement of Nelson’s 
 line of battle, persisting in placing weak ships at its head, instead of seventy-fours. 
 Nelson had been cleared for action more than a week. All his bulkheads were down, to “ prepare 
 people’s minds that we are going at it, and that they should have no other thought but how they 
 
 P. J. de Loutherbourg , P.A.] [Front the Engraving by A. Cardon. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ALEXANDRIA, March 21, i8ot. 
 
 This battle was fought on the very day on which the Baltic fleet anchored off Elsinore. The French, who were posted on the heights between Abotikir 
 and Alexandria, commenced the attack at about three o’clock in the morning, but by ten o’clock they were in full flight for Alexandria. Sir Ralph 
 Abercrombie was among the killed. The campaign resulted in the expulsion of the French from Egypt. 
 
 may best annoy their enemies.” Time had been lost already : priceless opportunities had been wasted : 
 now there were further delays. The fleet did not instantly proceed to Copenhagen and negotiate there 
 with its guns bearing on the Danish defences and its pennants flying in sight as a reminder to all 
 that force lay behind words. A British envoy was sent in a frigate to treat with the Danes. He 
 returned on March 24, empty-handed, with the news that the defences of Copenhagen had been 
 greatly strengthened and were growing more formidable every hour. The wind blew fair, but Parker, 
 alarmed by this news, hesitated and tarried. 
 
 At this crisis the genius and tact of his masterful subordinate came into play. In a letter, the 
 words of which are fire to kindle the most irresolute, he plied him with entreaty and appealed to 
 
 every great motive in him. “Here you are,” said Nelson, “with almost the safety, 
 
 Nelson's fiery 
 
 appeal certainly with the honour, of England more entrusted to you than ever yet fell to 
 
 the lot of any British officer. On your decision depends whether our country 
 shall be degraded in the eyes of Europe or whether she shall raise her head higher than ever: again 
 
i8oi.l 
 
 The ‘ ‘ A rmed Neutrality. 
 
 Nelson and Russia. 
 
 S. dc Koster.] [From an Engraving by T. Burke , after 
 the original Pencil Drawing in the 
 possession of Earl Nelson. 
 
 NELSON. 
 
 Drawn from life, December n, 1800. 
 
 do I repeat, never did our country depend so much on the success of any fleet as this.” He 
 besought him to lose “not a moment in attacking the enemy: 
 they will every day and hour be stronger; we shall never be 
 as good a match for them as at this moment. . . . The 
 
 boldest measures are the safest.” And with singularly clear, 
 cool judgment, with the understanding of a consummate master 
 of war, he calculated the risks correctly. “ Military science,” 
 said Napoleon, “consists in first calculating all the chances, 
 and then ascertaining exactly, almost mathematically, the exact 
 amount of risk. It is here that there must be no mistakes : 
 a decimal more or less may make all the difference.” 
 
 Alas for the days Sir Hyde Parker had wasted! Had 
 Nelson been in command he would have been off Copenhagen 
 
 a full week before Parker anchored in the 
 Sound. He would have found the city weak 
 and exposed to attack, and could have extorted what he wanted 
 without bloodshed. But with the insight of genius he saw that 
 Russia and not Denmark was the soul, “the trunk,” of the 
 Armed Neutrality. Purposeless blows, unnecessary bloodshed, 
 were not to his taste. “ If we could have cut up the Russian 
 fleet,” he afterwards told Lady Hamilton, “that was to my way 
 of thinking. Denmark and Sweden deserved whipping, but Paul 
 [the Czar of Russia] deserved punishment.” And if he could get at the trunk and hew it down “ the 
 branches fall of course.” So that he would certainly have struck at Revel and left Copenhagen to 
 
 itself. He would thus have avoided a painful attack upon a 
 gallant but weak people, of our own race, and always regarded 
 by our country with generous sympathy. What vast results, 
 echoing down to our own time, the “ Nelson touch ” might 
 have worked at this moment! 
 
 There are three routes by which the town of Copenhagen 
 may be approached. The first, the Little Belt, is narrow, 
 
 sinuous, and extremely difficult. The second, 
 the Great Belt, is wider, but is also hard 
 to navigate, owing to numerous shoals and 
 islands. Finally there is the Sound which, 4,000 yards broad 
 at its narrowest point, off Elsinore, gradually widens out and 
 shoals towards Copenhagen. To Copenhagen itself, coming by 
 the Sound, there are two routes separated by a shoal known 
 as the Middle Ground. Of these routes, the one to the east 
 of the shoal, the farthest from the city of Copenhagen, is 
 known as the Outer Deep; the one to the west, close under 
 the guns of Copenhagen, as the King’s Channel. Both unite 
 about three miles to the south-east of the entrance to Copen¬ 
 hagen Harbour. Both are difficult by reason of the extreme 
 narrowness of the fairway, the shallow depth of water, and 
 the numerous sand-banks. Large ships of the line had to be 
 lightened to pass through them with safety. 
 
 The town of Copenhagen, which rises with its towers and 
 steeples picturesquely from the blue waters 
 
 The defences of ^g Sound, was protected by a large 
 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 and strong fort known as the 1 rekroner, 
 mounting some seventy or eighty guns and placed just where 
 
 The approaches to 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 Drawn by W. Gardner.] [From a Russian Portrait. 
 
 PAUL I., CZAR OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Crowned April 5, 1797; assassinated March 24, 1801. 
 He had originally acted in concert with Great Britain and 
 Austria against France ; but, enraged at the events which 
 led to Suwarrow’s recall, and indignant at the refusal of 
 Great Britain to surrender Malta to him, he revived in 
 t8oo the “Armed Neutrality” of 1780 with Sweden, Den 
 mark, and I russia. 
 
142 
 
 [1801. 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 the entrance to the harbour branches off from the King’s Channel. This fort could attack ships 
 entering the King’s Channel from the north. To the south, but nearly a mile from the southern 
 entrance to that channel, were other batteries mounting, perhaps, 100 guns. Whilst Sir Hyde Parker 
 had been delaying, the Danes had moored in front of Copenhagen, starting from the Trekroner Fort 
 and running south-east along the course of the King’s Channel, eighteen dismasted ships of war and 
 floating batteries, mounting 634 guns, in a line a mile and a half long. They had nineteen more 
 ships and boats placed in the entrance to the harbour, near the Trekroner Fort. It was on this, the 
 northern end of their line, that they expected the attack to be delivered, and there they concentrated 
 most of their strength. That the attack would be made they did not doubt, for they knew that 
 Nelson was in the British fleet. “We expect,’’ wrote a Dane, “to see our line of defence exposed to 
 furious assaults, for Nelson is in the hostile squadron, and he will probably display all the energy of 
 which he has so often given proof.” With glorious devotion the Danish nation gathered in arms. 
 The students of the University volunteered. But the ships were manned with many landsmen, who 
 did not know how to load the guns, so that in the battle—on one occasion, at least—the shot was 
 put in first and the charge afterwards; there was 
 a great want of officers; and the hopes of the 
 country rested as much upon the expected arrival 
 of the Russian and Swedish fleets as upon the 
 Danish forts and guard-vessels. 
 
 The British fleet had thus not only to face 
 the resistance of strong forts—and it was a saying 
 
 at this time that three guns 
 Nelson’s plan of m a fort Qn shore were a 
 
 dittdcki 
 
 match for a three-decker 
 afloat—not only to encounter the line of Danish 
 ships, but also, supposing this could be effected 
 with success, to confront the vague menace of 
 the vast Russian and powerful Swedish squadrons. 
 
 If the British fleet with a northerly wind sailed 
 straight up the King’s Channel and attacked, 
 shattered vessels could have no retreat and the 
 whole strength of enemy must be encountered; 
 whilst there would be no obstacle to prevent the 
 Swedes and Russians from coming to the succour 
 of the Danes. The course which Nelson pressed 
 with all his influence upon his hesitating chief 
 was this—to pass with a northerly wind up the 
 outer or easternmost channel, and then to wait 
 for a southerly wind and move with a part of 
 the fleet down the King’s Channel, attacking the 
 Danish defences from the south, where they were 
 weakest. It would thus be possible for damaged ships to retire. With the rest of the fleet—such was 
 the man’s daring resolution—he proposed meanwhile to destroy the Russians at Revel. His plan was 
 simple, bold and effective, and it alone would give him a title to fame. Never before had the light 
 of his genius burned so brightly. From height he had advanced to height. The greater the obstacle 
 —and the Danes were far more skilful gunners and far better seamen than any foe he had as yet 
 encountered—the greater the glory. The attack must necessarily be hazardous. But again and again 
 in his career, Nelson showed that he was not afraid to take a certain risk. And on this occasion his 
 plan would secure the retreat of his fleet, if the attempt miscarried. He foresaw all things, and provided 
 for all contingencies, where he could. He never countenanced running unnecessary risks. There would 
 be no manoeuvring in an engagement of this sort. All depended upon quick and accurate shooting, 
 upon courage, and upon leadership. Do what he could, the attack might miscarry. 
 
 L. F. Abbott.'] 
 
 [From the original in the Fainted Hall , Greenwich , by 
 permission 0/the Lords Commissioners oj the Admiralty . 
 
 NELSON AS VICE-ADMIRAL. 
 
 Probably painted in 1801. 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 Sir Hyde Parker hesitates and parleys. 
 
 H3 
 
 Nelson’s glory. 
 
 To all time this Baltic expedition will rank amongst his greatest exploits. Once more he was 
 to lift our country to dazzling success, in spite of the dead weight of routine which lay heavy upon 
 
 his shoulders. “ He, and he only,” says his admirer the great French sailor, 
 De la Graviere, “was capable of facing the immense difficulties of the enterprise; 
 he, and he only, could display such audacity and perseverance.” At the Nile he had played his own 
 hand; at Trafalgar which was to set the seal on his heroic career, he was to meet a disheartened 
 and disorganised enemy; here, and here only, he measured himself against an opponent in skill and 
 tenacity worthy of his steel, and here he was hampered, not supported, by his commander-in-chief. 
 His courage and resolution stand out with all the more glorious prominence because we know from 
 his private letters how dear life was to him at this moment. The solemn sense of consecration to 
 death went with him to his last battle; here he still looked forward to the happy meeting with his 
 beloved; to his cottage; to a life of kindness to the poor; to peace and rest. Yet no preparation for 
 the end had been 
 
 omitted. He wrote '* ^ ''>A"x r> Y T"JT 
 
 his will: he “com¬ 
 mended his soul 
 unto God, that 
 through the merits 
 of Jesus Ghrist it 
 might be saved.” 
 
 A sentence shows 
 the sorrowful feel¬ 
 ing of neglect 
 which filled his 
 heart : “ The dia¬ 
 mond aigrette, the 
 collar of the Bath, 
 and the medals and 
 order of St. Ferdi¬ 
 nand I leave to the 
 care of my here¬ 
 ditary heirs, in or¬ 
 der that it may be 
 recollected that there 
 
 was once such a person as myself living.'” Yet he was calm. “ My mind,” he 
 wrote, “is tranquil and calm, ready and willing to stand in the breach to defend 
 my country, and to risk whatever fate may await me in that post of honour. 
 
 Sir Hyde still tarried. He resolved at last to move by the Great Belt 
 to Copenhagen. He feared the shoals, and the Danish cannon which 
 
 defended the Sound. Nelson, eager for instant action, cared not how he went so 
 that no more time were wasted. “ Let it be by the Sound, by the Belt, or 
 
 anyhow, only lose not an hour,” he said. The anchors were weighed: the fleet 
 
 proceeded to the Great Belt ; two small vessels struck on the rocks. Once more the irresolute chief 
 changed his mind. Nelson plied him with intreaty to try the Sound and he gave way and returned. 
 Exasperating and futile delay followed whilst Sir Hyde sent fiuitless messages to Ivionborg Castle to 
 
 know if the Danes would dispute the passage of our fleet. A Danish aide-de-camp came on board 
 
 Parker’s flagship while these negotiations were in progress. He took up a pen to write and found it 
 bad. “ Admiral,” he said, “ if your guns are no better than your pens, you may as well return to 
 England.” “ Young coxcomb,” was Nelson’s comment. But he chafed with inward fury at all this 
 fruitless palavering, and at the hauteur with which the not too competent Sir Hyde received his 
 suggestions. The wind fell, and all March 28 and 29 the fleet lay idle. On the 26th Nelson had shifted 
 his fkm from the St. George to the Elephant, a seventy-four of light draught. On the 30th the wind 
 
 THE BALTIC, WITH THE ROUTE OF THE BRITISH FLEET. 
 
 THE THREE CHANNELS. 
 Elsinore and Kronborg face Helsingborg. 
 
 The fleet passes 
 the Sound. 
 
144 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 blew a topsail-breeze from the north-west, and at last the British fleet headed for Copenhagen. 
 “Breakfast is waiting,” wrote Nelson to Lady Hamilton, concluding his letter of farewell, “I never 
 give up a meal for a little fighting.” Whilst the guns of Kronborg sputtered useless fire, our fleet 
 defiled through the narrows, and anchored in the Sound to the north-west of Copenhagen. The 
 afternoon was spent in buoying the Outer 
 Deep. Nelson reconnoitred the Danish 
 line. “It looks formidable,” he wrote to 
 Lady Hamilton late that night, “ to 
 those who are children at war, but to 
 my judgment with ten sail of the line, 
 
 I think I can annihilate them. 
 
 May God, whom I worship, protect and 
 send me victorious. Amen, if it be His 
 good pleasure.” 
 
 Next day Sir Hyde, not without rea¬ 
 son alarmed at appearances, held a council 
 
 of war. Copenhagen 
 
 The Council of war. 
 
 could he bombarded 
 if only the line of Danish ships in the 
 King’s Channel could be overcome. Nel¬ 
 son offered to do the work with ten sail of the line. The timorous talked of the Swedish fleet: “ the 
 more numerous the better,” he said. They pointed to the strength of the Russians : “ I wish they were 
 twice as many,” he replied. Nor was this foolish bluff. He knew that neither Swedes nor Russians 
 could handle their ships, and that the larger their fleets, the more certain they were to fall into confusion 
 or run ashore. Yet once more the clearness of his insight, the inflexible determination of his character, 
 the sense within him that nothing great could be achieved without risk, compel our thankful admiration. 
 
 His commander-in-chief decided that Nelson should lead the attack and deliver it in the way 
 proposed, and gave him twelve ships of the line. Sir Hyde with the rest of the fleet was to threaten 
 
 the northern end 
 
 The attack resolved. 
 
 ot the Danish de¬ 
 fences. The buoying of the Outer 
 Deep—for the Danes had misplaced 
 or removed all marks—was completed 
 that night. On April i the fleet, led by 
 the Amazon under the gallant Captain 
 Riou, soon to go down in the flower of 
 his age to the sailor’s grave, weighed, 
 and proceeding up the Outer Deep 
 anchored off the point where it meets 
 the southern entrance to the King’s 
 Channel. The hearts of the Danes 
 fell when they heard the triumphant 
 cheers which went up at the signal 
 to weigh, as they comprehended that 
 now the attack would come from the 
 south or weak side, and that the 
 British fleet lay between Copenhagen and all succour. The two enemies waited in anxious suspense, 
 face to face, for the death wrestle to begin. 
 
 After dark, soundings were taken in the King’s Channel : Hardy with a long pole felt the depth 
 round the rearmost of the Danish ships, an enterprise which marked his audacity. Nelson sat down 
 to dinner with a party of friends ; Captains Hardy, Foley, Fremantle, and Riou, all names of glory in 
 our history, were at his side; Colonel Stewart, a faithful chronicler of events, was present. Nelson’s 
 
 Robert Dodd.] {From the original Engraving. 
 
 THE BRITISH FLEET PASSING THE CASTLE OF KRONBORG INTO THE 
 SOUND, March 30, 1801. 
 
 F. Gibson , F.A.S.] {Front the “Naval Chronicled 1802. 
 
 COPENHAGEN. 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 The British ships take up their stations . 
 
 145 
 
 heart beat high. 
 
 The night before 
 the battle. 
 
 They drank to a favouring wind and victory. Then, after dinner, Nelson drew up 
 his orders, his labours continuing far into the night. The British ships were to 
 advance up the King’s Channel, anchor parallel to the Danish line and close to 
 it, and beat down its resistance. All preparations were to be made for the 
 desperate work of storming the Trekroner Fort with parties from the ships, if chance favoured. At 
 eleven Hardy returned with a favourable report of the depth of water in the channel. At one Nelson 
 retired but did not sleep. The wind was becoming fair; Fortune favoured her most ardent suitor. 
 
 Nelson’s dispositions for the attack were masterly, but, his greatest biographer Captain Mahan 
 considers, did not allow enough for the Danish skill in gunnery. No attempt was made to concentrate 
 
 on a part of the Danish line in the King's Channel; our vessels were to win 
 
 the day by sheer hard fighting. They had, however, 1,058 guns to the Danes’ 
 
 800, a sufficient preponderance in Nelson’s eyes. As at the Nile, our ships were to anchor by the 
 
 stern ; with the wind astern they could move ahead by veering cable or by cutting. 
 
 The morning of 
 
 Nelson's dispositions. 
 
 April 
 
 The battle opens. 
 
 2, the day of 
 bat- 
 11 e, 
 
 dawned. Copenhagen 
 and the sullen line of 
 Danish ships lay be¬ 
 fore our fleet in the 
 grey light. All the 
 night the Danes had 
 been drilling at their 
 guns and completing 
 their preparations. 
 
 Nelson rose at six : 
 at seven he saw his 
 captains : at eight his 
 pilots. These hesita¬ 
 ted. They had never 
 handled such large 
 ships in such shallow 
 water: nor had they 
 been in action. They 
 were timid and afraid 
 
 their^chief s^word^and example overcame all fears. A man was found to lead the way; the 
 others could follow. At 9-30 the fleet weighed in succession and the Edgar stood in *° th ^ * ^ 
 with the enemy in front and shoals on either side. She led the way in gallant style with the 
 impressive silence of discipline; took the shots of the rearmost Danes without reply; let go 
 
 anchor abreast the third Dane, and opened a tremendous lire. 
 
 Behind her should have come the Agamemnon, but, to the dismay of all. that good ship cou d 
 
 not weather the shoals at the entrance of the channel One of our twelve ship, had gone 
 
 Polyphemus took her place; after her sailed the lets, BJtoim, and Russell. 
 Unkindly Fortune. entered the storm of shot the last two kept too much to the east and a s 
 
 , . . 7 . r the Danish line. One fourth our strength had virtually gone, 
 
 ran aground, just within ran^ nQ ^. however, the agitation of 
 
 Nelson’s agitation was extreme, says an eye-witne . ’ ap peared within his 
 
 indecision, but of ardent, animated patnot' 5 ^ panting or or> ^ determination> In a 
 
 reach and was vanishing from his grasp The crisis did indeed 
 
 few minutes 212 guns had gone 
 
 Hardy. 
 
 7 . Davidson .] 
 
 Col. Stewart. 
 
 Foley. 
 
 Riou. Inman. Admiral Graves. Nelson. 
 
 v remantle. 
 
 THE EVENING BEFORE THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN. 
 
 Nelson, with his captains, drinking to the victory of the fleet in the impending action. 
 
 fro m his line of battle; and more than this, the channel appeared 
 
 too dangerous to be attempted by his fleet 
 
 G 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 L 
 
 I46 
 
 From Fairburris Plan.] Published in 1801. 
 
 BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE ATTACK ON COPENHAGEN, April 2, 1801. 
 
 On the left, in the foreground, is the Agamemnon', on the extreme right a ship of Sir H. Parker’s squadron “in reserve” ; the row of vessels nearest 
 the spectator consists of bombs ; beyond them is the line of British ships; and beyond them, again, is the Danish line of defence. The names of the British 
 ships are given on the plan below. 
 
 It was a moment like that at Mobile, when the Tecumseh sank and Farragut led in over the 
 mine-field. In the raging tumult of battle, with catastrophe crowding upon catastrophe, Nelson for 
 
 the tenth time in this enterprise showed his iron resolution and calculating 
 Nelson’s coolness* A ^ 
 
 coolness. The water was supposed to shoal to the west, or larboard, and there¬ 
 fore the ships of the British fleet were directed to pass one another on the east, or starboard side. 
 
 But the Bellona and Russell really lay aground 
 on the eastern side of the channel, and any 
 ship endeavouring to pass to the east of 
 them must inevitably run hard-and-fast aground. 
 Nelson perceived their inexplicable inaction; he 
 grasped the fact that they were aground, and 
 immediately his mind arrived at a correct 
 judgment. He starboarded the Elephant's helm 
 and passed to larboard between his grounded 
 ships and the Danish line, thus gaining 
 comparatively deep water. The ships behind 
 followed his example; there were no more mis¬ 
 chances. As the Elephant came under fire there 
 was a noble rivalry between her officers as 
 to who should stand in the larboard chains, 
 under the enemy’s guns, and heave the lead. 
 Nelson advanced down the Danish line till he 
 reached his foredetermined station : then an¬ 
 choring by the stern, a cable length from the 
 Dannebrog, he began the battle. The distance 
 was too great for the carronades in our ships 
 to be used with effect. Nelson had the signal 
 No. 16, under which he always fought, “ Engage 
 the enemy more closely,” flying, but owing to the 
 idea that the Danish line was moored in shoal 
 water, the British ships did not draw nearer in. 
 
 With steady courage the ships behind him 
 followed and obeyed his orders. There was no 
 hanging back. One by one they anchored in a 
 long line, parallel to the Danish line, but the 
 
 BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN 
 
 April 2, 1801. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 lnfodsr.etten 
 
 Jiolstein 
 
 Sjaelland 
 
 Dannebr.og 
 
 Prouesteen 
 
 Amazon 
 
 British ships of the line . 
 CD other ships . 
 
 g Defiance 
 h. Monarch 
 k Ganges 
 m Elephant 
 n Glatton 
 O Ardent 
 Edgar 
 
 Isis 
 
 Bellona (aground) 
 Polyphemus 
 Bussell (agroewd) 
 Desiree 
 Agamemnon 
 
 Danish ships of the line, 
 other ships. 
 
 4frSir H. Parker': 
 Squadron 
 
 Wind\ S.S.E. 
 
 
 k/; 
 
 K 
 
 1. M <0 
 
 1 Anchorage of Nelsoi 
 ! Fleet, night before 
 the attack. 
 
1801.} 
 
 Splendid Defence by the Danes . 
 
 l 47 
 
 The action general 
 
 C. Wool cot t.] [From the Painting in the 
 
 possession of J. Murray 
 Scott , Esq. 
 
 VICE-ADMIRAL SIR GEO. MURRAY, 
 1759-1819. 
 
 Came of a younger branch of the Elibank 
 family. In 1770, at the age of eleven, he was 
 entered on the books of the Niger with Cap¬ 
 tain F. Ranks in the Mediterranean. Was in 
 the Chatham with Sir Peter Parker at the 
 reduction of Rhode Island, 1776. Lieutenant 
 1778 in the Arethusa, which was shortly* after¬ 
 wards lost on the Preton coast. Murray, 
 with others, was taken prisoner, but was 
 released after two years. Served in the East 
 Indies under Sir Edward Hughes. In 1793 
 he was appointed to command the Triton 
 frigate, and afterwards the Nymph. He was 
 in Lord Briclport’s action off Lorient in 1795, 
 captain of the Colossus at St. Vincent 1797, 
 o c the Edgar (74) at Copenhagen in 1801, 
 when he led the fleet into action, and captain 
 of the fleet under Nelson in the Mediterranean 
 1803-5. Rear-admiral 1804, vice-admiral 1809. 
 
 absence of the three ships aground—which were to have engaged the 
 
 Trekroner Fort — was sorely felt. Their place 
 was taken by four frigates, under the heroic Riou. 
 And now the curtain of smoke rolled up between the combatants; 
 the continuous thunder of the guns filled Copenhagen with agony and 
 fear; and from the sides of our ships streamed “ that hailstorm of 
 bullets which gives our dear country the dominion of the seas.” 
 About 10.30 the Elephant had entered the battle; an hour later 
 the action was general. To the north, however, Sir Hyde's ships, 
 because of the unfavourable wind and current, could give little or 
 no help. 
 
 minute passed, and 
 enemy’s line, the 
 enemy’s fire did 
 not slacken. An 
 hour passed; and 
 sign of yielding. 
 
 Minute after 
 steadily upon the 
 
 Obstinacy of the 
 Danes. 
 
 no 
 
 whilst the British fire beat 
 
 yet there was 
 
 The Bellona and Russell could give 
 little help, the Agamemnon none : the 
 first two had signals of distress fly¬ 
 ing. Our gun-brigs, which were to 
 have given support, had not been able 
 to get into action. Far away Sir 
 Hyde Parker marked in torturing sus¬ 
 pense the determination of the Danish 
 resistance. At the northern end of 
 our line, the frigates, under Riou, engaged by the Trekroner Fort and 
 the Danish ships, were being grievously handled. The enemy’s ships 
 
 had no topmasts, and could with 
 
 Miniature by Shelley .] f Engraved by Heath. 
 
 RIOU, 
 
 CAPTAIN EDWARD 
 1758 (?)-i8oi. 
 
 Served in the BarJJeur under Sir Tliomrs 
 Pye and in the Romney under Vice-Admiral 
 John Montagu, and joined the Discovery as 
 a midshipman with Captain Charles Clarke. 
 Lieutenant 1780. In 1789 he was appointed 
 to the command of the Guardian (44 guns) 
 for Sydney, with stores, cattle, and convicts. 
 The ship struck on an iceberg, December 24, 
 and sprang a leak. Riou sent away the boats 
 with as many men as they could carry, and 
 himself navigated the ship with the aid of the 
 convicts. After a most adventurous voyage he 
 made Table Bay, February 21, 1750, and ran 
 the ship ashore. He returned to England 
 and was immediately advanced to commander, 
 and in 1791 to captain. Served under Jervis 
 in 1793-94 in the operations against Martinique 
 and Guadeloupe. In July 1799 he commis¬ 
 sioned the Amazon frigate, in which, in 1801, 
 he led the squadron of frigates which attacked 
 the Trekroner Fort at Copenhagen. He was 
 killed in the action. 
 
 E. Brisfo 7 u.] [From the Engraving by E. Scriven. 
 
 VICE-ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FREMANTLE, 
 1 765-1819. 
 
 Entered the Navy, on board the Hussar frigate, 
 at the age of twelve, and was a midshipman on board 
 the Phoenix when she was lost on the coast of 
 Cuba in 1780. Lieutenant T782, commander 1791, 
 captain 1793. As captain of the Inconstant and 
 the Seahorse in the Mediterranean he was closely 
 associated with Nelson, whom he assisted in the 
 Siege of Bastia and in the capture of the Ca Ira 
 in 1795. He was also engaged in the evacuation 
 of Leghorn and the capture of Elba, T796. He 
 was in the boat action off Cadiz with Nelson, and 
 at Teneriffe, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. He took 
 Fiume in 1813 and Trieste in 1814. K.C.B. 1814. 
 G.C.B. and commander-in-chief in the Mediter¬ 
 ranean 1818. 
 
 difficulty be made out through the 
 veil of smoke. Riou ordered the 
 Amazon to hold her fire, to ascer¬ 
 tain the position of the Danes as 
 the smoke cleared. The curtain 
 lifted, and showed the Danes the 
 yellow and black chequered side of 
 the British frigate. A furious salvo 
 struck her; splinters and shot swept 
 her deck ; Riou was wounded. She 
 must retreat if she was not to founder at her anchor. At this 
 moment Sir Hvde Parker’s flagship was seen to be flying the signal 
 of recall. Sadly Riou gave orders to cut, with the cry, ‘‘What will 
 Nelson think of us?” The Amazon's stern came round towards 
 the Trekroner Fort, as she got under way. An appalling fire raked 
 her and death spared Riou the disgrace he so feared. 
 
 Opposite Nelson flames were showing in the Dannebrog; and the 
 Sjaelland's cables had been shot away. The slaughter in the Danish 
 
 ships was fearful; but these were men oi our own 
 race, and as the number of dying and dead grew 
 upon the decks, fresh recruits were poured on board 
 from the shore. Officers and men vied with each other in courage. 
 The Crown Prince himself was present, and all fought under his ejes. 
 
 The Danes 
 distressed. 
 
148 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 IT801. 
 
 mi 
 
 N. Pocock .] 
 
 [From the Engraving by J. Fit tier. 
 THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW. 
 
 In the Infodsretten all the officers but two had fallen. A captain, who had retired from ill-health 
 volunteered at this moment to give his life for his country. He went on board her and fell almost 
 immediately. And in the _ _ 
 
 — —■ 
 
 British ships there were 
 many heroic deeds. The 
 first lieutenant of the 
 Monarch fought smiling, 
 in a cocked hat. Clouds 
 of splinters flew about 
 him, but the hat and 
 the smile always emerged 
 undamaged. A wounded 
 officer in the same ship 
 led cheer after cheer. A 
 midshipman refused to 
 send a seaman to fetch 
 priming tubes, as the 
 man would have to pass 
 through a part of the 
 ship swept by the Danish 
 fire — where nearly all 
 were killed or wounded. 
 
 “ My conscience,” he said, 
 
 nobly, “would not let me send another on an errand I was afraid to undertake myself”; and he went 
 and returned. Not a single man was standing on the main-deck from the main-mast forward. But 
 for the cheers there might have been no one alive in the ship. 
 
 The bearing of Nelson was heroic. As the hours went on and the issue of the conflict still 
 
 remained in suspense, he gave no sign of uneasi¬ 
 ness. His agitation had yielded 
 to his customary calmness in 
 action. He walked the starboard side of the quarter¬ 
 deck with Colonel Stewart. Splinters flew about 
 him, and he turned to Stewart with “ It is warm 
 work, and this day may be the last to any of us 
 at a moment,” but then added, “ Mark you, I would 
 not be elsewhere for thousands.” “ A wise general,” 
 it has been said, “can inspire confidence where a 
 fool may be the cause of panic.” There on the 
 quarter-deck before his company’s eyes, the valiant 
 demeanour of the man reassured the timid and 
 strengthened the confident. 
 
 At this most critical moment—the psychological 
 moment—when each side had fairly fought to a 
 
 „ , , standstill, when each was doubt- 
 
 Nelsons blind eye. 
 
 ing whether the other would give 
 way, and when all depended upon leadership, a new 
 embarrassment was imposed upon Nelson by his 
 commander-in-chief. The signal-lieutenant stepped 
 up to him with the news that signal No. 39 was 
 flying far away in the flagship. It was the signal 
 of recall. If it were obeyed and a retreat were 
 attempted, disaster was almost inevitable. Our ships 
 
 Bearing of Nelson. 
 
 /. Nash, R.L] 
 
 NELSON AT THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN. 
 “I really do not see the signal.” 
 
iSoi.I 
 
 “A right to be blind sometimes .” 
 
 H9 
 
 could not pass down the King’s Channel, under the unsubdued guns of the Danish line and of the 
 Trekroner Fort. Retreat would dispirit our crews; it would encourage the enemy, and their fire would 
 blaze up far more fiercely when they saw our ships on the move. Safety lay only in that attitude of 
 determination which Nelson had shown before at Teneriffe, and which often imposes upon and beats 
 down the resistance of an enemy. Nelson ordered that the signal should not be repeated from his 
 ship to his squadron. He asked “Is No. 16 [‘Engage the enemy more closely’] still hoisted?” and 
 ordered the lieutenant to keep it flying. “Leave off action,” he said, “damn me if I do,” and turning 
 
 to Captain Foley he continued, “You know, Foley, I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind 
 
 sometimes,” and then raising his telescope to his blind eye, he said, “ I really do not see the signal.” 
 
 Then once more he refused to sacrifice his own judgment, confronting on the one side an 
 
 intrepid enemy, on the other a weak superior. Thus, by his splendid piece of acting, he fired the 
 imagination of his countrymen. That Sir Hyde was actuated by generous motives, that he wished 
 
 Desiree. 
 
 J. T. Serves .] 
 
 Polyphemus. 
 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 British Line. Bellona. Russell. Agamemnon. 
 
 [From the Engraving by P. IV. Tomkins. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN, SEEN FROM THE REAR OF THE BRITISH SQUADRON. 
 
 to give his subordinate permission rather than a definite order to withdraw, seems fully proved, in 
 
 spite of his curious behaviour to Nelson before the battle. But this, it has been 
 Sir Hyde Parker’s j ustly saidj does not excuse his action. He weakened Nelson’s hand; he shook 
 miStake ' the confidence of the fleet; he might have precipitated a great disaster. For how 
 
 if other ships had acted upon the signal? How if vessel after vessel had broken from our line and 
 withdrawn ? But as Nelson looked along it in the din and tumult, every ship stood firm. Admira 
 Graves, who was under his orders, showed a valour worthy of his leader. He repeated the signal but 
 he did not obey it. “Engage more closely” still floated from his masthead; the British fire still con¬ 
 tinued with unabated resolution; and only the frigates opposite the Trekroner retired from the batt e. 
 
 The determination of Nelson met with its just reward. The Danish fire began to slac en, 
 the Dannebrog was ablaze; the “incomparable” Prove*" had ceased her thunder; floating batteries 
 
 and gunboats were drifting helpless from the enemy’s line. Behind the Elephant 
 The Danes defeated. ^ had almost ceased . be f ore her, though still maintained, its fierceness 
 
 was relaxed. The crisis had passed. The Danish ships astern had struck, or were thought to have 
 
I so 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 "1801. 
 
 struck. Confidence was growing in the British fleet; victory was within grasp; the firm hand of 
 Nelson might be trusted to make use of every opportunity. But when our boats put off to take 
 possession of the surrendered Danes, the shore batteries fired upon them, over or through the Danish 
 ships. These ships were filled with wounded enemies, yet they must be “ taken, burnt, or sunk.” 
 Two courses might be pursued: our fire-ships might be sent in to burn them with their living 
 human freight; our guns might sink them as they lay helpless. Either course was revolting to 
 Nelson. Depressed by the scene of horrible slaughter before him, filled with tender pity for men 
 who had fought so valiantly, he shrank from these dreadful alternatives. He resolved to send a 
 flag of truce to the Crown Prince and demand their surrender. 
 
 Without leaving the deck he wrote upon the casing of the rudder-head the following letter:— 
 “ To the Brothers of Englishmen, the Danes. Lord Nelson has directions to spare Denmark, when 
 no longer resisting; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, Lord Nelson will be obliged 
 
 The British Fleet. 
 
 The Dannebrog. 
 
 The Danish Fleet. Copenhagen. 
 
 J. T. Series.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by P. IV. Tomkins. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN: THE “ DANNEBROG ” ON FIRE. 
 
 to set on fire all the floating batteries he has taken without having the power of saving the brave 
 
 „ Danes who have defended them.” The note was placed in an envelope which 
 
 Nelson demands , . . 
 
 a truce the ^-‘ e P' ian ^ s purser was about to fasten with a wafer, when Nelson decided 
 
 that it should be sealed, to leave no trace of haste or precipitation. A man 
 was sent to the cock-pit for a candle; he was killed on the way. Nelson calmly ordered another 
 to be sent, and sealed the letter on his return. Captain Thesiger rowed in with it, under a flag of 
 truce, and handed it to the Crown Prince. 
 
 Nelson’s conduct was primarily dictated by humanity, for under his eyes he saw what he 
 could only describe as a massacre of the Danes proceeding. But at the same time he understood 
 
 that it would be difficult to extricate his fleet from the channel. The Danes 
 were morally defeated; their ships were at his mercy; Copenhagen was exposed 
 to bombardment; only the Trekroner P'ort, the batteries, and the ships within the harbour remained 
 intact. They could injure his ships as these retired, but they could no longer protect the town. These 
 
 His motives. 
 
18oi.]- 
 
 Close of the Battle . 
 
 1 5 1 
 
 facts the Crown Piince recognised as fully as Nelson: there was no chicanery on either side; each 
 
 was anxious to end a cruel conflict. The Danes sent 
 General Lindholm on board the Elephant to conclude 
 an arm i st ‘ ce - Nelson proposed that hostilities should 
 f C2ase; ^ at bie wounded Danes should be landed; and 
 
 that he should be allowed to carry off his prizes and 
 f , the unwounded prisoners. Under the eyes of all, the 
 
 !&>**:*■ Dannebrog was drifting in flames. Those men on board 
 
 who were as >' e t uninjured were leaping from her port- 
 
 holes, to be rescued by the British boats. If the Crown 
 Prince did not yield she must blow up with all the 
 wounded in her, and Copenhagen would be exposed to 
 the horrors of a bombardment. The Danes had no 
 choice; their fire ceased; and Lindholm rowed off to Sir 
 Hyde Parker’s flagship, four miles away, to settle certain 
 points with the commander-in-chiefl Meantime the British 
 ships weighed in succession and stood out of the dangerous channel. The Monarch, leading our line, ran 
 on a shoal, but was pushed over it by the Glatton, which was of lighter draught. The Defence and 
 Elephant, however, took the ground, and no exertions could get them off before night. But for fixe 
 
 armistice their position would have been ex¬ 
 
 ceedingly perilous, for they were in the reach 
 of the Trekroner Fort’s guns. 
 
 The evening was cloudy and gloomy. 
 
 From the original in the ] 
 possession of Earl Nelson. 
 
 THE COPENHAGEN SEAL. 
 
 This seal, of silver, mounted in 
 an ivory handle, is the one used 
 by Nelson on the envelope of the 
 letter addressed to the Crown 
 Prince. It has the arms of Nel¬ 
 son, with the coronet of a baron. 
 
 Nelson leaves the 
 “Elephant.” 
 
 Nelson left his ship, about the time that the 
 
 hapless Dannebrog blew 
 up, to row to Sir Hyde 
 Parker. “ I have fought,” 
 he said, -as the elation of battle gave way to 
 
 Prof. Eckersbergi\ [From the Engraving published in 1821. 
 
 KRONBORG CASTLE, FROM THE CATTEGAT. 
 
 This unique building—palace, fortress, and prison—was designed by 
 Tycho Brahe. Matilda, Queen of Christian VII., was imprisoned here, 1772. 
 In conjunction with the Castle of Hclsingborg, on the Swedish side, it 
 defended the channel by which the British fleet entered the Baltic. 
 
 Eron a Danish Engraving ] 
 
 KRONBORG CASTLE: 
 
 [published in 1832. 
 
 THE SLOTSGAARD. 
 
 this moment, to his chivalrous instinct he claimed no merit for himself. 
 
 sombre thoughts, as the stress of excite¬ 
 ment passed, and he remembered Sir Hyde’s 
 jealous bearing, “contrary to orders, and I 
 shall perhaps be hanged. Never mind, let 
 them.” Success had crowned his heroic 
 resolution; guard-ships, batteries, and dan¬ 
 gerous shoals had not turned him from his 
 
 O 
 
 steady purpose. Once more, as at St. Vin¬ 
 cent, his independence of judgment had 
 secured the fortunes of the day. Yet, true 
 
 The wits of England 
 
 might say : 
 
 “Two-thirds of Caesar’s boasted fame 
 Thou Nelson must resign ; 
 
 ‘To come and see’ is Parker’s claim, 
 ‘To conquer’ only thine.” 
 
I ^2 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 A truce concluded. 
 
 Painted by LiJ>s.] [From the Engraving by Heath. 
 
 THE CROWN PRINCE OF DENMARK, 
 Afterwards King Frederick VI. 
 
 “ Not a word shall be drawn from me,” he told his brother; “ they may make him [Sir Hyde] Lord 
 Copenhagen, if they please, it will not offend me. I oaly want justice for myself and leave to go 
 
 home.” He had burnt, taken, or sunk seventeen of the Danish 
 eighteen ships in the line of battle, with the loss of 943 men 
 killed and wounded, whilst the enemy’s loss amounted to 1,600 
 or 1,800 men. Not a British ship had been absolutely disabled. 
 
 He reached the flagship and the truce was concluded; it 
 was only to last twenty-four hours, but negotiations for a longer 
 
 armistice were to be carried on in that time. 
 The British ships had full liberty to take 
 possession of their prizes. Our own vessels were sorely cut up, 
 as the Danes had fired steadily and accurately. In one of our 
 seventy-fours, the Monarch, which had been engaged not only 
 with the Danish ships but also with the Trekroner Fort, half 
 the crew were killed or wounded. After transacting his business 
 with Sir Hyde, Nelson returned to the St. George; but with 
 tireless activity, in spite of the fact that he had not slept, before 
 the battle, and in spite of the strain and exhaustion of a day 
 of desperate struggle, was in his gig before day and reached the 
 Elephant with dawn of April 3. He found her to his infinite 
 joy afloat, breakfasted, and rowed off to the Sjaelland, which 
 lay under the Trekroner refusing to surrender. On this he 
 interviewed the Danish commodore, who, he found, was an old West Indian friend of his; and by his 
 mingled tact and firmness obtained the surrender of the ship. To the bitter mortification of the Danes 
 she was towed off by the British. But as she had struck in the battle she was a lawful prize. 
 
 Next day, with singular daring, Nelson went ashore to conclude an armistice with the Crown 
 Prince. Copenhagen was plunged in mourning; almost every house 
 
 in the city had to weep the “loss of a friend, 
 a husband, or a brother ” : the hospitals were 
 crowded with dying: the streets were full of 
 lamentation. The wounded had been sent ashore the previous day, 
 and the Danes had not yet had time to recover from the natural 
 exasperation and resentment of defeat. On his landing, Nelson was 
 received with mingled emotions — astonishment at his courage, 
 admiration for his magnanimity, hatred as the representative of the 
 Power which had struck Denmark down. He was escorted through 
 the town and dined with the Crown Prince. A Danish officer 
 who had fought with matchless resolution a small raft right under 
 the Elephant's guns was presented to Nelson, who turned to the 
 Crown Prince and told him he ought to be made an admiral. 
 
 “ If, my Lord,” the Prince answered, “ I were to make all my 
 brave officers admirals, I should have no captains and lieutenants.” 
 
 Such compliments smoothed the way for serious work. Nelson urged 
 Denmark to submit to the British demands, to disarm, and to suspend 
 her alliance with Russia. Negotiations continued till, on the 9th, 
 the treaty was drawn up. It was to remain in force sixteen weeks. 
 
 To this stipulation the Danes demurred, because they feared the 
 vengeance of Russia. Nelson with characteristic impetuosity and 
 disdain for technicalities assured them on this that he intended to 
 use the time in action against the Russians. He did not win 
 their consent; there was even talk on the part of one of the 
 Danes of renewing hostilities. “ Renew hostilities,” said Nelson to 
 
 Nelson in Copen¬ 
 hagen. 
 
 J. Northcote , R.A.] \From the “ Naval Chronicle 
 ADMIRAL SIR THOS. GRAVES, 1747 (?)-i8i 4 . 
 
 Third son of the Rev. John Graves, of Castle 
 Dawson, Ireland. He had an uncle, three brothers, 
 and a second cousin, who were all admirals. He was 
 with his uncle Samuel in the Scorpion, Duke , and 
 Venus. In 1765 he was promoted to be lieutenant in 
 the Shannon , and was in the Racehorse in Arctic seas 
 in 1773. Commander 1779, captain 1781. After much 
 service in American waters and in the West Indies, 
 he fought, in 1783, when commanding the Magi- 
 cienne frigate, a very severe action with the French 
 frigate Sybille , of superior power ; both ships were 
 reduced to wrecks. In 1800 he commanded the 
 Cumberland, under St. Vincent, in the Channel, and 
 in 1801, as rear-admiral of the white, the Polyphe¬ 
 mus, (64), in the Baltic. He changed into the 
 Dejiance, and was second in command under Nelson 
 at Copenhagen. He was made K.B. for that service, 
 the investiture being performed by Nelson himself 
 on the quarter-deck of the St. George. Vice-admiral 
 1805, admiral 1812. 
 
i53 
 
 1801.] 
 
 Nelson s Masterly Diplomacy . 
 
 the interpreter: 
 
 arriving at a settlement the conference broke up, to 
 
 tell him we are ready at a moment; ready to bombard this very 
 
 dine with the Crown Prince. 
 
 were without their furniture, from fear of a bombardment, 
 but, in spite of that, Nelson said, “ I see all this will burn 
 very well.” Late in the afternoon the Danes gave way, and 
 the duration of the armistice was fixed at fourteen weeks, 
 a slight concession on Nelson's part. Thus Denmark’s 
 hands w r ere tied, for she was not to arm, and the British 
 fleet was free to deal with the Russians and Swedes. Thus, 
 
 a word, the League of Neutrals was dissolved ; England 
 as saved from the gravest danger; and French schemes 
 of aggression, checked already by Nelson in the far south, 
 were once more repulsed by him in the north. Copenhagen 
 was a victory in importance second only to Trafalgar. 
 
 The boldness and adroitness of Nelson’s diplomacy 
 us of Prince Bismarck’s master - hand. 
 Though he had never before carried on 
 
 night.” 
 
 Without 
 The state-rooms 
 
 in 
 
 w; 
 
 inevitably remind 
 
 A Bismarck in 
 diplomacy. 
 
 his shoulders so great a burden, still his 
 skill in this case was not exceptional in 
 his career. Were it not that his surpassing fame as an 
 admiral has dazzled our eyes, that our gaze has been 
 fastened upon his battles rather than upon his negotiations 
 and policy, we should perceive the statesman’s brain on 
 each occasion working behind the will and genius of the 
 man of action, striving with an almost religious fervour 
 to secure “ the honour and greatness of England.” In all 
 really great men of war there must be this combination. 
 A Napoleon, a Grant, a Nelson, must have political courage 
 and insight to guide their blows. 
 
 The men who had fought under him Nelson never 
 forgot. “ To-day,” he wrote to Lady Hamilton on April 5, 
 
 “ I have been obliged to write a letter 
 
 The Copenhagen dead 
 
 G. Romney.} 
 
 [From the Engraving by J. Walker. 
 
 to Lord St. Vincent, which, 
 will touch his heart; God knows it has mine. 
 
 VICE-ADMIRAL SIR HYDE PARKER, 1735-1807. 
 
 Second son of the Vice-admiral Sir Hyde Parker who com¬ 
 manded in the action against the Dutch on the Doggerbank in 
 1781. He entered the navy with his father in the / 'anguard. 
 Lieutenant, 1758, of the Brilliant, under his father, whom he 
 followed into the Norfolk and Grafton. Commander 1762, 
 captain 1763, commanded the Phoenix , 1775-5, in American 
 waters, and knighted for his services 1778. Convoyed troops to 
 Savannah and co-operated with them 1779, and after bringing the 
 Phoenix home for repairs, convoyed merchant ships to Jamaica in 
 1780. f I he ship was lost, October 4, on the coast of Cuba. Joined 
 his father’s Hag as captain of the Latona in 1781, and took part in 
 the action on the Doggerbank. Rear-admiral 1793, and captain 
 of the fleet to Lord Hood in the Mediterranean. Vice-admiral 1794, 
 commander-in-chief in Jamaica 1796, and in the Baltic 1801. The 
 portrait w as painted when he was captain of the Phoenix , 1780. 
 
 From a Danish Engraving.\ {published in 1832. 
 
 THE ROYAL PALACE OF AMALIENEORG, COPENHAGEN. 
 
 This palace consists of four buildings of similar elevation surrounding an open space; they were originally 
 built by wealthy merchants for their own occupation, but were purchased by the Kmg(Christian VII.) on the 
 destruction by fee of Christiansborg in 1794. Of the four buildings two were occupied by the Kmg, one by 
 the Crown Prince, and one by the Foreign Secretary. 
 
 I hope, 
 
 It was recommending to his protecting hand the 
 widows and orphans of those brave 
 men who lost their lives for King 
 and country under my orders. It 
 has truly made my heart run out of 
 my eyes: it brought fresh to my 
 recollection that [moment] when I 
 spoke to them all and shook hands 
 with every captain, wishing them all 
 with laurel crowns. Alas ! too many 
 of them are crowned with cypress.” 
 
 Nelson saw with impatience the 
 protracted negotiations. He would 
 
 not have treated 
 at Copenhagen 
 but would have struck at Russia, 
 when Denmark must be at his 
 mercy. “ I make no scruple in say¬ 
 ing I would have been at Revel 
 
 g 5 
 
 Nelson's devotion. 
 
154 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 His work was uncongenial; 
 
 
 fourteen days ago,” he tells St. Vincent on the conclusion of the armistice 
 
 action was his desire. The fleet moved up the 
 
 Baltic, Nelson in the St. George being left two days 
 
 behind. News reached him that the Swedes were 
 
 at sea and that battle was imminent. The St. George 
 
 had just been lightened of her guns to cross the 
 
 shoals of the Sound, and therefore she was useless. 
 
 In the bitterest cold Nelson, without a great coat, 
 
 leapt into a boat and ordered his men to row 
 
 him to the fleet—a distance of twenty-four miles. 
 
 An officer with him offered him a coat. His answer 
 
 was : “ I am not cold, my anxiety for my country 
 
 will keep me warm. Do you not think the fleet 
 
 has sailed ? ” And he added : “If they have, we 
 
 shall follow them to Carlscrona in the boat, by 
 
 God.” He had neither food nor water in the boat ; 
 
 the distance to Carlscrona was 150 miles. From 
 
 such a terrible passage he was saved by finding the fleet awaiting him. Thus did his conduct justify this 
 
 noble praise : “ Every other earthly consideration than that of 
 
 serving his country was totally banished from his thoughts.” 
 
 The cold and exposure attacked his delicate frame, and his 
 
 health, always feeble, became markedly worse. Preying upon 
 
 his mind was the natural irritation at Sir 
 Sir Hyde recalled. TT , , . . , . . , 
 
 Hyde s countless delays, and the ardent 
 
 longing to be with Lady Hamilton and his child. He plied 
 the Government and the Admiralty with entreaties to be 
 allowed to retire. But St. Vincent, who had succeeded Lord 
 Spencer as First Lord, was in no mind to let him go. He 
 wished, it would seem, to keep Nelson and Lady Hamilton 
 apart. He recalled Sir Hyde, and appointed Nelson to 
 the chief command. 
 
 [From the original in the Naval Museum, Greenwich, by permission 
 0/ the Lords Commissioners 0/the Admiralty . 
 
 BRASS CANNON TAKEN AT COPENHAGEN. 
 
 One of four bequeathed to the Museum by Sir William Davison, 1873. 
 
 [From the original in the possession of 
 Messrs. E. E. Emanuel , Fortsea. 
 
 BADGE OR MEDAL FOR COPENHAGEN. 
 
 This is believed to be one of the medals presented 
 by Nelson to the non-commissioned officers and some of 
 the m;n of the Rifle Brigade (95th Regt.) who served 
 as marines in the battle. The 49th Foot were also 
 distributed among the battleships, and probably also 
 received the medal. The soldiers insisted as a point 
 of honour on facing the enemy’s fire on deck, though 
 they were really not wanted there, the action not being 
 a close one. The evample from which the illustration 
 was made is of silver gilt. No official medal was issued. 
 
 At the news of the victory 
 the country and the Government 
 
 failed to re- 
 
 Ingratitude of the . . 
 
 „ , cognise the 
 
 Government. y 
 
 brilliancy of 
 the work Nelson had accom¬ 
 plished, or the heroism of his 
 subordinates. Four hours of 
 mortal combat, a thousand dead 
 or wounded for the honour and 
 
 [From the originals , purchasedfrom the Bndport Collection by Mr. J. A. Mullens, 
 and presented by him to the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution. 
 
 PAIR OF SILVER ICE-PAILS WITH COVERS AND LINERS. 
 
 Inscribed : “ Presented by the Committee appointed to manage the subscription raised for the benefit of the 
 wounded and the relatives of those who were killed in the glorious victory obtained off Copenhagen on the 
 2nd of April 1801, to Vice-admiral Lord Nelson, K.B., Duke of Bronte, &c., &c., See., in testimony of the high 
 sense entertained of his meritorious and unprecedented exertions in defence of his country, which, at the peril and 
 danger of his life, he so nobly sustained previous to the engagement: and as a taken of his brilliant and gallant 
 con duct during the whole of that memorable action.—John Julius Angerstein, Chairman, Lloyd’s Coffee House.’* 
 '1 he set originally consisted of four. 
 
1801.] 
 
 l\o Thanks to the Fleet. 
 
 1 55 
 
 From a Miniature ] 
 
 [by Tayier. 
 
 ALEXANDER I., CZAR OF RUSSIA, 
 
 1777-1825. 
 
 Ascended the throne in 1801 on the assassination of his 
 father. 
 
 greatness of Britain, and the overcoming of forts and ships and shoals, were not justly rewarded. 
 What did the politicians know of the blood and torture of battle ? 
 
 Nelson indeed was singled out for an advancement in the peerage. 
 
 With ludicrous parsimony the title of Viscount was doled out to 
 the man whose fame was filling the earth. They loaded him with 
 wordy compliments in Parliament; he was “ as wise as he was 
 brave,'’ “worthy of all admiration and gratitude.” But they did 
 not pay him the highest compliment of acceding to his wishes. 
 
 His captains, whose consummate valour had seconded him so 
 nobly, and two of whom had died the hero’s death, received no 
 medals. The City of London voted no thanks to the men who 
 had saved our commerce. The King’s Speech in October made 
 no mention of the battle. And these seamen who faced all risks, 
 who bore their hard, miserable life without discontent for a meagre 
 scanty pittance, were robbed even of their prize-money. Sir Hyde 
 Parker, being a rich man and timid, burnt the prizes which our 
 bluejackets and officers had won with their guns. Touchy as 
 Nelson often was, with his impulsive, emotional temperament, 
 impossible as it is to applaud some of the acts to which this 
 touchiness led him, as when he attacked with extravagant bitter¬ 
 ness the Danish commodore for a report of the action which 
 represented that two British ships had struck and that Nelson had been compelled to call for a 
 truce, we must admire him for standing so inflexibly by the officers and men who had, under his 
 eyes, won him success. This injustice to them he never forgot or forgave. 
 
 With Nelson in command there was an end of Sir Hyde’s inaction and delays. The signal 
 was hoisted at once for the fleet to weigh and proceed up the Baltic, to get at 
 the Russians at Revel. Yet it was with no sense of pleasure that he accepted 
 For God’s sake, [or] at least for mine, try if I cannot be relieved,” he wrote to his 
 
 agent; “it may be at the expense of my life.” 
 He besought St. Vincent to send out some other 
 admiral, as he would finish his work in a fortnight. 
 “ I did not, my dear friend, come to the Baltic 
 with the design of dying a natural death,” he wrote 
 to Lady Hamilton, and the gods heard his wish. 
 
 He acted with singular tact in taking with him 
 to Revel only twelve ships of the line and some 
 
 frigates, leaving behind him, but 
 within easy reach, the bomb- 
 ships, fire-ships, and gun-brigs, 
 which must have betrayed hostile intentions. Un¬ 
 certain of the policy of Russia he wished to go to 
 Revel as a friend : but as a friend able, if necessary, 
 to prove a very disagreeable enemy. But even 
 before the British guns opened upon Copenhagen 
 and knocked the League of Neutrals to pieces, the 
 Czar Paul had fallen a victim to a palace plot. 
 “Assassination,” said the wits, “is the method of 
 deposition employed in Russia.” “ The British fleet,” 
 said Napoleon, “passed the Sound on the 31st. 
 Paul was murdered on the night of the 24th. 
 History will prove the connection between these 
 two events.” He insinuated that a British Ministry 
 
 Nelson in command 
 
 this mission. 
 
 Assassination of 
 Paul. 
 
 Sir IV. Beechey ,] [From the Engraving by T. Hodgetts , after the original 
 
 R.A. in the possession 0/ the Duke 0/ Wellington. 
 
 NELSON. 
 
 Painted in 1800 or i8or. 
 
156 
 
 Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 1801. 
 
 was privy to an odious political crime, but fortunately for our national credit, the charge has no 
 foundation. Paul was a madman. He was equally hated and feared in Russia. His alliance with 
 France and his enmity to England had ruined Russian trade and exasperated the nobility. His 
 deposition was determined by his courtiers. They forced their way into his bedroom and found the 
 unhappy man hiding. They offered him a deed of abdication to sign; he refused his signature. 
 A struggle ensued; he was injured ; and the conspirators, fearing for their lives, resolved to kill him. 
 In spite of his cries for mercy, they trod him under foot and beat in his head. The horror of the 
 
 deed was intensified by the fact that his son Alexander was locked in the 
 room below and heard the struggle. Alexander, who succeeded him—himself 
 destined to die a strange mysterious death in after days— was appalled when 
 he was told that his father’s life had been sacrificed in the plot to which 
 
 Photographed by Eyre Spottiswoodc.] NELSON CHINA. [In the possession oj C. Wentworth U'ass, Esq. 
 
 The four pieces to the right are part of a very richly-decorated set made for Nelson at the Worcester works in 1802. The cup and saucer to the left, 
 with the coffee cup above, belong to a set in which the main feature is the oak and acorn border, in green and gold, with Nelson’s arms, crests, and (on the 
 coffee cup) the dates of his battles. This set also was made for Nelson at Worcester. 
 
 he was privy. But he did not the less reward the assassins. At the first public ceremony which 
 marked his accession, it was whispered: “ The young Emperor walked, preceded by the assassins of 
 his grandfather, followed by those of his father, and surrounded by his own.” 
 
 The change of Czars was in the end wholly favourable to England. With Paul, Napoleon had 
 planned one of his fantastic eastern enterprises, to invade British India by way of Persia. Paul's 
 
 assassination necessarily postponed the execution of this vast design, though 
 
 Napoleon, long after Trafalgar, still dreamt of such expeditions. But as yet 
 the intentions of Alexander, Paul’s successor, were not openly avowed, and so Nelson was disgusted 
 when he reached Revel and found that the bird had flown, that the Russian ships were no 
 
 longer there, and that his errand was viewed with unconcealed suspicion. Though the people 
 
 of Revel received him with open arms, a salute was at first refused him, and he was quietly 
 
 requested to withdraw. “ The only guarantee of the loyalty of your intentions which His Imperial 
 
 Nelson at Revel. 
 
J. Hoppner , R.A.] 
 
 [From the Mezzotint published by Messrs. Colnaghi. 
 
 NET.SON AS VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE, 
 
Nelson and His Times 
 
 1801. 
 
 I5S 
 
 Majesty the Czar will accept, is the prompt departure of your fleet,” he was told. He could point, 
 indeed, to the fact that he had not brought his bomb or fire-ships; and he did succeed at last in 
 obtaining a salute. He saw that it was wiser to retreat, and retreated 
 —there being nothing else to do. “ He [the CzarJ would never have 
 wrote such a letter if the fleet had been at Revel in April ” was his 
 own opinion. The failure of the enterprise was due, not to him, 
 but to Sir Hyde Parker's delays. Almost immediately after his 
 departure Russia conceded all that we required and a treaty was 
 negotiated with her. 
 
 In answer to his repeated entreaties to be relieved a successor 
 
 was at last being chosen. “ To find a proper successor,” St. Vincent 
 
 told him, “your Lordship will know is no easy 
 But one Nelson. . 
 
 task; tor I never saw the man in our profession, 
 
 excepting yourself and Troubridge, who possessed the magic art of 
 inspiring the same spirit into others. . . . Your Lordship’s whole 
 
 conduct from your first appointment to this hour is the subject 
 of our constant admiration. It does not become me to make com¬ 
 parisons, but all agree there is but one Nelson.” On June 19 
 Admiral Pole took his place and Nelson sailed for England in a 
 brig—unwilling, in spite of his bad health, to withdraw a larger 
 vessel from the fleet. He could note with pride that not a single 
 complaint had been made of any officer or man, out of 18,000 who 
 comprised the force under his orders. He could congratulate him¬ 
 self upon the extraordinary health and discipline of his fleet. No 
 detail was beneath his notice. He watched vigilantly the quality 
 of the flour supplied, the price of the wine and spirits. He was 
 careful to furnish fresh water and provisions, and above all, always to keep all hands employed, 
 “ no matter how, and no matter where.” 
 
 H is own life at this time is thus described by Colonel Stewart : “His hour of rising was 
 four or five o’clock, and of going to rest about ten; breakfast was never later than six, and 
 
 generally nearer to five o’clock. A midshipman or 
 
 two were always of the party; 
 
 His life. , 3 , . 1 
 
 and I have known him send 
 
 during the middle watch to invite the little fellows 
 to breakfast with him when relieved. At table 
 with them he would enter into their boyish jokes 
 and be the most youthful of the party. At dinner 
 he invariably had every officer of his ship in 
 their turn, and was both a polite and hospitable 
 host. The whole ordinary business of the fleet 
 was invariably despatched, as it had been by 
 Earl St. Vincent, before eight o’clock.” Except 
 for his visits to the Crown Prince at Copen¬ 
 hagen, he never quitted his ship. “ I shall re¬ 
 ligiously stay on board, as you like me to do so, 
 and I have no other pleasure,” he had written 
 to Lady Hamilton four months before. His pro¬ 
 mise had been kept, with the most splendid 
 effect upon the discipline and cheerfulness of the 
 fleet. For when the commander-in-chief sacrificed 
 himself, who could hang back ? 
 
 From the original in the Painted Hall, Greenwich, by permission] 
 of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON’S GOLD WATCH, WITH GUARD AND SEAL. 
 Identified by Captain John Pasco, in 1847, as “ the identical watch worn by his 
 lordship at the time he received the fatal wound in the Battle of Trafalgar.” 
 
 Sir IV. Beccliey, R.A .J [From the Engraving 
 
 by Turner. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR CHAS. MORICE POLE, 
 1757-1830. 
 
 Second son of Reginald Pole, of Stoke Damerell, 
 Devon. Studied at Portsmouth Dockyard. Ap¬ 
 pointed to the Thames frigate, under Captain Locker, 
 1772. Lieutenant of Seahorse 1777, commander 
 1778, captain 1779. Commanded the Success in 
 1782, when he captured and burnt the Spanish 
 Santa Catalina, of thirty-four guns. Captain 
 of the Colossus 1793, and took part in the capture 
 of Toulon. Rear-admiral ^95, and first captain of 
 the Royal George 1797. Commander-in-chief in 
 Newfoundland 180 •, vice-admiral 1801. Successor 
 to Nelson in the Baltic, and baronet 1801. M.P. 
 for Newark 1802, and for Plymouth 1806 18. Ad¬ 
 miral 1805, G.C.B. 1818, admiral of the fleet 1830. 
 
Hoppey Turner .] 
 
 [From the original Painting in the possession of Messrs. E. <Sr E. Emanuel , Forisea. 
 
 FRENCH WAR PRIZES IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR, About 1801. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INVASION FLOTILLA AND PEACE, 1801-1803, 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 42-44.) 
 
 Desire for Peace—The Admiralty and Nelson—Invasion Threatened—Nelson in Command—His Discontent—Opinion on 
 Invasion—Boat Attack—The Attack Repulsed—Nelson takes the Blame—Death of Parker—Tenderness of Nelson— 
 Merton Place—Disregard of Copenhagen—Life at Merton—Expenses at Merton—Death of Sir W. Hamilton—War in 
 the Air—England United—Hostilities Begin—Napoleon’s Projects. 
 
 AN DING at Yarmouth on July 1, 1801, Nelson visited the wounded of Copenhagen in the 
 
 hospitals, and then proceeded to London. He had at last obtained his desire. Rest 
 
 and happiness were before him; there was no great enterprise to 
 Desire for peace. r 
 
 demand his presence; negotiations tor peace with Prance were 
 
 going forward; his far-off dream of visiting Sicily and resting under the chestnut 
 
 groves of Bronte seemed within possibility of fulfilment. 
 Lassitude had come over the British nation; France was 
 equally weary of the struggle; peace already reigned on 
 the Continent. The ravages of war had been fearful. In 
 the country food was scarce and dear; prices were famine- 
 high, and the constant fighting had left many families in 
 mourning. If peace could be had with honour Great 
 Britain passionately desired it. 
 
 The early and middle days 
 the company of the Hamiltons. 
 
 The Admiralty and 
 Nelson. 
 
 of July Nelson spent in 
 Captain Parker, his com¬ 
 panion of the Baltic, was with him. 
 During these days we may pronounce 
 Nelson to have been supremely happy. 
 His health, it is true, was still bad : the cold and exposure 
 of the Baltic had left him rheumatic and physically feeble. 
 But he could visit his baby daughter; he could unburden 
 his sorrows to the woman he so fondly loved. He was 
 tortured by no anxieties, and even the ingratitude of the 
 country at his glorious victory of Copenhagen now passed 
 lightly over his head. The blow, however, was preparing 
 to fall. There is every reason to believe that the Admiralty 
 
 From a French Caricature.] 
 
 CONTRARY WINDS; OR, VALIANT EFFORTS OF THE 
 ENGLISH LADIES TO PREVENT THE INVASION. 
 
 Whilst the French boats, with “Freedom of the Seas” inscribed 
 upon their flags, approach the English shore, the ladies, not very 
 flatteringly represented, endeavour to drive them off with their 
 fans. An officer hides beneath the wrap of the nearest lady, who 
 exclaims: “Quick! hide yourself! here they come.” 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 1801. 
 
 160 
 
 viewed with marked displeasure Nelson’s lamentable attachment to Lady Hamilton. Both St. Vincent 
 and Troubridge—the one First Lord, the other First Sea Lord— 
 determined to get him away from her at any price. W ith little 01 
 no consideration for a man weak in constitution, half-blind, one-armed, 
 
 or for a life precious above all others to his country, they decided 
 
 to send him upon an inglorious, ungrateful errand. Few men had 
 better earned the right to a few weeks or months of rest. Seven 
 out of eight years of war Nelson had spent on active service. He 
 was aging fast, and was beginning to fear that failing health would 
 unfit him for the command in the Mediterranean, which he so passion¬ 
 ately desired, before fortune could give it to him. And there were 
 dozens of other officers who could have excellently performed all the 
 work that was required in the Channel. 
 
 To put pressure upon Great Britain, Napoleon, now First Consul, 
 and virtually absolute ruler of France, had decided to revive the 
 
 threat of invasion. It is not probable that on 
 
 Invasion threatened. . , , , • , r , 
 
 this occasion he had. any real intention of attempt¬ 
 ing such an enterprise, nor did he much alarm the Admiralty. But 
 
 thirty-six gun-sloops and 
 
 216 gunboats with a number of smaller vessels were 
 
 collected along the northern French coast from Flush¬ 
 ing to Cherbourg. A certain number of soldiers were 
 
 encamped at Boulogne and Flushing in readiness. It 
 was given out that the French flotilla, taking advan¬ 
 tage of a calm which would render the British cruisers 
 helpless, or of a fog which would veil all move¬ 
 ments from their sight, would row swiftly across and 
 disembark the troops on British soil. The extraordinary 
 difficulties of such an enterprise did not strike the British 
 public. The nation armed and drilled ; beacons linked the 
 coast of Kent, Sussex, and Essex to London : people 
 awaited with fearful suspense the news that the French 
 
 had landed. It was dangerous to live near the sea, and 
 
 refugees from our south-eastern towns crowded inland. 
 Mendacious reports exaggerated the magnitude of the 
 French preparations. It was at this time that the Ameri¬ 
 can inventor, Fulton, having obtained from a Scotsman 
 drawings of a steamboat then running on the Clyde, went 
 to Napoleon with his project. It was pronounced after 
 careful examination “ visionary and impracticable.” 
 
 To defend the mouth of the Thames and the British 
 coast against this attack, a squadron of warships was 
 
 maintained in the Downs, and a flotilla 
 
 Nelson in command. 
 
 of frigates, gun-brigs, sloops, and cutters 
 was occupied in vigilantly watching the French ports. 
 On July 24 Nelson was appointed to command this flotilla. 
 His presence would not only reassure the British nation, 
 but would depress the French officers, who had ample 
 cause to fear his terrible energy. Yet the work was in 
 the highest degree distasteful to him. It did not task 
 his skill; it gave few opportunities for action; it was 
 really a junior officer’s and not an admiral’s command; 
 
 From the original Etching ] [by James Gillray. 
 
 THE FRENCH CONSULAR TRIUMVIRATE SETTLING 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF 1799. 
 
 By the “Revolution of the 18th and 19th Brumaire” (No¬ 
 vember 10 and 11, 1799), Napoleon had made himself master of 
 France while professing adherence to the Republic. The caricature 
 illustrates his method of arranging a new Constitution. While 
 his co-consuls, Cambacdres and Lebrun, bite their pens, and the 
 Abbe Sieyes rummages amongst his own old schemes, Napoleon 
 formulates a plan which constitutes him “All-in-all Bonaparte.” 
 Below are seen smiths forging new chains for France; above, on 
 a riband, runs the legend “Long live the Constitution, one and in¬ 
 visible ” (two letters of the word “indivisible” being folded out 
 of sight). Immediately after the “Revolution” referred to, the 
 following prophetic poster appeared on the walls of Paris:— 
 
 Political Subtraction. 
 
 From 5 Directors 
 'l ake 2 
 
 There remain 3 Consuls. 
 From them take 2 
 
 And there remains 1 Bonaparte. 
 
 From the original Etching ] [by J . Gillray. 
 
 BONAPARTE FORTY-EIGHT HOURS 
 AFTER LANDING. 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 A distasteful Service . 
 
 1 61 
 
 
 TV. Pocock.] 
 
 BOULOGNE. 
 
 [.Sketched in 1804. 
 
 His discontent. 
 
 and Nelson suspected, if he did not clearly understand, St. Vincent’s and Troubridge’s wish to keep 
 him from Lady Hamilton a wish which was emphasized by their refusal to give him any leave of 
 absence. \\ ith his private life the Admiralty had no concern, and we can picture his secret indigna¬ 
 tion at this treatment. His bitterness was all the greater because once Troubridge had been one of 
 his dearest friends, and because for Troubridge’s honour he had fought and argued after the Battle of 
 the Nile in which Troubridge’s ship, the 
 Culloden, went aground. He saw him¬ 
 self despatched on this errand and 
 advised by Troubridge “to wear flannel 
 waistcoats,” whilst Troubridge had his 
 comfortable house and his cheerful do¬ 
 mestic life in town. And before we turn 
 upon Nelson and accuse him of littleness 
 for this frame of mind, let us remember 
 he was mortal man, and that he was 
 without question being exposed to extreme 
 discomforts and dangers for no adequate 
 object. Moreover, his bitter dissatisfac¬ 
 tion was not openly expressed ; he con¬ 
 fided it only to his dearest and most intimate friend. Outwardly, he was zealous as ever: within, the 
 spirit of wayward opposition was tormenting him. It is the petty annoyance which frets the hero most. 
 
 His flag was hoisted in a small frigate, where he was cold, miserable, and constantly ailing. The 
 work he was engaged in would not allow of his commanding a ship of the line. Perpetually sea-sick, 
 
 the tossing and pitching of such a small vessel was a further source of mischief 
 to his health. Dangerous colds and toothache distracted him; it seemed as 
 though the inglorious death, which he so feared, might claim him on this distasteful service. With 
 his one arm and failing sight, he was quite unfitted to take part in boat work, such as was required 
 on this station. It was a matter of difficulty, even of danger, for him to get on board or leave his 
 frigate. His indignation blazed up furiously when Troubridge urged him to “take walks on shore for his 
 
 health.” His command 
 brought him many and 
 heavy expenses-—indeed, 
 if continued it might have 
 ruined him. The country 
 which had raised him to 
 the station of a peei had 
 failed to give him the 
 income to support his 
 position. In this com¬ 
 mand he could hope for 
 no prize-money. He had 
 never amassed a fortune 
 by prize-money—“ honour, 
 not profit,” had been his 
 aim in life. “ Since I left 
 London,” he writes in 
 
 September, “it has cost me—for Nelson cannot be like others—near £1,000 in six weeks. If I am 
 continued here, ruin to my finances must be the consequence.” Yet his noble generosity was open 
 to every claim. He paid the funeral expenses of his friend Captain Parker, at the very time when 
 pecuniary difficulties compelled him to sell the diamonds presented to him for the Nile, and his gifts 
 to his poor relations knew no stint. “ My heart is too big for my purse,” he wrote: “ I trust in God 
 that he will never let me want ... I can, with a quiet conscience, when all is gone, live upon 
 
 A. Barraud .] 
 
 DUNKIRK. 
 
 [From a Sketch made in 1802. 
 
162 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 ■ 
 
 Opinion on invasion. 
 
 [From a French Engraving. 
 
 DIVERS PROJECTS FOR THE INVASION OF ENGLAND. 
 
 bread and cheese.” Finally, he saw clearly that a vice-admiral’s presence was not required. “ I know 
 of no use I am,” he writes in his private letters; “there is at this moment no service for a vice- 
 admiral . . . this is not a service 
 for me.” Nor was it, as has been 
 
 represented, the mere desire to fly to 
 Lady Hamilton’s arms that moved his 
 heart. He was eager for any great 
 enterprise, eager for the Mediter¬ 
 ranean command, where his unique 
 capacity would find a worthy field; 
 but if he could not have this he 
 yearned for rest at home or for the 
 sunny slopes and delicious climate 
 of Bronte. 
 
 Yet he threw himself into his 
 work with all his customary zeal and 
 
 devotion. He 
 studied the pro¬ 
 blem of invasion, and concluded that 
 the French would try to land in two 
 bodies, one crossing from Flushing 
 to Essex, the other from Boulogne 
 to Kent. He marshalled three flotillas to oppose the anticipated attempt; they were to be commanded 
 by “ men of confidence in each other, with no little jealousies, all animated with the same desire of 
 preventing the descent of the enemy on our coasts.” The moment the French flotilla reached our 
 shores, it was to be attacked at all cost. The more he considered, the more clearly the impracticability 
 of the French enterprise dawned upon him, the more the bitterness at his unnecessary detention 
 
 increased. Our fleet in 
 the Channel grew daily 
 in numbers, and a close 
 blockade of the enemy’s 
 ports was inaugurated. 
 
 In August he decided 
 to try more vigorous mea¬ 
 sures. 
 
 Boat attack. „. 
 
 First 
 
 a bombardment of Bou¬ 
 logne was essayed, but 
 this had little or no effect 
 beyond the sinking of two 
 or three of the French 
 flat-boats. He was care¬ 
 ful in his assault to do 
 as little harm as possible 
 to the town of Boulogne, 
 for “it is not my wish 
 to injure the poor inhabi¬ 
 tants,” he wrote. Finding 
 his bombardments of Bou¬ 
 logne almost useless, and 
 anxious to achieve what 
 appeared an impossible 
 
 P. J. de Loutherbourg , F.A.] [From the Engraving by J. Fittlcr. 
 
 THE CUTTING-OUT OF THE CORVETTE “LA CHEVRETTE,” July ai, 1801. 
 
 La Chcvrette , of twenty guns and 350 men, was anchored under the guns of a fort in the Bav of Camaret. On the 
 night of July 21 a detachment of boats belonging to H.M. Ships Doris. Beaulieu , and Uranie (of the squadron which, 
 under Admiral the Hon. W. Cornwallis, was watching Brest;, attacked and cut-out the vessel after a severe struggle 
 1 -sting about an hour and a half, “in the presence of the combined fleets of France and Spain.” The officer standing up in 
 the boat on the left is Lord Keith Maxwell, commanding. The news of this gallant action led the nation to expect still 
 "renter things ot kelsons squadron, and may have precipitated his action at Boulogne. 
 
The Boulogne Flotilla attacked. 
 
 1801.] 
 
 task, the destruction of the French flotilla in its well-defended ports, he began to plan a boat attack— 
 a hazardous and desperate attempt—upon that section of the flotilla which lay at Boulogne. Before he 
 went to this risk he solicited in vain a consultation with Lord St. Vincent. Fifty-seven boats manned 
 by picked officers and seamen were assembled in four divisions, each commanded by a captain. Each 
 boat carried a sharp axe and combustibles to fire the enemy’s boats if taken; two boats in each division 
 were furnished with ropes and grapnels to tow off prizes. The orders given were to take or annihilate 
 the flotilla, and not rest satisfied with one or two captures. Nelson himself was wholly out of place 
 in such an attack, where physical strength and alertness were peculiarly necessary. The loss of his 
 right arm left him helpless for such work as boarding, and therefore, though eager to go, he was 
 compelled to remain in his frigate, the Medusa, off Boulogne, whence he superintended the enterprise. 
 
 At night-fall of August 15 the boats 
 were assembled. At eleven o'clock they 
 
 rowed quietly in, each 
 
 The attack repulsed. .... . T . 
 
 division in tow. but 
 
 in the darkness amid the strong currents 
 the four divisions failed to arrive simulta¬ 
 neously : their impetuous onslaughts were 
 delivered separately and were beaten in 
 detail. They found the enemy prepared. 
 
 The French craft had boarding-nettings up, 
 and were filled with soldiers, each of whom 
 had three loaded muskets ready. The 
 French flat-boats were secured with strong 
 chains and could not be cut loose. The 
 French coast was lined with cannon, which 
 played with fearful effect upon our men. 
 
 In spite of all these obstacles the British 
 seamen displayed the most obstinate and 
 heroic courage — a courage that drew de¬ 
 served plaudits from the enemy. The loss 
 in the confusion and darkness under such a 
 fire was terrible. Not less than 172 officers 
 and men were killed or wounded. Amongst 
 the wounded was Captain Parker, whose 
 valour was pre-eminent even where so many 
 valiant men were fighting. But for the cool¬ 
 ness and devotion of a midshipman, Nelson’s 
 dearest friend must have fallen into the hands 
 of the enemy. Lieutenant Langford, Nelson’s 
 flag-lieutenant, was also severely wounded. 
 
 R. Jack.] 
 
 BOAT ATTACK ON THE FRENCH FLOTILLA. 
 
 courage. 
 
 Once more murmurs were heard at Nelson's rashness. He bore the disastrous check with dignified 
 There was no attempt to shift the responsibility for the failure from his shoulders to those 
 of his subordinates or superiors. "No person can be blamed for sending them 
 Nelson takes the tQ , he attack but myself,” he told St. Vincent : “ I knew the difficulty ot t. e 
 
 b ' ame - undertaking, therefore I ventured to ask your opinion.” For asking that opinion 
 
 St Vincent had coldly snubbed him. How different was his attitude to that of his great contemporary. 
 “If his generals distinguished themselves,” says a close observer of Napoleon, ' he only said t .a e> 
 had done their duty. If they were unfortunate, all the fault was theirs. Nelson only bkmed 
 himself. “More determined, persevering courage I never witnessed, e con inue , " . 
 
 the impossibility of being successful could have prevented me from having «c' 
 
 Lordships.” As at Teneriffe, the consciousness of having sent so many brave men to u ele s an h, e 
 weighed heavily upon his mind. “ 1 own I shall never bring myself again to allow any attack 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 Death of Parker. 
 
 go forward in which I am not personally concerned,” he writes. In vain he asked some honour for 
 Captain Parker, who now lay cruelly woilnded, and who had fought with brilliant valour. It was 
 becoming evident that the Admiralty distrusted his judgment of men. 
 
 At the funeral of two young midshipmen he was moved to tears in the presence of a vast 
 concourse which had come out to do them this last honour. He visited the hospitals assiduously, 
 
 and he was constant in his attendance upon Parker, whose name fills his corre¬ 
 spondence. Parker’s thigh was broken in two places, too high up for amputation, 
 and his condition was desperate from the first. “ He is my child, for I found him in distress,” 
 Nelson said. Lady Hamilton came down to tend him for a few hours, but the wounded man's 
 condition did not mend. All hope departed. With a heart, as an unknown hand records, “ full of 
 grief,” Nelson came and went between his flagship and his dying friend’s bed. His pain was increased 
 by the fact that Parker’s father was old and almost entirely dependent- upon his son. On September 27 
 he heard that death had claimed his friend. “God’s will be done,” he wrote: “I beg that his hair 
 
 r 
 
 OM/*; -f*: Wi, 
 
 V»'VV^\ ^ Uvrw 
 
 Cy'V" (A/— 4?V\ yWk Wwkj t'Y f o-WvN 
 
 p 
 
 C VV'-VLi/-ajiA V\^ MU 
 
 UaUX Ml- f * ^ 
 
 A/ye/v- \v~ cr^/v 
 
 iMvib V-w 
 
 ' 1 ‘ ‘ '■ 
 
 VfvW- A^aTV— W- V~e-AATW 
 
 \ r ^viMV v Vw ^VyVvW t-M Utlvv 
 ^ C^A/v~^vt\ Vv-i^—- 4s cAA. t/'—■» 4> c 
 
 VnMU Vvw V Y “Nl 
 
 \^irvs /vW MAvvys ^ cA ^ C 
 
 CtWl (MV 'M'aA, WV 4 
 
 vM A uw Wa wy-’ 
 
 l* 1 
 
 VVw- Yv^. v.A7Va -3 c-A - -a 
 
 vAA<A- liA-Gy 
 
 [Fro 771 the original letter in the Museum 0/ the Royal United Service Institution. 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF A LE 1 TER FROM NELSON TO LADY HAMILTON, Dated August 3, 1801. 
 
 ma> ! be cut off and given to me: it shall remain and be buried with me.” And to Lady Hamilton 
 
 he said, I have got some of dear Parker’s hair, which I value more than if he had left me a 
 
 purse of diamonds. ... I could not suffer much more and be alive. God forbid I should 
 e\ei be called upon to say or see as much again.” It is shameful to have to record the fact 
 that an appeal to the Admiralty for the expenses and funeral of “so gallant and meritorious an 
 
 offket was fiuitless. From his own pocket Nelson paid all; he settled with Parker’s creditors, and 
 
 ga\e the poor father money for his journey home and for mourning. To understand how and why 
 Nelson was loved, how and why, with an income of some .£3,400 a year, he was in pecuniary difficulties, 
 this endearing passage in his life must be recalled. 
 
 y\ ar brings many cruel and inevitable partings, but this revelation of deep and enduring grief 
 
 Tenderness of Nelson. * n ^ e ^ son s heart is almost startling. For, living in the antechamber of death, 
 the soldier or sailor on active service must expect to see the best and bravest 
 of his comrades pass one by one from his side to that bourne whither also he must travel. Nelson’s 
 
i8oi.] 
 
 Peace concluded. 
 
 1 65 
 
 sorrow is one more evidence of that heart “ susceptible and true,” and of the eager interest which he 
 took in those under his command. The loss of his friend preyed the more upon his mind because 
 
 of his work and the want of 
 company. Entreaty after 
 entreaty to be relieved was 
 put on one side by the 
 Admiralty. Had Nelson 
 toothache, had he rheu¬ 
 matism, was he troubled 
 by violent colds? “Walks 
 on shore” and “flannel 
 waistcoats” were the 
 remedies his friends at 
 the Admiralty suggested. 
 A suspension of hostilities 
 
 From a contemporary Engraving .] \ 
 
 THE PROCLAMATION OF PEACE AT THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, April 29, 1802. 
 
 In the centre, 011 horseback, is the Knight-Marshal, attended by Norroy King-of-Arms, on his right, 
 and Windsor and Chester Heralds on his left. To the left of the picture is the Lord Mayor, attended" by 
 the City Sword and Mace Bearers. On the right is Lancaster Herald with trumpeters. 
 
 was concluded, yet still his prayers for leave were not acceded to. 
 
 “ The Admiralty,” he cries, “ have no bowels for me. 
 
 I should have got well long ago in a warm room with a good 
 fire and sincere friends.” Indeed, the attempt to keep him 
 from Lady Hamilton was being carried to exasperating lengths, 
 and, with his quick temperament, there is small wonder that 
 he secretly rebelled, or that, irritated at this and the heartless 
 behaviour to Parker, a breach arose between Nelson and his 
 old friends St. Vincent and Troubridge. Yet in his wiser 
 moments he owned: “ I do not blame the Earl [St. Vincent] 
 
 for wishing to keep me here 
 a little longer; it is probable 
 disturbances may break out 
 in these squadrons when I 
 am gone.” All things must 
 have an end, even this weary 
 vigil on the narrow seas; 
 
 E. Orme.] 
 
 [Sketched in 1802. 
 
 ILLUMINATIONS ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 PROCLAMATION OF PEACE. 
 
 The house is that of M. Otto, the French Minister, in 
 Portman Square. The word “Concord” formed part of the 
 original design ; it is indicative of the temper of the times 
 that the crowd read this as a veiled suggestion that England 
 had been “Conquered.” The French Minister wisely substi¬ 
 tuted “Amity, ’ and, in response to renewed clamours, added 
 a crown above the “ G. K. ” 
 
 Frotn the original Etching ] 
 
 [by J. Gillray. 
 
 THE FIRST KISS THESE TEN YEARS ! 
 
 The Peace of Amiens was hailed with effusive 
 joy by both nations. Their several rulers, however 
 (if we may judge from their portraits on the wall), 
 regarded each other w ith little affection. 
 
 and at last, on October 22, 
 
 1801, he received leave of ab¬ 
 sence. Without a moment’s 
 delay he set out for Merton. 
 
 A few days before the suspension of hostilities was agreed to, 
 Lady Hamilton, acting on his behalf, at his express wish, had bought 
 
 Merton Place for him at the cost of £g,ooo, part 
 of it borrowed. It was the only home which 
 Nelson now possessed in England; it lay in what is in our day 
 the suburb of Wimbledon, which was then at once easy of access 
 from London and pleasantly secluded in the country. At this house, 
 which has long since vanished, he passed thenceforward most of his 
 time when not on active service. Its name is indelibly associated 
 
 Merton Place. 
 
166 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1801. 
 
 with his. From Merton he went forth to his long and w r eary blockade of Toulon ; to Merton he 
 returned from his eager chase of \ illeneuve ; from Merton he set out for the last time to battle and 
 to death. The Hamiltons lived ---- 
 
 Disregard of 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 A. Fairfax Muckley .] [After an Engraving in the possession of Earl Nelson. 
 
 MERTON PLACE. 
 
 The house was originally built by Sir Richard Hotham, Kt., a London merchant. It was at one time 
 in the possession of Thomas Sainsbury, Lord Mayor of London, and afterwards of Mr. Graves, who sold it 
 to Lady Hamilton, acting on behalf of Lord Nelson. It has long since been demolished. The moat was artificial. 
 
 with him there; the expenses of 
 the establishment were shared by 
 Sir William; and his beautiful 
 lady was paramount ruler and 
 hostess. In that sylvan garden 
 Horatia played under his affec¬ 
 tionate eyes in the days of his last 
 stay in England. Here Nelson 
 forgot his sorrows and tasted 
 such happiness as is conceded 
 to mortal man. 
 
 The breach between St. Vin¬ 
 cent and Troubridge on the one 
 
 hand and Nel¬ 
 son on the 
 other widened 
 during the first days of peace. 
 
 Nelson eagerly pressed upon the 
 Admiralty the claim of the cap¬ 
 tains who had fought at Copenhagen to such a medal as had been granted for the battles of June i, 
 St. Vincent, Camperdown, and the Nile. As he had been singled out for invidious reward, he felt 
 that such exertions were incumbent upon him to an extraordinary degree, but he altogether failed to 
 move St. Vincent or the King. He had to accomplish some distasteful haggling with the Admiralty 
 about the Copenhagen prize-money, which was finally fixed at £65,000, instead of the £100,000 he 
 expected. Another fact which galled him was the small amount of the subscription raised for the 
 
 killed and wounded of Copenhagen. Finally he found 
 that his influence was exerted in vain in the cause 
 of meritorious officers and individuals, and he saw with 
 deep disapprobation the unreasonable economies which 
 St. Vincent was effecting at the cost of the Navy. 
 
 Of his life at Merton Lord Minto gives a painful 
 picture. “ I went to Lord Nelson’s on Saturday to 
 
 dinner,” he says. “ The whole 
 establishment and way of life are 
 such as to make me angry as well as melancholy, but 
 I cannot alter it, and I do not think myself obliged 
 or at liberty to quarrel with him for his weakness, 
 though nothing shall ever induce me to give the small¬ 
 est countenance to Lady Hamilton. She looks ulti¬ 
 mately to the chance of marriage, as Sir William will 
 not be long in the way, and she probably indulges a 
 hope that she may survive Lady Nelson ; in the mean¬ 
 while she and Sir William and the whole set of them 
 are living with him at his expense. She is in high 
 looks but more immense than ever. The love she 
 makes to Nelson is not only ridiculous, but disgusting; 
 not only the rooms, but the whole house, staircase and 
 all, are covered with nothing but pictures of her and 
 him, of all sizes and sorts, representations of his naval 
 
 Life at Merton. 
 
 Sir f. Reynolds , P.R.A .] 
 
 {From a Mezzotint. 
 
 A BACCHANTE. 
 (Portrait of Lady Hamilton.) 
 
l8oi-2.J 
 
 The Merton Establishment. 
 
 167 
 
 actions, coats-of-arms, pieces of plate in his honour, the flagstaff of L'Orient, &c., an excess of vanity 
 which counteracts its own purpose.” Some of Lord Minto’s facts we know are wrong; he was evidently 
 prejudiced against Lady Hamilton, but he was a friend of Nelson and had no motive to misrepresent. 
 
 The expenses of Merton were very considerable. Nelson and the Hamiltons kept open house; 
 they entertained constantly, usually having twelve or more guests to dinner; and the weekly bills for 
 
 housekeeping ranged between £35 and £213, though in the latter total £"103 for 
 wine is included. It is tolerably plain that this great outlay was not to the taste 
 of Sir William Hamilton, who, in his old age, longed for peace and quiet; or of Nelson, who, how¬ 
 ever hospitable, was quite content, 
 
 Expenses at Merton. 
 
 , jUlM ®*"! 14 
 
 as he writes, with “ bread and 
 cheese.” It was due to Lady 
 Hamilton’s craving for excitement 
 and gaiety. Sir William Hamilton 
 became restive. He was somewhat 
 embarrassed for money, and speaks 
 of “ the nonsense I am obliged to 
 submit to here to avoid coming 
 to an explosion, which would be 
 attended with many disagreeable 
 effects, and would totally destroy 
 the comfort of the best man and 
 the best friend I have in the 
 world.” He wrote to his wife a 
 
 ' ~ - Z _ 
 
 H. P. Burke Downing .] MoVf® — ^ — - --* - 
 
 This “bit of Old Merton” was pulled down in 7897. The house was named after, and no 
 doubt built for, Sir Richard Hotham, the founder of Bognor in Sussex (about 1790), who resided 
 in Merton in 1775. It stood close outside the gates of Nelson’s grounds. 
 
 letter of grave remonstrance, kindly and dignified in tone: 
 
 “ Our tastes as to the manner of living are very different. 
 
 I by no means wish to live in solitary retreat, but to have 
 seldom less than twelve or fourteen at table, and these varying 
 continually, is coming back to what was becoming so irksome 
 to me in Italy. ... I have no complaint to make, but 
 I feel that the whole attention of my wife is given to Lord 
 Nelson and his interest at Merton. I well know the purity 
 of Lord Nelson’s friendship for Emma and me, and I know 
 how very uncomfortable it would make his Lordship, our best 
 friend, if a separation should take place, and am therefore de¬ 
 termined to do all in my power to prevent such an extremity. 
 
 Early in 1802 Lord Nelson lost his father, who was to 
 the last tended by Lady Nelson. Nelson was not with him 
 
 at his death, nor did he go to his funeral. 
 
 He was himself suffering from a liver 
 
 complaint brought on by his wound at St. Vincent, which caused his family real 
 uneasiness, and which prevented him from risking a long journey. Nearly a year later, on April 6, 
 Sir William Hamilton died in the arms of Nelson and Lady Hamilton. “ The world, said Nelson 
 to the Duke of Clarence, “ never lost a more upright and accomplished gentleman.” The grave closed 
 upon him—whether deceived or not no man can tell. Nelson had always regarded him as a true and 
 sincere friend, and seems to have reconciled his own mind to the flagrant wrong he had done him 
 by the supposition that Lady Hamilton was his wife only in name. Only a week before his dea l 
 Sir William asserted in emphatic terms his regard for the man who had figured so largely m Ins life. 
 
 Death of 
 Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 / Flaxman , R.A.] [In the possession of C. Wenhuorth 
 
 IVass, Esq. 
 
 WEDGWOOD MEDALLION PORTRAIT OF 
 NELSON. 
 
 Flaxman had executed the memorial to Captain Miller 
 for Davison, Nelson’s friend, and probably made Nelsons 
 acquaintance about that time. 
 
168 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1803. 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 [by Eyre Spottiswoode. 
 
 INTERIOR OF BURNHAM THORPE CHURCH. 
 
 Showing the grave of Nelson’s father (the slab in the floor nearest the wall). 
 
 War in the air. 
 
 He bequeathed to “his dearest friend, Lord Nelson,” a portrait of his wife, “as a small token of the 
 great regard I have for his Lordship—the most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character I have ever 
 met with. God bless him, and shame fall on those who do not say Amen.” Strange indeed must 
 have been Nelson’s thoughts at reading these words. Yet there are passages in Sir William’s letters 
 which seem to indicate suspicion. “ Live and let live ” was probably his rule; he wished to be 
 deceived rather than to face in old age the pain and anxiety of a disgraceful scandal. He left his 
 wife an annuity of £800 a year, which Nelson supplemented by settling £1,200 a year on her. 
 
 Already the brief truce between Eng¬ 
 land and France was marching to its close. 
 
 Nelson’s period of re¬ 
 pose was over; hostili¬ 
 ties suspended on October 12, 1801, and 
 definitely concluded in June, 1802, by the 
 Peace of Amiens, were again to be resumed. 
 The peace had lasted barely a year. It 
 was no longer with the France of the 
 Revolution that we were to contend; the 
 French Empire of Napoleon was about to 
 take its place—a vaster structure dominated 
 by the most surpassing genius the world 
 had ever seen. Forty millions of French 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 [by Eyre & Spottiswoode . 
 
 LECTERN IN BURNHAM THORPE CHURCH MADE 
 OF WOOD FROM THE “VICTORY.” 
 
 citizens were to be measured against eighteen millions 
 of British citizens; the supreme ability of one man 
 against a many-headed popular government ; an all- 
 conquering army against an invincible Navy. The 
 two inexorable opponents closed in deadly wrestle : 
 neither could dream of peace till the other was over¬ 
 thrown. Europe looked on in eager suspense upon 
 the struggle which was to decide the destiny of the 
 world. Bitter as had been the hatred of England for the France of the Revolution, the hatred 
 of England for the France of the Empire was bitterer still. In the eyes of our forefathers Napoleon 
 stood forth as a power wholly evil, menacing the existence of all that Englishmen held dear. 
 1 he insight of those F renchmen whose mind was not warped by selfish ambition told them that 
 the struggle, however decided, must prove a disastrous one. “Tremble, fools that you are, at 
 the Emperor’s successes against the English,” said Talleyrand to the courtiers; “for if the 
 Biitish constitution is overthrown, rest certain of the fact that the civilisation of the world is shaken 
 to its very foundations.” 
 
1803.] 
 
 169 
 
 Preparing for the Great Struggle. 
 
 Never before had Britons confronted an enemy with such 
 union and determination. Faction was silenced in the din of 
 
 _ , ., _ arms; the whole tremendous energy of the 
 
 England united. 
 
 nation was concentrated upon the struggle, 
 because Englishmen felt clearly that peace could only be secured 
 by the annihilation of Napoleon’s power. Twelve years of siege 
 and battle and blockade lay before our country before she 
 reached her purposed goal, but in these long years her resolution 
 never faltered; England was as inflexible and as unwearying as 
 Nelson himself. For Nelson it remained, at the cost of his life, 
 to complete the work which he had begun, to crush and utterly 
 destroy that French fleet which he had so cowed by his brilliant 
 victory of the Nile, to free his country from the menace of 
 invasion, to confirm in her hands the sceptre of the seas, to 
 leave her with the prestige which has safe-guarded the growth of 
 her Empire to our own day, and to animate his countrymen by 
 his victories and by his sublime example. 
 
 NELSON. 
 
 This portrait is dated 1802. There are several similar drawings from the same hand, one is in 
 the collection of Earl Nelson, and another in that of Mr. Nelson Ward. 
 
 From a Crayon) [In the possession of Nelson 
 
 Sketch. Ward , Esq. 
 
 HORATIA. 
 
 Bom January 29-30, 1801. 
 
 On the back of the frame of this little picture is written 
 by the hand of Lady Hamilton : “ This portrait of dear 
 Horatia, when she was two years old—it was taken by 
 glorious Nelson with him to sea and was with him till 
 the fatal 21st of October, which deprived her of the 
 best of fathers. Oh, God, protect her. Amen. Amen.” 
 
 In the spring of 1803 it be¬ 
 came evident that war was inevitable. 
 
 Napoleon’s policy 
 
 Hostilities begin. 
 
 towards England 
 was haughty and irritating in the 
 extreme, nor would he be guided by 
 Talleyrand, his great foreign minister, 
 who assured him that the wisest course 
 for France was a close friendship and 
 alliance with our country. Napoleon 
 succeeded in preventing British manu¬ 
 factures from entering France, Spain, 
 and Holland; he demanded the evacua¬ 
 tion of Malta, whilst he kept his hands 
 on Holland and Piedmont ; he bullied 
 the British Prime Minister as if he 
 had been one of his agents; he pour¬ 
 ed into Great Britain and Ireland 
 a number of military spies whom 
 he labelled “ engineers ” and “ statis¬ 
 ticians,” who studied our military re¬ 
 sources, took soundings off ot:r coasts, 
 and examined the places best suited 
 for a disembarkation ; he despatched 
 a French general to Egypt, who re¬ 
 ported that six thousand men could 
 seize that country, as yet occupied by 
 the British ; finally he laid his hands 
 upon Switzerland, the independence 
 
 H 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1803. 
 
 170 
 
 of which was solemnly guaranteed by treaty, and Elba. He threatened us that if we blockaded his 
 ports he would close all the ports of Europe to our trade; 
 that if we sought allies, he would renew in Europe the Empire 
 of Charlemagne. Addressed to a proud, high-spirited nation, 
 these vague menaces enraged without intimidating. In March 
 England began to arm, and immediately the explosion came. 
 
 Napoleon attacked the British Ambassador with furious re¬ 
 proaches. “ We have already fought for ten years,” he said, 
 
 “ you shall fight for another fifteen if you force me to it.” 
 
 F. Gerard .] [From the Engraving by Desnoyers. 
 
 Labrouste, Jun.\ [From an Engraving published in 1832. 
 
 ELBA. 
 
 This island, which was in later years to be the scene of Napoleon’s captivity, was occupied 
 by the British from July 1796 to April 1797. It was restored to the King of Etruria by the Treaty 
 of Amiens, 1802, but acquired by Napoleon in exchange for an insignificant consideration, contrary 
 to the spirit of that treaty. It was re-united to Tuscany in 1807. In 1814, by the Treaty of Paris, 
 it was erected into a separate principality for Napoleon, who resided here from May 3, 1814, 
 till February 26, 1815. 
 
 CHARLES MAURICE DE TALLEYRAND- 
 PfiRIGORD, PRINCE OF BENEVENTO, 1754-1838. 
 Napoleon’s famous Foreign Minister. 
 
 his intention to invade England 
 
 Napoleon’s projects. 
 
 In his famous interview with the British 
 Ambassador, Napoleon openly announced 
 He made war on the supposition that he could humble us in the dust by 
 one of his thunderstrokes. It was the most disastrous error of his whole career. For, unless he invaded 
 
 England and reduced her, he would be face to face with a determined enemy whom 
 he could not reach. If he turned from her to the Continent, she was left, armed 
 and terrible, to threaten his rear. Unable 
 to cross the Channel, he was driven to the 
 plan of closing the Continent to British 
 trade. But to close the Continent, he had 
 to conquer it; and thus the incessant wars 
 which harassed Europe for a decade, were 
 all phases of the struggle with England. 
 
 Austria, Prussia, Naples, Spain, and Russia 
 —all were to be struck down to reach the 
 hated enemy. The strength of France was 
 slowly exhausted in these interminable con¬ 
 flicts ; the life of the conquered was ren¬ 
 dered unendurable by the arbitrariness and 
 exactions of Napoleon and his generals, till, 
 when disaster at last befell him, the whole 
 Continent rose in furious detestation of his 
 rule. Napoleon’s war with England was 
 the direct and immediate cause of his down¬ 
 fall. Why, then, did he wage it? Because 
 he was determined to regain Egypt and 
 Malta; to win for France a great colonial 
 empire. This was the secret of his policy. 
 
 From the original Etching] \by James Gillray , dated 1803. 
 
 THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. 
 
 This caricature gave great offence to Napoleon—for the works of Gillray and Rowlandson were 
 seen and appreciated both in the English and the French Courts. The First Consul, seated at 
 a table, and about to make short work of “ the Bank of England,” “ St. James’s Palace,” “the 
 Tower,” and other delicacies, turns to find himself confronted by the handwriting upon the 
 wall: “Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.” In the scales held by 
 the hand of an invisible figure above his head, the royal crown of France is weighing down the 
 “cap of liberty” (typifying the Republic) and the fetters of despotism. Josephine, as in many 
 other caricatures of the time, is represented as enormously fat. Behind her, stand the three 
 ladies who afterwards became the Imperial Princesses. 
 
Chas. Dixon.'] 
 
 WAITING AND WATCHING OFF TOULON. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BLOCKADE OF TOULON AND THE CHASE OF VILLENEUVE, 1803-1805. 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 44-47.) 
 
 Nelson Leaves for the Mediterranean—Invasion Preparing—The Arming of Britain—Napoleon’s Taunt—Nelson in the Victory 
 —The Plan of Campaign—The Blockade of Toulon begins—Manner of the Blockade—Nelson’s Daily Life—Affection 
 for his Fleet—Attention to Detail—Destination of the French—Latouche-Treville’s Yarn—Nelson urges Bold Measures 
 — War with Spain—Sir John Orde — Nelson’s Magnanimity — Napoleon's Plan-—Villeneuve’s Encouragement — The 
 Toulon Fleet puts to Sea—Nelson in Chase—Nelson’s Judg¬ 
 ment—Sorrow at his Failure—The French again Escape 
 —Nelson’s Anxiety—Course of the French—Fortune against 
 Nelson—Alarm in England—Nelson Guesses the French 
 Objective—To Save the West Indies—Nelson Sails for the 
 West Indies—His Rapidity of Movement—Outcries against 
 Nelson—-His Plan of Battle—He Arrives in the West Indies 
 —The French Depart for Europe—The Dream of Napoleon 
 The British Forecast—England's Hour of Trial — Nelson 
 Misled—Nelson Heads for Europe—Movements at Home 
 —Nelson Arrives at Gibraltar—Calder’s Action—Nelson 
 Returns to England—Nelson’s Reception—Nelson and 
 Wellington—Villeneuve Moves to Cadiz—Nelson’s Services 
 Required—He Leaves Merton—Embarks at Portsmouth. 
 
 which 
 
 Lady 
 
 ITH the certainty of war, Nelson, early 
 in the spring of 1803, received orders 
 to prepare to leave 
 for the Mediterra¬ 
 nean, the command 
 he coveted above all others. His parting from 
 Hamilton was affecting. She was again expect- 
 
 Nelson leaves for 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 ing to become a mother, and it is evident from his letters 
 —for hers have been destroyed—that she implored him 
 to stay and rest on his laurels. “ I feel from my soul 
 that God is good, and in His due wisdom will unite 
 only when you look upon our dear child call to 
 
 us 
 
 your remembrance all that you think I would sav 
 
 was 
 
 [From the original Needlework in the possession of Earl Nelson, 
 specially photographed for this IVork by his permission. 
 
 NELSON AND LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 This curious piece of needlework contains the only known representa- 
 tion of Nelson in civilian costume. In spite of the crudity of the drawing 
 there is true sentiment in the figures. 
 
172 
 
 Nelson and His Times . 
 
 [1803. 
 
 I present, and be assured that I am thinking of you every moment. My heart is full to bursting,” 
 
 Invasion preparing. 
 
 he wrote to her from Portsmouth. “ Believe 
 separates us, yet my heart is so entirely yours 
 and with you, that I cannot be faint-hearted.” 
 
 In the hour of his country’s exceeding 
 peril, the call of duty led the hero forth to 
 
 undertake his most glorious 
 command. Invasion long 
 prepared and threatened was at hand. Within 
 sight of the chalk cliffs of Kent 170,000 of the 
 finest soldiers the world has ever seen were 
 gathered under the greatest general. A vast 
 flotilla of flat boats was to convey this match¬ 
 less army to our shores. Omens and portents 
 
 me, my dear Emma, although the call of honour 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 [by Geo. Cruikshantc . 
 
 H. IV. Bunbury .} 
 
 [Front the original Engraving. 
 
 SOLDIERS RECRUITING. 
 
 THE OLD COMMODORE. 
 
 This is the heading to a nautical song which well expresses 
 the indomitable spirit of our fighting sea-dogs. The doctor 1 in 
 the background) tells the old commodore that “ the bullets 
 and the gout have so knocked his hull about that he’ll never 
 more be fit for sea”:— 
 
 “What ! no more to be afloat? Blood and fury ! they lie ! 
 
 I’m a seaman, and only threescore; 
 
 And if, as they tell me, I’m likely to die, 
 
 Gadzooks ! let me not die ashore. 
 
 ***** 
 
 “ So at least says an old commodore, * * * 
 
 Whom the devil, nor the gout, 
 
 Nor the P'rench dogs to boot. 
 
 Shall kill, till they grapple him at sea.” 
 
 as in the days of old filled the credulous 
 mind. Digging a trench at Boulogne the 
 French soldiers had unearthed weapons 
 of Caesar’s men, and on the site of 
 Napoleon’s tent tokens of William the 
 Conqueror had been found. A French 
 medal to commemorate the conquest 
 of England, with the lying motto 
 “ Frappee a Londres,” was already being prepared. But between the enemy and our coast the frigates 
 and gun-brigs of the British Navy cruised 
 with unshaken vigilance; further off in 
 the background lay the black and yellow 
 battleships ready with their support; and 
 everywhere in British hearts was fire and 
 the determination to win. 
 
 The country stood to arms. Fierce 
 invectives against Napoleon and the French 
 
 kindled the people. 
 
 The arming of .. TT 
 
 Britain. He P romises to en¬ 
 
 rich his soldiers with 
 
 our property, to glut their lust with our 
 wives and daughters,” said the broadsides. 
 
 Every able-bodied man was compelled to 
 serve his country: 100,000 regular troops, 
 
 80,000 militia, 343,000 yeomen and volunteers gathered to defend their hearths and homes. Pitt, the 
 ex-Prime Minister, drilled battalions at Waimer; the King and seven of his sons rode in martial array 
 
 From the original Medal] 
 
 [in the British Museum. 
 
 MEDAL STRUCK BY NAPOLEON TO COMMEMORATE THE INVASION 
 
 OF ENGLAND. 
 
 It bears beneath the group on the reverse the words, “ Frappee a Londres” (“ Struck in London”). 
 
i 73 
 
 1803.] 
 
 Nelson on board the ‘ ‘ Victory. 
 
 before the volunteers of London. Block-houses and barricades were 
 planned for a house-to-house defence of the capital ; preparations 
 were made for destroying the bridges of the Thames ; arrangements 
 were concerted for the removal of the Queen and all the treasure 
 to Worcester. A sudden silence fell upon the press : military move¬ 
 ments were not mentioned. Days and weeks passed in marchings 
 and drillings, and there was not a night when the fearful did not 
 look for the blaze of beacons proclaiming “ Bonaparte has landed.” 
 False alarms were continuous. Heavy gun firing off Dover, or the 
 
 kindling of a beacon, sent all men’s 
 Deep and general gloom prevailed in 
 that there was hope in Nelson. 
 
 hearts into their mouths, 
 the country, but all agreed 
 
 Thus did Britain answer the insolent taunt of her enemy, that 
 alone could not venture upon a struggle with France.” 
 
 England 
 
 Napoleon's taunt. 
 
 The 
 
 crisis, 
 
 W. Owen.] [From the Engraving by W. Holt. 
 
 WILLIAM PITT, 1759-1806. 
 
 Second son of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham. 
 Matriculated at Cambridge at the age of fourteen ; 
 M. A. 1776 ; called to the Bar 1780, M.P. for Appleby 
 1781. On the death of Rockingham in 1782, Pitt 
 became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Shel¬ 
 burne’s Administration, and in December 1783, before 
 he was twenty-five, he became Prime Minister. He 
 commenced the work of the next Session in a minority 
 of thirty-nine, but by skill and determination increased 
 his following, and, after the General Election of 1784, 
 had a large majority. He sat for Cambridge, and 
 kept his seat for life. By 1793 he had reduced the 
 National Debt by ten and a half millions. Warden of 
 the Cinque Ports 1792. War was declared by France 
 in 1793, and between March and October Pitt had 
 made alliances against her with Russia, Sardinia, 
 Spain, Naples, Prussia, Austria, Portugal, and some 
 German States, and granted subsidies of ^832,000 
 for the hire of foreign troops. He adopted a similar 
 policy after the Battle of the Nile. In 1797 his Budget 
 showed a deficiency of twenty-two millions, and in 
 1798 he instituted the income tax, to meet the expenses 
 of the war. In 1800 he obtained the union of Ireland 
 with England ; but being unable, through the opposi¬ 
 tion of the King, to redeem his pledges with regard to 
 Catholic Emancipation, he retired, and was succeeded 
 by Addington. In 1803, at Walmer (his residence as 
 Warden of the Cinque Ports), he organized and re¬ 
 viewed a large body of volunteers. Shortly after the 
 resumption of the war, he returned to office (May 1804) 
 as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, and set about a fresh coalition against 
 France. The mingled joy and sorrow of Trafalgar 
 broke down his health, and the news of Austerlitz 
 gave him his death-blow. He was accorded a public 
 funeral at Westminster Abbey. His career was, there¬ 
 fore, almost conterminous with that of Nelson. His 
 firm and courageous policy, and his upright character, 
 won and retained for him that public confidence which 
 enabled him to speak and act with authority, as the 
 acknowledged leader of a united and resolute nation. 
 
 along 
 
 first stage 
 
 motto, 
 the 
 
 of the course 
 which led to that far-off 
 rocky prison where he 
 was to end his stormy 
 days in fretful misery. 
 
 At Portsmouth Nel¬ 
 son, on May 18, 1803, 
 Foisted his flag upon 
 the Victory, that insepa¬ 
 rable companion of his 
 future glory. Thanks to 
 Lord St. Vincent’s un¬ 
 timely zeal for economy, 
 the Navy was in evil plight. Store-houses were empty, 
 ships were in bad order, numbers were insufficient. Whilst 
 
 Napoleon had been working feverishly 
 at the reconstruction of his navy, the 
 British Admiralty had been singularly remiss. But no econo¬ 
 mies could at this date kill the zeal and spirit which animated 
 the officers and seamen of our fleet, or neutralise the im¬ 
 measurable advantage of a personnel trained to war and 
 taught to keep the sea, or of officers accustomed to face the 
 risks and responsibilities of command. Weakness and hesita¬ 
 tion there may have been at headquarters, but the very danger 
 of their country raised the daring and energy of her defenders 
 on the seas. Faith in England, and the calm conviction of 
 her ultimate success, shine forth in almost every letter Nelson 
 wrote during these stirring days. 
 
 national spirit kindled by this tremendous 
 the military ardour it inspired, the con¬ 
 centration of all minds upon the one purpose “ Down with the 
 French ” which it compelled, left a lasting stamp upon the character 
 of our people, and a great example to all time. And thus, whilst 
 in France Napoleon was being acclaimed with fulsome adulation, 
 and greeted with the words “ God created Bonaparte and rested 
 from His labours,” whilst he was passing through triumphal arches 
 
 The road to England,” he was really 
 
 adorned with the 
 journeying 
 
 Nelson in the “Yictory.” 
 
 J . Nollekins .] 
 
 [/« the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX, 1749-1806. 
 
 Third son of Henry Fox, afterwards Baron Holland of F°*' e y- 
 Educated at Eton Zd Hertford College, Oxford. H>s father's 
 wealth enabled him to travel much, and he was a leader of fashion 
 Tn the days o? the Macaronis. M.P. for Midhurst 1768. .Entered 
 Lord North's Administration, 1770, as one of the Lords of the Adm 
 rrdtv ‘resigned February 177a, re-entered as Junior Lord of the 
 Treasury December 1772, dismissed by the King 1774. and . fj e ^j 
 to act with the Rockingham Party in opposing the war with the 
 /' 1 •i\i p for Westminster 1780, Foreign Secretary 
 
 “locking^'^rySa’-rnd unTe^hebuke o ? f Portland 1783. Was 
 one of the managers of the impeachment of Warren Hasungs. ^'7^ 
 
 strain retired He applauded the taking of the Bastille in 1709. 
 
 d m fn e res P S re of 
 
 Fox opened negotiations with France, which, however, 
 buried near Pitt in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 All the Talents.’ 
 failed. He is 
 
174 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1803. 
 
 The plan of 
 Campaign. 
 
 The plan of campaign which Lord St. Vincent had devised was a close watch of the enemy’s 
 fleets in their ports. French squadrons were assembling at Brest, in the Texel, at Rochefort, and 
 in Toulon. Off Brest came Cornwallis, clinging like a leech to the mouth of the Goulet, which gives 
 
 access to the open sea, holding in a grip of 
 
 iron the greatest and 
 most formidable of the 
 French squadrons. Off 
 Rochefort and the Texel were other British 
 detachments; and a great array of battle¬ 
 ships and small craft guarded the Downs. 
 Nelson’s duty it was to watch Toulon. He 
 was to “ take, sink, burn, or otherwise 
 destroy ” any ships or vessels belonging to 
 France or the citizens of that republic, to pre¬ 
 vent any attempts against Egypt, Naples, and 
 Sicily, and to keep a vigilant eye upon the 
 Spaniards, whose intentions were justly sus¬ 
 pected. He was instructed on his way out 
 to leave the Victory for Cornwallis, if the 
 latter wanted her, and to proceed up the 
 
 
 
 , .... ... „ ■' tP 
 
 IV. A. Richards . 
 
 THE “VICTORY'’ AS SHE WAS. 
 
 [By permission 0/ Messrs. Syvionds Co. 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 Mediterranean in the Amphion. This would 
 mean much discomfort, for a small frigate 
 would necessarily be crowded with an ad¬ 
 miral’s suite, and all Nelson's heavy luggage 
 was in the Victory. Many admirals would 
 have murmured, but with Nelson, as he wrote, 
 
 “self was out of the question.” Already, 
 perhaps, the imminence of death—the pre¬ 
 sentiment that he who had survived so many 
 battles must fall before this final struggle 
 was concluded—was refining his character 
 and raising his aspirations. More and more 
 in these final years he lives in the sight of 
 posterity, and looks to posterity for his 
 reward. With his steadily growing physi¬ 
 cal enfeeblement, an enfeeblement which 
 excited the apprehension of his most de¬ 
 voted friends and followers, the mind that was caged within the body rose to its loftiest elevation. 
 
 Nelson left his Victory off Brest, but his old friend Cornwallis did not long detain her. She 
 joined Nelson on July 30 off Toulon. “Thanks for not taking the Victory from me,” he wrote to 
 Cornwallis; “it was like yourself; very unlike many others you and I know.” Passing Naples on 
 
 From a Photograph\ 
 THE “VICTORY 
 
 [by Messrs. Symonds Co., Portsmouth. 
 AS SHE IS, DRESSED FOR TRAFALGAR DAY. 
 
1803.] 
 
 Difficulties of the Mediterranean Command . 
 
 1 75 
 
 The blockade of 
 Toulon begins. 
 
 D. Gardner .] 
 
 [From the Engraving by 
 F. Haward. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR WM. CORNWALLIS, 
 1744-1819. 
 
 Fourth son of the 1st Earl Cornwallis. Entered 
 the Navy, in 1755, in the fleet under Boscavven on 
 the North American station. Lieutenant 1761, 
 commander 1762, captain 1765. Took part in the 
 actions with De Grasse 1782. Commander-in- 
 chief in East Indies 1788, and reduced Pondicherry 
 1793. Rear-admiral 1793, vice-admiral 1794. In 
 1795, with four seventy-four gun ships and two 
 frigates, he fell in with Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, 
 with twelve ships of the line and as many large 
 frigates. Brisk firing took place, and, finding the 
 Mars lagging through damage, Cornwallis wore 
 to her support, at the same time, by means of 
 false signals, causing the enemy to suppose he 
 sighted the British fleet. The daring manoeuvre 
 succeeded, an l he drew off his small squadron in 
 safety. Appointed commander - in-chief in the 
 West Indies 1796 ; but, owing to an accident to 
 the Royal Sovereign , he returned without tak¬ 
 ing up his command. Admiral 1799, and in 
 t 801 succeeded St. Vincent in command of the 
 Channel fleet. In 1803 resumed that command, but 
 was superseded by St. Vincent 1806. G.C.B. 1815. 
 
 June 25, the sight of that lovely bay recalled overpoweringly the 
 sweetness and bitterness of happiness once enjoyed there in years 
 
 gone by. He did not go ashore ; duty led him 
 from that divine land of dreams to the storms 
 and trials of the Gulf of Lions, where his vigilant, 
 unceasing watch of the French squadron in Toulon began. Seven 
 vessels of the line were ready in the French port, two more were 
 completing, three were on the 
 stocks. Against these Nelson’s 
 fleet mustered only nine sail of 
 the line, eight frigates, and some 
 smaller craft. With this strength 
 he had to prevent the French 
 from putting to sea, guard Naples, 
 and protect from privateers the 
 British trade within the limits of 
 his vast station. Not only was 
 his squadron numerically weak, but 
 also the ships comprising it were 
 in wretched condition and poorly 
 manned. It was now that the dis¬ 
 astrous economies of St. Vincent 
 were most sharply felt. Nelson 
 
 From a Drawing ] 
 
 [by A. Maurin. 
 
 had no great reserve of stores at 
 
 LOUIS RENE MADELEINE LEVASSOR 
 DE LATOUCHE-TREVILLE. 
 
 1745-1804. 
 
 Garde-de-la-Marine on board the Dragon at 
 thirteen. Ensign 1768. Served as aide-de-camp 
 to the Governor of Martinique, and in 1771 to 
 General Valiere. Re-entered the Navy in 1772, 
 lieutenant 1778. Commanded the Hermione in 
 1780 in the action against the Iris, and was pro¬ 
 moted to captain for his services. He took 
 Lafayette to America, but was himself captured 
 and confined until the Peace. Director of the 
 Port of Rochefort 1783, rear-admiral 1792. His 
 property was confiscated, and he was imprisoned 
 during the Revolution of 1793, released 1794. 
 Commanded the Naval Division at Brest 1799. 
 Was in command at Boulogne in 1801, when 
 Nelson made his unsuccessful attack. Vice- 
 admiral 1801 for services in St. Domingo. Took 
 command of the squadron at Toulon 1804 and 
 died there. 
 
 Gibraltar to draw upon ; his miser¬ 
 able old ships could not be relieved 
 and sent home, because there were 
 none to take their place ; his con¬ 
 stant entreaty for frigates was addressed to deaf ears. The resources 
 of the British Navy were being strained to the uttermost to keep 
 the Channel fleet in good order, and Nelson, remote from home, 
 was forgotten and neglected. The Admiralty, however, knew their 
 man. “The truly great man,” said Napoleon, “must have improvised 
 
 part at least of his glory, and must have 
 shewn himself above the circumstances 
 which others have caused.” And thus 
 the manner in which Nelson overcame his 
 difficulties must always be one of his 
 surest titles to enduring fame. 
 
 From the greatness of the divergent 
 interests committed to his charge, and 
 
 from the constant, in¬ 
 evitable necessity of 
 watering his ships, it 
 a part of his fleet 
 could be kept up against Toulon. “ I 
 cannot do impossibilities or go into 
 Toulon,” he said; but he always invited 
 battle. Rarely had he more than five 
 
 From the originals', {in the possession of Nelson Ward, Esq. sa J] £pg pne with him - a terrible dis- 
 
 TABLE, CHAIR, AND FOLDING BEDSTEAD FROM THE “VICTORY.” , , , r- , • L.: mQP lf 
 
 The table bears an inscription by Ladv Hamilton, stating that it was in the daily use of pant\ blit t 
 
 fordes a pamhes n; °" il S,ands the cast of Nelson 1 * face taken after death. The chair has pockets ^ ^ ^ men , an( j c l ear appre hension 
 
 Manner of the 
 blockade. 
 
 resulted that only 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1803. 
 
 6 
 
 Egypt and Gibraltar converge. 
 
 R. Bowyer .] 
 
 of the inefficiency of the French. A squadron of frigates watched the port: further off, at the 
 
 anchorage of Maddalena, where in our day Italy faces Toulon, lay his battleships, as he frequent y 
 
 made this magnificent harbour his headquarters: it lies in the north-east corner of the island 
 
 of Sardinia, and only 200 miles from Toulon, near the point where the routes from Toulon to 
 
 From its enormous value Nelson was eager for the acquisition of 
 
 Sardinia by England. But this his far-seeing statesmanship, though 
 
 it governed the policy of England in the Mediterranean, could not 
 
 effect. At times, eager to draw out the French, Nelson would divide 
 
 his force of battleships, sending one portion of his fleet so far to sea 
 
 that their topgallantmasts could not be discerned from Toulon, but 
 
 not far enough to be out of touch of his own ships. d he French 
 
 admiral, Latouche-Treville, was, however, much too astute to be caught 
 
 by this stratagem. The presence of Nelson, the terrible victor of 
 
 Aboukir Bay, cowed the enterprise of the French squadron. “ Our fleets," 
 
 says a French historian,“so splendid 
 
 upon paper, had the little defect of 
 
 Roland’s horse — they could not 
 
 move.” And so, held everywhere in 
 
 check, Napoleon panted in vain to 
 
 avenge “six centuries of insults”; 
 
 “ the ditch which will be crossed 
 
 when anyone has the audacity to 
 
 attempt it ” still parted him from British soil. 
 
 To Nelson the Mediterranean command was a source of heavy 
 
 expense, because he was generous and hospitable in the extreme, 
 
 entertaining his captains and officers daily. His 
 Nelson's daily life. , ^ • , ■ , , , , 
 
 personal life at this date is thus described by 
 
 Dr. Gillespie: He breakfasted soon after six on tea, hot rolls, toast, 
 
 cold tongue, and so forth, and 
 dined at three, to the tune of 
 “ The Roast Beef of Old Eng¬ 
 land,” on “ three courses and a 
 dessert of the choicest fruits, to¬ 
 gether with three or four of the 
 best wines.” “ If,” says one of 
 his shipmates, “ a person does 
 
 not feel himself perfectly at his ease, it must be his own fault, 
 such is the urbanity and hospitality which reign here. . . . 
 Coffee and liqueurs close the dinner about half - past four or 
 five o’clock, after which the company generally walk the deck, 
 where the band of music plays for nearly an hour.” At six 
 came tea; at eight “ a rummer of punch ”; and before nine the 
 admiral, who rose at five or six in the morning, went to bed. He 
 
 [From a Mezzotint. 
 NELSON. 
 
 [From the original in the possession 0/ 
 J. A. Brown, Esq. 
 
 NELSON’S CABIN WASHSTAND. 
 
 The glass is made to slide down behind the case, 
 and the flaps fold over to form a cover. 
 
 From a Lithograph] 
 
 [in the possession of Dr. 
 H. Nelson Hardy. 
 
 DR. LEONARD GILLESPIE, R.N. 
 
 never went on shore but once, and then only for an hour, during 
 all the months of the blockade. Thus denying himself, in obedience 
 to a promise he had made Lady Hamilton, and in obedience also to his unfailing instinct of duty, 
 his example, as in the days of the Baltic command, won rhe cheerful obedience of all. Distasteful 
 monotony his officers and men had to endure; but, to quote a letter from an officer in his fleet, 
 “ under all the hardships and anxieties we have suffered, I never heard a man in the fleet repine.” 
 Under St. \ incent the Channel fleet had murmured unceasingly; even Collingwood’s letters were 
 filled with complaints; but Nelson’s rule was the rule of love, the rule of an admiral who does 
 not say “ Go,” but “ Come.” 
 
1803'.] 
 
 Nelson s care for his men. 
 
 Affection for his 
 fleet. 
 
 JOHN M'LL oftenruj-Littlr Ji ON A' )' fun■f)bn 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 “WHY DON’T YOU COME OUT?’ 
 
 Ry ./• Gill ray. 
 
 The same generous warmth of affection for those under his command, which distinguished his 
 cnaracter when in years long before he had cruised, then only a simple captain, in these self-same 
 
 waters, marked him now. Of 
 
 Captain Keats, Nelson said that 
 he in himself was worth a 
 
 seventy-four, and after Nelson’s death Keats’s com¬ 
 pany always fought under a portrait of Nelson 
 fastened to the rigging. It is difficult to quote 
 
 passages of praise for his officers and men, his 
 
 letters are so full of them. He speaks of his com¬ 
 mand as a “ most enviable ” one—“ no command 
 ever produced so much happiness to a commander- 
 in-chief, whether in the flag-officers, the captains, or 
 the good conduct of the crews of every ship in this 
 fleet.” His men were “spirited,” his commanders 
 “judicious.” “ I never saw a fleet altogether so well 
 officered and manned,” he records; “ the fleet is per¬ 
 fection ”—in everything but the state of its ships, 
 which were the reverse of satisfactory, “with crazy 
 masts, and no port or spars near us,” and “with three days’ gale of severe blowing weather out of 
 seven, which frequently comes on suddenly and thereby exposes the topmasts, topsailyards, and sails 
 to great hazard.” It was his singular capacity to infuse his own spirit into others which worked 
 such astonishing results with such feeble resources. 
 
 Nor was the health of the fleet in this hard, monotonous work of blockade less remarkable. “No 
 one,” he cries in humorous despondency, “ dies here: there are no promotions. We are the healthiest 
 
 squadron I ever served in, and all are in good humour.” This object he achieved 
 by always keeping his men’s minds occupied, by providing amusement for them, by 
 taking care that the food supplied was fresh and good, and by paying particular attention to the men’s 
 
 clothing. No detail was 
 beneath his notice; the 
 quality of duck trousers 
 supplied, the dropping of a 
 bag of biscuit into the sea, 
 the overcharges and pecula¬ 
 tions of a naval storekeeper, 
 the length of jerseys, which, 
 if too short, will expose the 
 men to chills when they lie 
 out on the yards, engage 
 the mind of this strategist, 
 tactician, and statesman. 
 It is told of Napoleon that 
 one day he was inspecting 
 the Invalides, the home for 
 aged and disabled French 
 soldiers in Paris. He was 
 shown by the matron the 
 chests of drawers in which 
 the soldiers’ linen was kept, 
 and told the good woman 
 that the shirts as they came back from the wash should always be piaced at the bottom of the pile, 
 to prevent the careless from wearing the same ones over and over again. He had all Nelson s attention 
 
 Attention to detail. 
 
 Painted by Beaugean .] [From the Engraving by Couche, after the picture at l'ersaUles. 
 
 “THE BOULOGNE FLOTILLA AT THE MOMENT OF DEPARTURE, August 16, 1803.” 
 Napoleon says that his forces did actually embark more than once. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [i 803-4- 
 
 178 
 
 to detail. Like the British admiral, he hated the idea of an able-bodied man dying of sickness 
 or mismanagement. “A small sum well laid out,” Nelson said, “will keep fleets healthy, but it 
 requires large sums to make a sickly fleet healthy, besides the immense loss of personal services. 
 Health cannot be dearly bought at any price.” Yet he himself suffered from his exertions and 
 from the grave anxiety which oppressed him. “Active service soon gives a shake when above sixty; 
 comfortable and strong in our elbow-chairs, but feeble when tossed in the Bay of Biscay,” he had 
 written twenty years before to Cornwallis. Alas! at the very meridian of his life he was experiencing 
 the physical frailties of old age. “ Dreadfully sea-sick,” “ always tossed about and always sea-sick,” 
 troubled by rheumatic fever, and feeling “ the blood gushing up the left side of my head, and the 
 moment it covers my brain I am fast asleep,” feeling too the pain in his heart which his furious 
 chase of the French had left, and verging on blindness, he was, indeed, as he wrote, “ in the 
 worst plight of the whole fleet.” 
 
 Mount Caumes. Gulf of Giens. 
 
 Cape Sepet. Toulon Bay. 
 
 A. Barraud.] [After a Sketch by a Naval Officer. 
 
 THE COAST LINE OF TOULON, FROM THE SEA. 
 
 More and more his mind was engrossed with the ultimate destination of the French fleet, now 
 
 preparing for sea at Toulon. Forgotten by the Admiralty, and receiving no letters or despatches for 
 
 sometimes as long as ninety days at a stretch, with no one from whom he could 
 French obtain counsel near at hand, he was thrown back upon his own intuitive sagacity 
 
 and determination. Troops were assembling at Toulon, and all the symptoms 
 which preceded the invasion of Egypt were recurring. Was the French armament then destined for 
 Egypt? Or was it for Sicily? Or yet farther afield than either—for Ireland or the West Indies? 
 He could not, groping in the fog of war, decide. Only one thing he had determined, that where 
 it went he should go—to the East or the West Indies—though for an admiral commanding-in-chief 
 to quit his station without orders was an almost unprecedented transaction. Whenever he came 
 up with the enemy he would give battle. “The event,” he wrote in a solemn strain, “no man 
 
 can say exactly, but I must think or render great injustice to those under me, [if I do not say] that 
 
 let th : battle be when it may it will never have been surpassed. My shattered frame, if I survive 
 that day, will require rest, and that is all I shall ask for. If I fall on such a glorious occasion 
 it shall be my pride to take care that my friends shall not blush for me. These things are in the 
 hands of a wise and just Providence, and His will be done. ... My mind is calm.” “Whatever 
 happens,” he told Lord Minto, “ I have run a glorious race.” 
 
i8o 4 .j 
 
 1 79 
 
 The Spanish Treasure-Ships. 
 
 Latouche-Tre ville’s 
 yarn. 
 
 In i8o 4 happened an incident which greatly annoyed him. Latouche-Treville, with eight ships 
 of the line, claimed to have chased him with five ships away from Toulon, and published a boastful 
 report in the French papers. The truth was that Nelson had hove-to and waited eagerly for his 
 
 _____ attack. “ If I take him,” said Nelson, 
 
 “ I shall make him 
 eat his letter.” How 
 could Nelson have 
 run away from the French fleet which 
 he had come to regard as his own, and 
 to christen his fleet, when he was smart¬ 
 ing for a battle which should end the 
 war and give him back to home? In¬ 
 credible as the supposition was, he feared 
 that malicious tongues in England might 
 seize upon the fable. A rumour of a 
 battle in which he had conquered the 
 French and fallen in the hour of victory 
 caused him not less annoyance. “ You 
 will not believe any little stories in news¬ 
 papers,” he wrote to Lady Hamilton ; 
 “ I am perfectly prepared how to act 
 with either a superior or inferior fleet. 
 My mind is firm as a rock.” With Latouche-Treville he was destined never to settle accounts. 
 The French admiral died in August i8o 4 , and was succeeded by Vice-Admiral Villeneuve. 
 
 In vain during these months Nelson pressed the Government to protect Britain by a bold 
 counter-stroke against Napoleon in Italy. He urged that the despatch of some thousands of the 
 
 innumerable soldiers, mustered for the defence of home, to the Mediterranean, would 
 distract and 
 
 Aiisell .j [From the original Etching. 
 
 THE DONS OUTWITTED ; OR, JOHN BULL IN TIME FOR ONCE. 
 
 “ Ah, ha, Monsieur Bull, you never declare de war, nor we no declare it yet, before we got 
 
 home all de treasure ! ” 
 
 Nelson urges bold 
 measures. 
 
 em barrass 
 our formidable antagonist, as in 
 later years the sending of an 
 expedition to Spain distracted 
 Napoleon’s attention from Eng¬ 
 land. The alarm at home, how¬ 
 ever, was too great to permit of 
 any such enterprise, and Nelson’s 
 plea that “ small measures only 
 produce small results ” fell upon 
 deaf ears. 
 
 In October, i8o 4 , the British 
 Government, convinced of the 
 
 unfriendliness 
 
 War with Spain. . „ , 
 
 ot Spam, de¬ 
 termined to seize four Spanish 
 frigates, laden with treasure, which 
 were expected from America. In¬ 
 structions were sent to Nelson 
 and Cornwallis to detach ships 
 for that purpose. The Admiralty 
 did not direct an overwhelming force to be despatched, and Cornwallis merely sent two frigates. 
 Nelson, on his own responsibility, anxious to avoid bloodshed, ordered a battleship as well as two 
 frigates’ upon the enterprise, but unfortunately the battleship could not arrive in time. Honour 
 
 N. Focock .] 
 
 {From Jenkins's “ Naval Achievements." 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE TREASURE-SHIPS (October 5, 1804), AND THE BLOWING-UP 
 OF ONE OF THE SPANISH VESSELS. 
 
 The English ships engaged were the Indefatigable (Captain Graham Moore), Medusa (J. Gore), Atnpkion 
 (Sutton), and Lively G. E. Hammond). T'he Spanish ship Mercedes blew up; the others— Medea, Clara , 
 and Faina —were captured with over three million dollars in gold and silver. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1804. 
 
 180 
 
 compelled the Spaniards, though taken by surprise, to resist, and a Spanish frigate blew up with 
 horrible loss of life, which must be laid wholly and entirely at the doors of the Admiralty. Amongst 
 the killed, Englishmen learned with extraordinary indignation, were 
 many harmless non-combatants, women, and children. War with 
 Spain was the result of this act, but it had long been inevitable. 
 
 In the captured vessels were cargoes and specie worth about 
 £1,000,000. Of this no share went to the man who had sacrificed 
 so much for his country, and who was even now in debt, incurred 
 mainly through a life of devotion to duty. By an extraordinarily 
 fatuous job, an officer who was well known to be one of Nelson’s 
 bitterest enemies, and who was senior to Nelson, Sir John Orde, 
 had been appointed to a command within Nelson’s station. The 
 only possible defence of this appointment was that the Admiralty 
 supposed Nelson was coming home. Orde was to look after the 
 Spaniards, from the Straits of Gibraltar westwards, and as there 
 were no valuable prizes to be taken from the French in the Mediterra¬ 
 nean, he was to have all the profit and Nelson all the hard work. 
 
 If Orde had been a zealous, G • R ° mn ey-\ 
 
 energetic man little could be said. 
 
 But he was 
 
 [From the Engraving by 
 S. IV. Reynolds. 
 
 Sir John Orde. . 
 
 far from being 
 
 such, and he was into the bargain 
 jealous of his younger rival. He 
 was censured by the Admiralty for 
 his complaints of Nelson, and for 
 his letters which were one mo¬ 
 notonous lament for prize-money 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR JOHN CAMPBELL ORDE. 
 
 1751-1824. 
 
 Brother of Thos. Orde-Powlett, 1st Lord Bolton. 
 Entered the Navy 1766, lieutenant 1774, commander 
 1778, captain 1778, governor of Dominica 1783, 
 baronet 1790; returned to the Navy on the outbreak 
 of the Revolutionary War; rear-admiral 1795, third 
 in command to St. Vincent at Cadiz 1797. Finding 
 Nelson preferred for the Mediterranean command, 
 he complained to St. Vincent in letters which the 
 latter considered so improper that he sent him home. 
 Orde challenged St. Vincent, but the King forbade 
 the duel. Vice-admiral 1799, commanded squadron 
 off Cape Finisterre 1804. On Villeneuve’s escape 
 through the straits Orde was obliged to retire, and 
 was ordered home. Admiral of the Blue 1805; one 
 of the pall-bearers at Nelson’s funeral 1806 ; M.P. 
 for Yarmouth I.W. 1807-24. 
 
 lost. None the less he was so placed 
 as to interfere with Nelson’s work in the Mediterranean ; he swept 
 the store-houses of Gibraltar for his ships, leaving Nelson to shift as 
 best he could; he laid hands upon Nelson's frigates, paralysing Nelson 
 in his arduous watch off Toulon ; he omitted to send Nelson information 
 of the enemy’s doings and pro- 
 
 Sir IV. Beechey, R.A .] 
 
 [From the original 
 Painting . 
 
 IN OLD AGE. 
 
 (See note to portrait on page 51.) 
 
 ceedings when the French put 
 to sea; he neglected the defence 
 of convoys and tried to put every¬ 
 thing upon Nelson — whilst tak¬ 
 ing away his ships ; and finally, 
 at a critical moment, he went off in a dudgeon to England with 
 his fleet. It is no exaggeration to say that at every point 
 Nelson s work was doubled by the intrusion of this jealous, in¬ 
 competent, meddlesome superior, and we cannot wonder that 
 he felt bitter at the way in which he had been treated. It 
 was not that he himself lost money, it was rather because the 
 country and the service suffered, because the escape of the 
 French was facilitated. “ I attend more to the French fleet 
 than making captures ... as for making one farthing more 
 prize-money I do not expect it . . . you will not hear of my 
 
 making prize-money. I have not paid my expenses these last 
 months, Nelson had w'ritten on three separate occasions before 
 the appearance of Orde. He kept his frigates cruising off Toulon, 
 
 and not money-getting. “ I 
 
 am keeping as many frigates as 
 
 {From Carrington Bowles's Caricatures. 
 
 THE TRUE BRITISH TAR. 
 
 Home from the wars, and looking forward to a life 
 of ease on his prize-money. 
 
i 8 o 4 -] 
 
 The French Navy begins to move. 
 
 181 
 
 Nelson's 
 
 magnanimity. 
 
 possible round me,” he said, “ for I know the value of them on the day of battle, and compared 
 with that day what signify any prizes they may take ? ” Yet because Nelson was above base con¬ 
 siderations, it does not follow that he or his officers and men should have been deprived of what was 
 fairly their due. “ God knows in my own person I spend as little money as any man, but you know 
 I love to give away,” said Nelson in a letter to his friend and agent. The slight to him struck the 
 public. Orde’s command, it was said, “was a national debt due to Nelson.” The hero himself 
 found consolation in his own renown. “ Our house, my own Emma,” he wrote, “ is built upon a 
 solid foundation, and will last to us.” 
 
 By reason of his ill-health, Nelson had applied for leave to go home, before Orde’s coming. Yet 
 
 when he heard that the French were preparing to 
 
 put to sea, and that Orde would 
 probably be his successor, he 
 was ready to sink his feelings, 
 to act under him as second in command, and to 
 overwhelm him with respect. As Orde had an 
 unpleasant name in the service, Nelson could not 
 have made a greater sacrifice. 
 
 The long months of the blockade were drawing 
 slowly to their close, the hour of action was at 
 hand, the curtain was about to rise upon the last 
 
 act of the lingering death-agony 
 
 Napoleon’s plan. T 
 
 of the Revolutionary navy. in 
 
 all the blockaded French ports squadrons were 
 moving; signs were manifest that some great master¬ 
 stroke was on the 
 eve of being at¬ 
 tempted. Napoleon, 
 despairing of cross¬ 
 ing except under the 
 convoy of his ves¬ 
 sels’ guns, had de¬ 
 termined to concen¬ 
 trate a vast fleet 
 of battleships in the 
 Channel. The plan 
 which he conceived 
 would have gone 
 like clockwork had 
 he been handling 
 the British, or in¬ 
 deed, the recon¬ 
 structed French 
 fleet of our own 
 
 day. It demanded resourcefulness, zeal, determination, and skill on the part of his admirals and 
 good sailing on the part of his ships. The French squadron at Toulon was the pivot on which 
 !l, turned. It was to put to sea with eleven sail of the line, to sail to Cad,z there pick up ten or 
 twelve Spaniards, and then to make a wide sweep to the West Indies. Simultaneously twenty-one 
 sail of the line were to break out of Brest, and six sail of the line out of Rochefort. All these ) 
 sail were to concentrate in the West Indies, and returning to Europe, were to cover the passag 
 
 Napoleon's army. The plan supposed, on the one hand, that the British " ^r Than artdle^ 
 admirals would not act with celerity-" celerity,” which, as Napoleon said, is better than artihery. 
 It supposed, on the other hand, that no mischances would befall the French, and that their officers. 
 
 /. Flax man, F.A.] [From the original^ in the United 
 Service Club. 
 
 NELSON. 
 
 Two aspects of this bust are here given. A similar 
 bust (also by Flaxman), is in the possession of General 
 Viscount Bridport, Duke of Bronte. 
 
182 
 
 Nelson and His limes. 
 
 [1804-5. 
 
 VilleneuYe’s 
 
 encouragement. 
 
 who could not handle a fleet of fifteen, would be able to handle an armada of fifty. But for a whole 
 momentous summer this plan seemed on the verge of success. The fate of Britain, of Europe, hung 
 absolutely in the balance, and for weeks and months the balance did not incline. 
 
 In December, 1804, after eighteen months of blockade, Villeneuve received orders to put to sea 
 from Toulon. The French admiral encouraged his fleet by the reflection that “ there was nothing 
 
 intimidating in the appearance of a British fleet ”—those terrible, battered, black 
 and yellow 7 ships so often watched by the French captains from the cliffs of the 
 French coast—“ its vessels were harassed by two years of cruising.” But the 
 French well knew that the fleet which they saw was accustomed to keep the sea ; and its constant 
 presence off Toulon in inferior force was an argument which quite counteracted all Villeneuve’s fine 
 words, because it revealed the indomitable fire and energy of his British antagonist. 
 
 Early in January, 1805, Nelson, with his small fleet of eleven sail of the line, left Toulon for 
 Maddalena to water his ships, detaching his frigates Seahorse and Active off Toulon to watch the 
 
 French. Though there were thirteen British frigates in the Mediterranean, it was 
 rare for him to have more than two or three with him, such was the constant 
 demand for 
 
 The Toulon fleet 
 puts to sea. 
 
 cruisers for convoy duty and the 
 protection of trade. On Janu¬ 
 ary 1 g the sky was grey and 
 squally ; his fleet was at anchor 
 on the island-locked harbour, 
 when far away two ships were 
 made out approaching under a 
 heavy press of canvas. As they 
 drew nearer, about three o’clock, 
 the signal “ The enemy is at 
 sea,” was made out, flying from 
 their mastheads. The news was 
 startling indeed. The day before, 
 
 Villeneuve’s fleet had put out, 
 favoured by a strong north-west 
 wind; till nightfall the British 
 frigates had followed with ease, 
 but late in the night they had 
 been shaken off. Half an hour 
 after the news arrived the signal 
 to weigh floated from the flagship. 
 
 Fortune never surprised her favourite : Nelson’s fleet was always ready. The boats were hoisted in, the 
 
 anchors weighed, and at six the fleet went out by the narrow strait, 480 yards wide, between the islet of 
 
 Biscia (Biche) and Sardinia. The ships were in single line, each showing only a light on the taffrail to her 
 next astern ; in the silence and order bred by years of training at sea, they made the difficult passage 
 astern of the admiral, and turned to run down Sardinia. To the south Nelson expected to meet the 
 French. Fate in the night the signals to “Prepare for battle” and “Keep in close order” were made. 
 
 The weather was stormy and squally. No French fleet was to be seen, and Nelson was driven 
 
 far to the east of Sardinia by the heavy gales. He waited in growing impatience, in breathless anxiety, 
 
 Nelson in chase ^ or enem y' s com i n gj feeling certain that the position he had chosen, to the 
 south-east of Sardinia, was the best. He apprehended attack on Naples, Sicily, 
 or Egypt. Though for months he had been considering whether Ireland or the West Indies might 
 not be the object of Napoleons designs, westward movement in the heavy western gales was as 
 impossible for his enemy as for himself. Long hours and days passed, and there was little news. 
 On January 21 a French frigate was seen off the Sardinian coast, but the French fleet had vanished. 
 On the 26th he heaid that a dismasted French ship of the line had put into a Corsican port, but 
 
! 8 o 5 .] 
 
 To Rgypt once more . 
 
 183 
 
 C. IV. Wyllie .] 
 
 THE CITADEL, CORFU. 
 
 The Island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, fell into the hands of the French in 1796, on the 
 overthrow of the Venetian Republic, to which it had been attached since 1386. In 1799, it 
 was re-taken by the combined squadrons of Russia and Turkey, and in t8oo the Emperor 
 
 _ \ Paul declared the Ionian Islands a separate State under the protection of Turkey. But Nelson 
 
 foresaw that Napoleon would endeavour to regain them as stepping-stones to the East; and 
 during his own Mediterranean command was much troubled by the privateering which went on here unchecked, through fear of Napoleon.' The islands 
 were, in fact, restored to France by the Treaty of Tilsit. 1807; but all except Corfu fell to a British squadron in 1810. Corfu was blockaded; and in 1815, 
 by the Treaty of Paris, both it and the other Ionian Islands were again declared a free and independent State; this time, however, under the protection of 
 Great Britain. They were ceded to Greece in 1864. 
 
 Nelson’s judgment. 
 
 nothing more. He ran down to Sicily : Palermo Harbour was empty. He steered for the Straits of 
 Messina, and far into the night of January 28 watched the sleepless blaze of Stromboli. 
 
 At Messina there was still no news. But now, considering all the evidence, he concluded that 
 one of two things had happened. Either the French, crippled by the stormy weather, had put back 
 
 to Toulon, or they had proceeded to Egypt. The westerly winds forbade a 
 movement towards Gibraltar. If his first supposition was correct, nothing was 
 to be feared ; if his second, instant pursuit was necessary. Confident as ever in his own judgment 
 he sailed eastwards, looked into Alexandria, saw that it was empty, and returned without a single ship 
 crippled or disabled. On Febru¬ 
 ary 19 he learnt that his first 
 supposition was correct, and that 
 the French had put back to 
 Toulon in miserable order, with 
 four vessels of their fleet disabled. 
 
 “Two days of fine weather,” said 
 Napoleon, “ought to have re¬ 
 assured the crews and refitted my 
 ships. But the great evil of our 
 navy is that the men in com¬ 
 mand are unused to the risks of 
 command.” “ Bonaparte,” said 
 Nelson, “has often made his brags 
 that our fleet would be worn out 
 by keeping the sea; that his was 
 kept in order and increasing by 
 staying in port; but he now finds, 
 
 I fancy, if Emperors hear truth, 
 that his fleet suffers more in one 
 night than ours in a year.” 
 
 IV. H. Bartlett. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 Founded by Alexander the Great, B.c. 332, on the site of a little town called Rakoti. Ptolemy I. made 
 the city his capital, and founded here the great library which was burnt during the siege of the city by the 
 Romans, B.c. 48, when it is thought that more than 750,000 works were lost. A second library was founded 
 by Cleopatra, of which 200,000 mmrscripts, contributed by Antony, the spoils of the Pergameman library 
 of Eli men es II., formed the nucleus. The city declined in importance until Mohammed Ah, in 1819, built 
 the Mahmfidiych Canal. Its present population is about 300,000. 
 
Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1805. 
 
 184 
 
 Sorrow at his 
 failure. 
 
 From a Photograph] 
 
 THE LOWER-DECK OF THE “VICTORY.” 
 
 [by West Son, Southsea. 
 
 Nelson chafed bitterly at his failure to bring his enemy to battle. “ Nothing,” he wrote to Lady 
 Hamilton, “ can be more miserable or unhappy than your poor Nelson. And to another friend he 
 said “ my heart is almost broke. hresh trials crowded upon him. One of his most fa\oured captains, 
 
 Layman, ran his ship ashore, 
 
 and was 
 censured 
 by court- 
 
 martial, though wholly inno¬ 
 cent of blame. “ I own 
 myself,” Nelson said, “one 
 of those who do not fear the 
 shore, for hardly any great 
 things are done in a small 
 ship by a man that is [afraid], 
 and if he did not every day 
 risk his sloop he would be 
 useless.” “ The loss of this 
 officer’s services,” he add¬ 
 ed, with one of those noble 
 touches which so endeared him 
 to those under his command, 
 and so provoked their ardent 
 zeal, “is a national loss.” 
 
 Ailing, longing for the battle which was to give him peace and home, he returned to his weary 
 watch. He proceeded to Toulon, and thence again to Majorca, whence he sailed on April 3. He 
 
 was at sea when, early in the morning of the 4th, a frigate came fluttering in with 
 the news that the French had again put out, and again vanished. Late on 
 Saturday night, March 29, Yilleneuve had stolen out of Toulon with eleven sail of 
 the line, and six frigates. The wind blew briskly from the north-east, and he steered before it to the 
 south - south - west. Till the 
 31st he was dogged by the 
 two British frigates, but that 
 night he eluded their vigilant 
 pursuit and disappeared. 
 
 Terrible was Nelson’s 
 anxiety. Everything was at 
 
 stake ; he 
 could not 
 know whither the French 
 bound, whether to the 
 or to the east. The 
 did not as before afford 
 H e bore on 
 
 The planks of the deck itself are said to be the same as in Nelson’s time; they bear traces of many years of 
 
 service, but are still sound. 
 
 The French again 
 escape. 
 
 Nelson’s anxiety. 
 
 were 
 
 west 
 
 wind 
 
 him 
 
 any guide. 
 
 his shoulders the fortunes of 
 his country, the fate of Eu¬ 
 rope, the destiny of the world. 
 
 His supply of frigates was 
 wholly inadequate to enable 
 
 him to discover the enemy t * le Painted Hall at Greenwich. Another hangs in Buckingham Palace. 
 
 and besides, if he waited in the Mediterranean and searched for the French, there was no mischief 
 that they might not meanwhile be working outside. Under the load of his crushing responsibility 
 he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. Uneasy, unwell, “ very, very miserable,” he yet showed at 
 
 Fro?n a Photograph J [by West Son. Southsea. 
 
 WARD-ROOM OF THE “VICTORY.” 
 
 The picture of the “ Death of Nelson,” by Devis, hanging on the further wall, is a smaller replica of that in 
 
1805'.] 
 
 Junction of the French and Spanish Fleets. 
 
 185 
 
 this most trying moment a singular coolness of judgment. He could not abandon Sicily and 
 Egypt, committed by his country to his charge, without some knowledge of the French movements. 
 The story, carefully disseminated, that Villeneuve’s fleet carried a large force of troops, misled 
 him. But he restrained his impetuous passion for action, and, chafing unceasingly, cruised to and 
 fro between Sicily and Sardinia, whilst his few frigates scattered and searched the empty waters 
 of the Mediterranean as best they could. 
 
 Flying from Nelson’s fleet, the French passed the Straits of Gibraltar, and appeared off Cadiz 
 on April 9. They all but captured Sir John Orde, who was at anchor off the port with four sail of 
 
 the line. He made his ignoble escape, and fled north, without sending word to 
 Nelson, without ordering his frigates to watch the doings of the French. Such 
 was the shameful issue of a political job. Had Nelson or Collingwood been there, 
 we may safely assert that they would have had thought first for the “ honour and greatness of 
 England ”—for her very safety in this terrible hour of tribulation—and not for their own ships. It 
 
 Course of the 
 French. 
 
 From a Photograph J 
 
 [by Syvionds & Co., Portsmouth. 
 
 H.M.S. “VICTORY” IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR, 1898. 
 
 was an additional misfortune that, owing to Orde’s proclivities for annexing other people s cruisers, 
 the sorely-tried Nelson had not dared to risk a frigate at Gibraltar. Thus, whilst he knew nothing, 
 the French and Spaniards formed their junction with a feverish haste which bore eloquent testimony 
 to the terror of his name, and Villeneuve, with twelve French sail of the line—one drawn from Cadiz 
 and six Spanish sail, was then ready to work unutterable harm. 
 
 Fortune was sorely trying her favourite. Once more, as in those old Mediterranean days, when 
 he led “the band of brothers” to glorious victory, every chance seemed against him. Now, as then, he 
 
 proved himself worthy of whatever favours she might bestow. Early in April the 
 Fortune against a p sence Q f all news convinced him that the French must have sailed to the west. 
 
 Nelson. ^ get ^ course a t i as t f or the Straits with a fleet of which it might justly be 
 
 said that it stood to other British squadrons as these stood to the French manned by veterans, 
 bound to follow not by fear but by love, led by the man who towered head and shoulders above all 
 other seamen of his day, or of all time. And now the wind which had blown fair for the French 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Alarm in England. 
 
 Ansell. J 
 
 [Front the original Etching. 
 JOHN BULL PEEPING INTO BREST. 
 
 changed, and blew foul for Nelson. In agony of heart he watched for a change, but for three weary 
 weeks no change came. The news that the French had been seen entering the Gut of Gibraltar 
 reached him on April 16. “ It kills me, the very 
 
 thought,” he wrote, in sickening alarm. For he 
 heard at this moment for the first time—such was 
 the management of the Admiralty—that 5,000 British 
 troops were at sea on their way to the Mediterranean. 
 
 They must be captured by the French, and what 
 besides ? Broken-hearted, but still rising above despair, 
 he set his mind to follow the French to the East or 
 West Indies, to the Antipodes, if need were. 
 
 In England the news that the French and Spaniards 
 had gained the sea and vanished, produced the deepest 
 
 gloom. Silence sat upon the Medi¬ 
 terranean ; no message came from 
 Nelson. Had he then been beaten, or if not, what was 
 he doing? Groping in the dark for an answer, knowing nothing of Napoleon's immense schemes, save 
 only the fact that hour by hour the French soldiers at Boulogne waited and watched for the chance of 
 crossing, the country was distracted by boding anxiety. What were those strange ships sighted off the 
 Penmarks ? What these mysterious comings and goings of an enemy that eluded our fieet ? Vague hints 
 and menaces from the French and Spanish press reached England. Until June there was no news from 
 the Mediterranean; the silence was inexplicable. But the country put its trust in Nelson. With 
 but six ships, men said, he would have stopped the French, though they had eleven. Rumours that 
 he had fought and fallen filled the air. The volunteers drilled incessantly. The French fleets at 
 Brest and the Texel were on the stir; the summer was indeed big with events. Late in May or 
 early in June the Admiralty was warned by a letter from one of its secret agents that the hostile 
 fleet which had vanished so mysteriously, was coming round the north of Scotland to the Texel, 
 disembarking 8,000 men on the way ; and that simultaneously the Brest fleet would carry 12,000 
 
 men to Ireland. But Cornwallis never 
 relaxed his hold of Brest; and as for 
 the first part of the scheme the cool 
 heads at the Admiralty appear to 
 have dismissed it as visionary and 
 rash, though it does seem to have 
 been substantially accurate informa¬ 
 tion, if anything could be accurate 
 when Napoleon's plans changed kalei- 
 doscopically from hour to hour. 
 
 On May 4 Nelson anchored at 
 Tetuan for water and provisions, 
 
 astonished and 
 dismayed at the 
 absence of all 
 news from Orde. He was still in the 
 dark, but more and more the belief 
 was growing upon him that the desti¬ 
 nation of the French was the West 
 Indies. He well knew the vast inter¬ 
 ests which England had there at stake. 
 
 If our islands fall, he had written six months before, “England would be so clamorous for peace that 
 we should humble ourselves. Whilst in the midst of watering the fleet he felt the sure prognostics 
 of an easterly wind, and to the amazement of all his officers and men hoisted the signal to weigh. The 
 
 Nelson guesses the 
 French objective. 
 
 J. 1 b betson.] 
 
 [Front the original Engraving, 1803. 
 THE SAILOR'S FAREWELL. 
 
1805.] 
 
 Nelson sails for the West Indies . 
 
 187 
 
 To save the West 
 Indies. 
 
 From the original in the Painted Hall, Greenwich, by] 
 permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 NELSON’S FAVOURITE GROG-JUG. 
 
 fleet unmoored and the east wind blew; he headed through the Straits and, finding no news at Gibraltar, 
 steered for the south coast of Portugal. Delay was imperative till the convoy of troops arrived in 
 
 Lagos Bay; so he filled up with provisions and 
 detached the Royal Sovereign, one of his finest 
 battleships but sadly in need of fresh copper sheath¬ 
 ing, to see the troops safely up the Mediterranean. 
 He was left wirh ten sail of the line and three 
 frigates, but of his battleships several were in 
 wretched condition, and one, the Superb, was quite 
 unfit for a long voyage. The eagerness of her 
 captain, Keats, to be with Nelson outweighed all her 
 defects, though she delayed the fleet at every turn. 
 
 On May 11 the convoy arrived, and Nelson was 
 able to depart on his most momentous mission— 
 
 “ to save our valuable West 
 India possessions.” Disappoint¬ 
 ment had worn him to a skele¬ 
 ton ; deep anxiety still preyed upon him—for what 
 if the French fleet had not steered to the west ? 
 What if they had made a wide sweep to sea, and 
 headed north to the Channel ? The possibilities were so numerous that he could not feel certain whither 
 they had gone. He had to fall back upon his own native sagacity, to bear alone the crushing responsibility 
 of a movement which, however well inspired, must cover him with 
 confusion in the eyes of his countrymen if the Allies had gone 
 elsewhere. He was resolved to do what he conceived to be the 
 
 best, without fear of any consequences. “ Although it may be said 
 I am unlucky, it never shall be said that I am inactive or sparing 
 of myself,” he wrote to the Admiralty. “ However, I know that 
 patience and perseverance will do much.” 
 
 On the very point of sailing, his judgment was confirmed by 
 a letter from a Portuguese admiral, which gave fuller information 
 
 of the Allies’ intentions. On May 12 the high 
 lands of Portugal sank below the horizon, and 
 the squadron headed in furious pursuit of the 
 French, for Madeira. The battleships were always preceded by a 
 frigate carrying no lights; the lame duck Superb set the pace for 
 the squadron. Such was Nelson’s consideration for her captain, 
 who, he knew, was fretting at the slow speed of his ship, that he 
 wrote to him: “I know and feel the Superb does all which is 
 possible for a ship to accomplish.” The daily run varied between 
 fifty-eight and 190 miles; but the winds were fair on the whole, 
 and there were no more weary delays. Nelson expected to gain, a 
 fortnight upon the French by the rapidity of his movements. 
 
 They had a month’s start, and therefore they would only have 
 seventeen days for mischief. With his clear insight into the 
 character of French admirals, he anticipated their wasting these 
 precious days in procrastination and delay. He would burst upon 
 them as a thunderbolt from the clear sky, with his Mediterranean 
 ships, and the issue could not be doubtful. 
 
 Thus was Nelson falsifying Napoleon’s forecast of his action. “ Nelson, Napoleon had said, 
 “will lose two days at Cape Verde, he will lose several days in collecting the ships and frigates which 
 he will have to detach on his way for purposes of scouting. Not an instant had been lost or wasted. 
 
 Nelson sails for the 
 West Indies. 
 
 ! From the original in the Painted Hall, Greenwich, 
 by permission of the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty . 
 
 SILVER HOT-WATER JUG ON TRIPOD 
 STAND WITH LAMP. 
 
 Formerly the property of Lord Nelson, and bearing 
 his arms. 
 
188 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Napoleon forgot “ the terrible rapidity of this man who possessed genius for war in nearly as high a degree 
 as Napoleon himself.” He forgot the desperate energy of the pursuit to Egypt. Already he counted 
 
 England as lost. “ I do not know how she can guard against the terrible danger 
 
 His rapidity of w hich she runs,” he wrote. “A nation is utterly mad when it has no fortifications 
 and no army, to face the risk of 100,000 hardy warriors striking at its heart.” And to 
 his admiral at Brest he wrote: “ Start, start at once, in your hands are the destinies of the world.” But 
 Cornwallis, cool and unshaken, cruised steadily off Brest and the going of the French fleet tarried. 
 
 To the west of Madeira a strange sail dogged Nelson’s ships. This was probably an English 
 merchantman, which reported on her return to England a large fleet crossing the Atlantic, and added 
 
 to the general bewilderment. By this time certain tidings had arrived that the 
 
 Outcries against Allies were bound for the West Indies. The consternation in the city was terrible. 
 
 Nelson. 
 
 Men had begun to think the danger past ; but confidence returned with the in¬ 
 spiring news that Nelson was close behind in hot pursuit. Still there were outcries against him and 
 
 NELSON’S COURSE TO AND FROM THE WEST INDIES IN SEARCH OF VILLENEUVE. 
 
 Reduced from the original French chart belonging to Rear-Admiral Sir George Murray, K.C.B. (Nelson’s flag-captain), now in the possession of his great grandson, 
 
 John Murray Scott, Esq. 
 
 against the Admiralty. The tumult of anxiety was growing. “ To be burnt in effigy or Westminster 
 Abbey is my alternative,” he had said; and there was painful truth in his words. 
 
 On his way out—always beforehand and prepared for contingencies—he drew up his plan of 
 battle. The British ships were, as at the Nile and as later at Trafalgar, to concentrate upon a part 
 
 of the enemy’s unwieldy line. “The great object,” he said, “is for us to support 
 each other, and to keep close to the enemy.” The plan of breaking the enemy’s 
 line was to be adopted if possible. Signals were useless when the captains knew their business and 
 his designs, and when every man was ready to do his duty. Nine of his ships were to attend to the 
 French ; he, himself, with just contempt for the seamanship of the Spaniards, undertook, unaided, to 
 deal with their six ships and hold them in check. 
 
 His plan of battle. 
 
i8 ° 5 -] 
 
 The Islands Saved. 
 
 189 
 
 He arrives in the 
 West Indies. 
 
 On June 4 Nelson anchored at Barbadoes. He had gained 
 thirteen days upon the Allied fleet, which had anchored on May 13 at 
 
 Martinique. There two ships of the line joined 
 Villeneuve, raising his force to twenty sail of the 
 line and seven frigates. But he could attempt 
 nothing. His instructions were to wait, ready night and day to put 
 to sea, for the coming of the Brest fleet. At the same time he was 
 to attack the British West Indian islands. The two courses were 
 irreconcilable; and, devoid of purpose or energy, the French admiral 
 fell back upon inactivity. Quarrels arose between him and the Spanish 
 admiral Gravina. In the unhealthy climate the French and Spanish 
 crews deserted and died fast. No less than 3,000 men had been 
 buried in the graveyards of Martinique before, on June 4, at the hour 
 
 of Nelson’s arrival, 
 Villeneuve sailed 
 northward, captured 
 a convoy, and learnt 
 ships—so rumour exaggerated our numbers—and 
 
 D. Serves.] [After a Sketch by the Hon. Augustus Hervey , dated 1761. 
 
 MARTINIQUE : THE PORT OF LA TRINITlS, AND THE NORTH SIDE OF THE ISLAND. 
 
 Napoleon had intended his squadrons to rendezvous here, and to proceed in a body to the Channel, to cover the movements 
 
 of his flotilla at Boulogne. 
 
 that the terrible Nelson with twelve or fourteen 
 Admiral Cochrane with eight, were close at 
 hand. Against such a force success was 
 hopeless. He turned and stood across the 
 Atlantic. The West Indies were saved; but 
 now the danger threatened Britain herself. 
 
 Villeneuve’s orders were to proceed to 
 Ferrol, there add fifteen French and Spanish 
 
 to his enormous fleet, 
 
 The French depart ,, ,, . , r 
 
 . then with thirty-four or 
 
 for Europe. _ J 
 
 thirty-five ships of the 
 line either to pass round Ireland to the Texel 
 and pick up seven more ships of the line, 
 or to stand straight up the Channel, thus 
 concentrating an overwhelming force off 
 Boulogne, and giving Napoleon’s army the 
 longed-for opportunity to cross the Channel. 
 
 More than ever now all depended upon 
 Nelson. At home we had off Brest, Cadiz, 
 and Ferrol forty-three sail of the line; in 
 the North Sea seven ; and in our own ports 
 nine: a total of fifty-nine, but these were 
 
 M. Meyer.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by Chavannc , after the picture 
 in the Gallery of Versailles. 
 
 THE TAKING OF DIAMOND ROCK, MARTINIQUE, BY THE FRENCH, 
 
 June 2, 1805. 
 
 The British garrison of the Diamond Rock, consisting of about 200 men, armed, according 
 to French accounts, with four 24-pounders, two 18-pounders, and a 32-pounder carronade, 
 had held out against all the efforts o. Admiral Villaret-de-Joyeuse. On the arrival of Ville- 
 neuve arrangements were made for an assault, which was commenced by the landing of 
 French troops, May 30. The garrison, nevertheless, held out until the fourth day, June 2, 
 when they capitulated, and were taken to Grenada to be exchanged. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ALEXANDER 
 F. INGLIS COCHRANE, 
 G.C.B., 1758-1832. 
 
 Younger son of the 8th Earl of 
 Dundonald. Lieutenant 1778, 
 commander 1780, captain 1782, 
 M.P. for Stirling burghs i8ot, 
 rear-admiral 1802. Was in com¬ 
 mand of the squadron off Ferrol, 
 when he received information 
 which led to the capture of the 
 Spanish treasure-ships, 1804. In 
 1805 followed Missiessy with the 
 Rochefort squadron to the W est 
 Indies, and was at Barbadoes 
 when Nelson arrived, June 4. 
 Second in command at St. Do¬ 
 mingo 1806, and made K.B. and 
 commander-in-chief in Leeward 
 Islands. Governor of Guadaloupe 
 1810-14, commander-in-chief on 
 North American station 1814, and 
 at Plymouth 1821, vice-admiral 
 1809, G.C.B. 1815, admiral 1819. 
 
Nelson and His Times . 
 
 190 
 
 [1805 
 
 much scattered. Success was within Napoleon’s grasp if Villeneuve had acted with determination, if 
 his fleet had possessed seamanship and 
 that resourcefulness which marked Nel¬ 
 son and St. Vincent. But the swift 
 rush of Nelson’s terrible ships in pursuit 
 demoralised him. 
 
 And now, whilst Villeneuve is slowly 
 sailing to Europe, let 
 us ask what would 
 have happened had 
 Napoleon’s great combination succeeded. 
 
 The Dream of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 N. I'ocock .] [From the Engraving by T. Medlancl , 1804. 
 
 ST. JOHN’S HARBOUR, ANTIGUA. 
 Nelson anchored here, June 12, 1805. 
 
 “ I should have hastened over my 
 flotilla with 200,000 men,” said 
 Napoleon at St. Helena, “ landed 
 as near Chatham as possible, and 
 proceeded direct to London, where 
 I calculated to arrive in four days 
 from the time of my landing. I 
 would have proclaimed a republic, 
 the abolition of the nobility and 
 house of Peers, the distribution of 
 the property of such of the latter 
 as opposed me amongst my parti¬ 
 sans, liberty, equality, and the 
 sovereignty of the people. 
 
 I think that with my promises, together with what I would actually have effected, I should have had 
 the support of a 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 [by Valent hie Sons, Dundee. 
 
 KINGSTON HARBOUR, JAMAICA. 
 
 Kingston Harbour, a natural inlet about six miles long and two miles broad, having Port Royal at its 
 entrance, was in Nelson’s time, as it is in ours, an important rendezvous and depot for our squadrons 
 ia West Indian Waters. Nelson was appointed to command one of the batteries here when D’Estaing 
 threatened Jamaica in 1779; from this port he set out in 1780 on the San Juan expedition, and to it he 
 returned ; and hither Napoleon expected him to come in 1805. 
 
 
 
 
 great many. In 
 a large city like 
 London, where are 
 so many canaille 
 [dregs of the 
 population] and so 
 many disaffected, I 
 should have been 
 joined by a formi¬ 
 dable body. I 
 would, at the same 
 time, have excited 
 an insurrection in 
 Ireland. 
 
 What resistance 
 could an undisci¬ 
 plined army make has been in British occupation since 1803. 
 
 against mine in a country like England ? I calculated on the effect that w^ould be produced by the 
 possession of a great and rich capital, the Bank, and all your riches, the ships in the ri\er and at Chatham.” 
 
 D. Serres.] [After a Sketch by Admiral Barrington , dated 1778. 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ST. LUCIA. 
 
 The headquarters of General Brereton when Nelson visited the West Indies in 1805. St. Lucia, the largest of the Windward Islands, 
 
Napoleons Calculations. 
 
 1805. 
 
 191 
 
 dentin 'jjjr k.'ad: 
 ■rpr-f Virtci icon jffUltlbe CK 
 
 vU ,\v OA'Cr Awf* a-riJ. pa La 
 fcr.LrJj.. a rp : >i/fcr me. he 
 
 • VbL !ltf, a/&■ Uisi/rvi 
 J \ 
 
 -p titty:JBt&C 
 
 But Napoleon calculated without taking into account the indomitable spirit of the British aristocracy 
 
 —a race of iron. That he would have captured 
 
 London, had he once landed, 
 
 The British Forecast. 
 
 may be pronounced almost 
 certain. We had no generals who were a match 
 for him or for those brilliant officers—Lannes, 
 Junot, Soult, Ney, and Davout, all in the prime 
 of their life-—who fought under his orders. Of 
 the enormous mass of men which we maintained 
 under arms the greater part was ill-disciplined 
 and ill-fitted to take the field. We were ready 
 for the worst. Preparations had been completed 
 for the evacuation of London. Thirty waggons 
 were to carry off the treasure hoarded in the 
 vaults of the Bank of England; barges were 
 waiting to convey the artillery^ and stores at 
 Woolwich to Birmingham by the Grand Junction 
 Canal. So that the fall of London would not 
 necessarily have ended the war. And, meantime, 
 
 Raymond .] [From the Etching by Roberts , 1803. 
 
 LEAP FROG. 
 
 Napoleon, having vaulted over Holland and Spain, addresses Hanover: ‘"Keep 
 down your head, Klaster Hanoverian; my next leap shall be over John Bull.” 
 That worthy, however, expresses himself emphatically: “ I'll be d—d if you do, 
 Master Corsican.” 
 
 the arrival of the British fleets in the Channel should have cut off all reinforcements and all supplies 
 from Napoleon’s army. Once in London, his difficulties should have begun. The British armies 
 confronting him would have grown stronger each day; his own forces would have as steadily diminished. 
 Behind him there was no means of escape. Before him would have stood what he had never yet 
 faced—a nation of freemen in arms, a nation united, a natioq determined to fight to the last breath 
 in defence of hearth and home. 
 
 Such were probably the calculations of the British 
 Ministers. But the soil was trembling, the strength of 
 
 Britain was being sorely tried. Trade 
 was declining, pauperism was increas¬ 
 ing; wages were desperately low', and 
 bread w r as cruelly dear. In July the quartern loaf cost 
 
 England’s hour of 
 trial. 
 
 , My y,^ 0. r.eit jLiW'L'I 
 
 /WjffA.v tf U.fim.wkd.Ja*. \ 
 
 /’""V-';*•««». V !/„ < 
 
 Mil a*** id 0* • \ 
 
 -dull, y'U to or.i'ru- uj- the m&st fiutrSaoiu kttJts odious * \ 
 
 n/ilties Uu/ na!«/n. ivw suf/Cd (a (/mat uhjn tfa, surfa:/ ' 
 
 .. :-s* ■ ' 
 
 
 From the original Etching ] [by James Gillray. 
 
 THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG AND GULLIVER. 
 
 George III. and Napoleon, with a clever parody of the words 
 of the King of Brobdingnag to Gulliver. 
 
 iby James Giliray. fifteen pence, or three times what it 
 costs to-day. Strange tales w'ere afloat 
 of disaffection—worse than in the year 
 of the great mutinies — in the fleet. 
 Consols stood at 57 ; the country w r as bowed beneath the crushing load of taxation, and yet was 
 borrow’ing—it might appear recklessly. Hanover, which had for three generations been an appanage 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG AND GULLIVER.— Plate II. 
 
 “ The English,” says a French writer, “ laughed at our ‘cockle-shells,’ ” one of which, indeed, 
 running upon some slight obstruction, had, in Napoleon’s presence, and greatly to his chagrin, 
 tilted several soldiers into the water. This etching, and especially the caricature of the Lord 
 Chamberlain behind the royal chair, vasdy amused the Royal Family, who are here depicted. 
 
192 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 of our Royal house, had been, it would seem, hopelessly lost. “What advantage,’’ asked Napoleon, 
 “ have the English acquired to compensate for their losses ? What has availed the masters of the 
 sea the immense superiority of their naval strength ? They have squandered immense treasures; at 
 home they have seen the merchant forced 
 from his counting-house, the manufacturer 
 from his loom. Under the pressure of fear 
 the British Government has prepared inunda¬ 
 tions and batteries, barricaded ports, fortified 
 coasts, contrived flying carriages to transport 
 troops, and requisitioned the carriages and 
 horses of the three kingdoms. The traveller 
 
 who goes from Paris to London, and returns 
 from London to Paris, is astonished to behold 
 in the capital of the Lrench empire profound 
 peace and security, and in the capital of 
 England uncertainty and terror.” Panic, 
 dismay, murmuring, were abroad in England, 
 and if fresh disaster had come, who knows /. T. Serres.] 
 what would have happened ? Nelson, pant- 
 
 [From the Engraving by Clark and Harraden. 
 A BRIG OF WAR. 
 
 Nelson misled. 
 
 ing in chase of Villeneuve, felt the greatness of the danger and trembled for his country’s fate. 
 What if he were to be too late ? 
 
 At Barbadoes false information reached Nelson from General Brereton, commanding at St. Lucia, to 
 the effect that the enemy had gone to attack Trinidad. Embarking a force of troops, he steered south in 
 
 eager pursuit, with his fleet cleared for battle. Two ships had joined him at 
 Barbadoes, raising his strength to twelve sail of the line. At Tobago the St. Lucia 
 news was confirmed. An American ship reported the enemy ahead. As he neared Trinidad, on June 7, 
 he saw outposts blazing on the heights of the island—the French must be there. Eagerly he entered 
 
 the vast expanse of the Gulf of Paria and neared the silent 
 forests of the Orinoco mouth. But no hostile sail was in sight: 
 the great sheet of water was empty: once more fortune had 
 deceived him. Losing not an instant, he turned north again and, 
 on June 12, landed the troops at Antigua. Here, at last, he got 
 news. The French fleet had passed to the north, after landing 
 at Guadaloupe all their troops and stores. “ I feel,” he wrote, 
 “ having saved these colonies and two hundred and upwards of 
 sugar-loaded ships, that I must be satisfied they have bent their 
 course for Europe before I push after them.” Once more he 
 resisted the impulse to hasty thoughtless action. Once more a 
 terrible responsibility rested upon him, and he proved equal to 
 it. To leave the West Indies, if the French were still there, 
 and he had only his own conjectures to go upon, must mean 
 disaster to England’s vital interests. To stay in the West Indies, 
 if the French were fairly on their way to Europe, might mean 
 destruction to his country. “ Nelson,” Napoleon had said, “when 
 he learns that Villeneuve is not at the Windward Islands, will 
 go to Jamaica, and during the time he is wasting there in getting 
 provisions and waiting for news, the great blows will be struck.” 
 Once more the Emperor’s forecast was falsified. Nelson’s judg¬ 
 ment was sounder than that of the Admiralty, for they had 
 directed Collingwood to sail to the West Indies—if Nelson had not already gone thither—and if the 
 
 French should be found to have left the Windward Islands, to run down to Jamaica, far to leeward. 
 
 Thus Napoleon had exactly foreseen their orders. 
 
 I. Downman , A.R.A.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by 
 Miss Bourlier. 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES MIDDLETON, 
 LORD BARHAM, 1726-1813. 
 
 Lieutenant 1745, captain 1758. Voted a gold-hilted 
 sword by the Barbadoes Assembly for his services 1761. 
 Comptroller of the Navy 1778-50; baronet 1781, M.P. 
 for Rochester 1784, rear-admiral 1787, vice-admiral 1793, 
 admiral 1795, First Lord of the Admiralty 1805, and 
 raised to the peerage. Retired 1806. 
 
1805.] 
 
 BetteswortJis Errand. 
 
 193 
 
 Nelson heads for 
 Europe. 
 
 On June 12 Nelson received news of great importance from the schooner Nelly, the purport of 
 which is not known. That same night he determined to return, and sent off Captain Bettesworth 
 
 in the brig Cuneux to carry news of his coming and of the French movements to 
 the Admiralty. “ Delivered him an order to 
 proceed with my despatches to the nearest 
 port in England, and to forward them from thence by Post 
 Office Express,” was the entry in his journal. The fresh 
 intelligence which had arrived, and which, it would seem, 
 related to the destination of the enemy’s fleet, Bettesworth was 
 to carry in person to the Admiralty. The fate of the world 
 hinged upon this errand; but he was a man who could be 
 trusted. He bore on his person the scars of more honourable 
 wounds than even Nelson himself. On June 13, a day later, 
 
 Nelson weighed and followed. “ I am thankful,” he said to 
 one of his captains, “ that the enemy has been driven from 
 the West Indies with so little loss to our country. I had 
 made up my mind for great sacrifices; for I had determined, 
 notwithstanding his vast superiority, to stop his career and 
 to put it out of his power to do any further mischief. Yet do 
 not imagine I am one of those hot-brained people who fight 
 at immense disadvantage without an adequate object. My 
 object is partly gained. If we meet them, we shall find them 
 not less than eighteen, I rather think twenty sail of the line, 
 and therefore do not be surprised if I should not fall on them 
 immediately. We won’t part without a battle.” He would let them alone “till they give me an 
 advantage too tempting to be resisted.” “ I feel,” he wrote, “ I have done all that a mortal man could 
 do, therefore I must try and be content.” But he was “very, very unwell and vexed,” though still 
 the hope of closing the enemy in the long chase before him cheered him. 
 
 What wins our admiration in this strenuous pursuit is the combination of rapid action, confidence 
 in himself, cool judgment, and sagacity under circumstances the most bewildering and alarming. No 
 
 A. IV. Dev is.] [From the original exhibited by the Rev. 
 
 IV. S. Halliday in the Loan Collection 
 at South Kensington, 1868. 
 
 NELSON IN 1805. 
 
 Painted for Captain Page. 
 
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 A T . -^'- 9 ^ '■ ^^-- ^ . 
 
 s a * s.*~y ~y/s,yd y’ f -~ a...A, Ayr 
 
 /s. 
 
 
 
 Photographed for this Work] 
 
 {from the original .in the Record Office. 
 
 FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF PORTION OF A PAGE OF NELSON’S DIARY. 
 
 The entries are those relating to Tune J2 and 13, 1805, and contain tile record of his instructions to Capt. Bettesworth. The columns on the left-hand page 
 are headed : •*Week d;ys; Month days; Winds; Courses; Distance; Latitude; Longitude; Bearing and distance at noon.” 
 
194 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 '• [1805. 
 
 Movements at home. 
 
 other admiral has ever had to face such difficulties, or has ever been tried so severely. Attaining the 
 golden mean between precipitancy and timid caution, it was granted to him to achieve success 
 
 without a battle, to confuse and 
 
 unnerve his 
 enemy, and to 
 ensure the safety of his country 
 by the extraordinary celerity of his 
 movements. There was no certain 
 news of his whereabouts at home 
 till, on July 8, Bettesworth arrived 
 with his all-important tidings. On 
 his way he had passed the enemy’s 
 fleet, and beaten the French and 
 Spanish slow-sailing ships with 
 the greatest ease. He presented 
 himself at Lord Barham’s house 
 late that night. Barham was 
 First Lord of the Admiralty, an 
 officer of judgment and experience, 
 
 T. Whitcombe .] 
 
 [Frojn the Engraving by T. Sutherland, 1817. 
 
 SIR R. CALDER ENGAGING THE FRENCH AND SPANISH FLEETS, July 22, 1805. 
 
 In the centre is the admiral’s ship, the Prince 0/ Wales ; to the right the Repulse , Raisonnable , and 
 Glory ; and on the left the Defiance and Windsor Castle. In the distance, to the left, the French admiral s 
 ship; and to the right the San Rafael, which struck to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 but of advanced years. Being in 
 bed he was not called, and nine 
 precious hours were wasted. Next 
 morning, as he dressed, the First Lord read the message, and decided the movements. Five British 
 ships were ordered up from before Rochefort to join ten more detached from the Channel fleet, under 
 Calder, off Ferrol; the fifteen were to cruise to the west of Finisterre in ambush for Villeneuve. And 
 thus whilst Napoleon was writing “the Admiralty cannot decide the movements of its fleets in twenty- 
 four hours . . . these ships must have been sent to the West Indies”; and whilst Villeneuve was 
 crawling to Europe, our squadrons were already in rapid motion to meet him, and the second crisis 
 had passed. In vain was Napoleon’s baggage packed and on board at Boulogne; in vain were the 
 stores of the French army of inva¬ 
 sion embarked; the impassable ditch 
 parted him from his foe; the black 
 and yellow ships still cruised off 
 Brest and in the Channel, and the 
 finger of fate pointed now, not to Eng¬ 
 land, but to Moscow and St. Helena. 
 
 Meantime Nelson was fast near¬ 
 ing Europe. On June 21 he saw 
 
 planks from the 
 
 Nelson arrives at „ in, , 
 
 brench fleet, and 
 
 knew he was 
 close behind. “Very miserable,” he 
 wrote: “which is very foolish.” A 
 passing American had seen the 
 enemy, twenty-two sail strong, eighty 
 leagues ahead. Misled by a false 
 entry in the log of a Spanish prize, 
 and naturally expecting that the 
 Allies would make for the Mediterra¬ 
 nean, he steered for Gibraltar, to the southward of his enemy. On July 18 Cape Spartel came in 
 sight, “but no French fleet nor any information about them,” he wrote: “how sorrowful this makes 
 me, but I cannot help myself. ’ Here he found the vigilant and trustworthy Collingwood, cool amongst 
 
1805.] 
 
 Calder encounters Villeneuve 
 
 T 95 
 
 so many alarms, quietly watching the Spanish ships, which were still in Cadiz, 
 meeting again after so many toils endured, conferred bv letter. 
 
 Collingwood considered that 
 
 From the original Etching ] 
 
 [by T . Rowlandson. 
 
 PORTSMOUTH POINT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY. 
 
 The principal scene of embarkation and disembarkation at Portsmouth in Nelson’s time. 
 
 The two friends, 
 the 
 
 journey of the French to the West 
 Indies was only a ruse to draw 
 off the British, and that the real 
 destination was Ireland. Nelson, 
 with his delicate and noble con¬ 
 sideration for a junior officer, 
 assured him “ The moment the 
 fleet is watered I shall come out 
 and make you a visit, not, my 
 dear friend, to take your command 
 from you, for I may probably add 
 mine to yours, but to consult how 
 we can best serve our country.” 
 Then, anchoring at Gibraltar, with 
 his fleet in perfect health and the 
 best of condition, Nelson set foot 
 on shore for the second time during 
 his command in the Mediterranean. 
 There was still no news of the 
 French, still an utter absence of 
 orders from the Admiralty. Nelson began to think that, as before on his famous chase to Egypt, he 
 must be ahead of the enemy. Some four days were spent watering and provisioning the ships; then, 
 tireless as ever, burning as ever for the great final battle, sorrowing with exceeding sorrow at the 
 thought of the undeserved blame which must await him at home “for misfortunes which may happen 
 and have happened,” he turned north once more. “ I am as miserable as you can conceive,” he wrote 
 to an intimate friend. “ But for General Brereton’s damned information, Nelson would have been, living 
 or dead, the greatest man in his profession that England ever saw. Now, alas! I am nothing.” 
 
 The strategic battle had already been fought. On July 22, in thick fog, Villeneuve had run 
 up against Calder and his 
 
 fi fteen 
 British 
 
 ships off Finisterre. A 
 protracted but indecisive 
 action followed. Calder 
 failed miserably to destroy 
 the French and thereby 
 demonstrated the immense 
 moral and material value 
 of Nelson’s presence. He 
 failed even to inflict very 
 severe damage on his 
 enemy, but at least he cap¬ 
 tured two Spanish ships, 
 and shook the tottering 
 resolution of Villeneuve. 
 
 The fleets parted in the 
 fog, and Villeneuve de¬ 
 cided to run to Cadiz; 
 then changed his mind 
 and steered for Ferrol. His 
 
 Calder’s action. 
 
 J. Ibbetson .] 
 
 SAILORS CAROUSING. 
 
 [From the Mezzotint by IV. Ward, 1807. 
 
196 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 '■ [1805. 
 
 despondency had deepened into despair, and he no 
 longer dreamed of executing the Emperor’s plans. His 
 ships were in wretched condition, full of sick, short of 
 water and food, and defective in masts and rigging. 
 One of them was making six inches of water an hour. 
 The Spaniards, furious at the loss of two of their ships 
 —sacrificed as they suspected, wilfully, by the French 
 were outspoken in their insubordinate complaints. On 
 July 26 Villeneuve anchored in Vigo Bay, close to the 
 harbour of Ferrol. The indignation in England when 
 it was known that Calder had failed to “take, sink, burn, 
 
 From a miniature, enamelled on porcelain, origin¬ 
 ally in the Courtenay Collection at Powderham, 
 now in the possession of Mrs. Courtenay Wells, of 
 Croydon, by whose permission it is here, for the 
 first time, reproduced. 
 
 or destroy ” the 
 was passionate. 
 
 enemy, 
 Nelson 
 
 had accustomed his coun¬ 
 trymen to a different order 
 of battle. But the public 
 could not be aware of the 
 deep anxiety which weighed 
 upon Calder, with enemies 
 in superior force before, 
 and other enemies behind. 
 As a matter of fact, though 
 no one in England knew it, 
 he was fighting at the very 
 spot which had been fixed 
 by Napoleon for the junc¬ 
 tion of five French ships 
 from Rochefort with Ville- 
 neuve’s fleet. 
 
 In the teeth of foul 
 winds, feeling every mo¬ 
 ment an age, for the 
 enemy’s fleet might be off 
 Ireland or in the Channel, 
 Nelson beat up northwards. On August 14 he joined his old friend Cornwallis, now commanding the 
 M . . Channel fleet off Brest. His ten ships added to Cornwallis’s fleet secured England 
 
 England. irom any attempts on the part of Villeneuve to run up Channel, and gave us 
 
 an overpowering force at the strategic point of the most vital importance. 
 There he learnt that the danger was over for the moment, and that England was safe. He also 
 
 Photographed specially for this Work] 
 
 [from the originals in the possession of Nelson Ward, Esq 
 
 GROUP OF NELSON RELICS. 
 
 i^* ie i a j^ er i° t ^ j tw ? s il ver -g>lt, cups bears the inscription: “This cup was presented by Emma, Lady Hamilton, 
 to Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, the Victorious Hero of the Nile, September 29, 1798, who constantly drank out of it until 
 the glorious though fatal 21st of October 1805. It was bequeathed by his Lordship’s will to the Donor.” The smaller 
 one is inscribed : ‘‘Tomy much loved Horatia, August 21, 1805. Nelson and Bronte.” The letter which is reproduced 
 in reduced facsimile, signed “ Emma Hamilton,” refers to this cup ; it is framed between two pieces of glass, there being 
 1 * *f r v y ntin S < J n 5 “ e T , re f err ing t0 Horatia. In front of it are two gold rings, one in the form of clasped hands, 
 both given to Lady Hamilton by Nelson, and worn by her. Nelson himself wore a similar pair. 
 
 Hy . Adams.] 
 
 [From the original Miniature. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON. 
 
1805.] 
 
 Last days in England. 
 
 197 
 
 learnt the bitter feeling against Calder at home, and though Calder was one of his two personal 
 
 enemies in the Navy, Orde being the other, spoke of him in terms of open generosity. “Who 
 
 can command all the success which our country may wish ? ” he wrote to Captain Fremantle. “ It 
 
 most sinceiely grieves me that in any of the papers it should be insinuated that Lord Nelson could 
 
 have done better. He was at once ordered by the Admiralty to Portsmouth with the Victory and 
 
 Superb, and ariived there, home at length from his 7,000 miles cruise, on the 18th. On the 19th 
 
 he struck his flag, went ashore amidst a vast concourse which had assembled to honour him, and 
 
 proceeded to Merton and London, for his last twenty-five days' stay in England. 
 
 If he had expected criticism and complaint he was 
 
 disappointed. Acclaimed by the crowds as he disem- 
 
 „ , barked, followed and cheered wherever 
 
 Nelson s reception. . 
 
 he went by those who dimly realized 
 
 his sacrifices, warmly thanked by the West India merchants 
 
 for saving our valuable possessions, he found himself the 
 
 object of a nation’s love and gratitude. All hearts went 
 
 out to him in this short period of happiness. “ I met 
 
 Nelson, to-day, in a mob in Piccadilly,” says Lord Minto, 
 
 From the original J [in the possession of Nelson 
 
 Painting IVard , Esq. 
 
 HORATIA IN 1811 OR 1812 . 
 
 “ and got hold of his arm, so that I was 
 mobbed too. It is really quite affecting 
 to see the wonder and admiration and love 
 and respect of the whole world ; and the 
 general expression of all these sentiments 
 at once, from gentle and simple, the moment 
 he is seen. It is beyond anything repre¬ 
 sented in a play or poem.” He lived at 
 Merton with Lady Hamilton in undis¬ 
 turbed felicity, visiting London from time 
 to time to interview the Admiralty authori¬ 
 ties. His brother and sisters were with 
 him, and the child, Horatia, played under 
 his eyes by the little stream in his garden 
 which he had christened the Nile. A 
 cheerful serenity marked him in these days, 
 
 though the final battle still hung over his head, though he 
 though he knew that the French would, as he put it, “make a dead set at the Victory. Loid Minto 
 notes that his conversation was a cordial in those depressing times. Debt still troubled him, but the 
 prize-money from his fleet—Villeneuve’s ill-fated squadron would settle that. He looked foiward to 
 a life of noble usefulness to his country, and now particularly desired, after the great battle had been 
 fought, to be entrusted with the office of First Lord of the Admiralty. So the s\\ ift days passed, 
 and the parable of the "ancients was fulfilled that God gives to man sweet and bitter in turn. 
 
 Sir IV. C. Foss, R.A .] 
 
 [From the original Miniature in the possession of 
 Nelson IVant, Esq. 
 
 HORATIA IN 1823 . 
 
 was certain to command in chief, and 
 
198 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Nelson and Welling¬ 
 ton. 
 
 It was during these days that Nelson and the future 
 Duke of Wellington, then only Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley, met for the first and last time. 
 The Duke has left a supercilious and 
 patronising account of their meeting. “ I went to the Colonial 
 
 Office in Downing Street,” he says, 
 “ and there ... I found, also 
 waiting to see the Secretary of State, 
 a gentleman whom, from his likeness 
 to his pictures and the loss of an 
 arm, I immediately recognised as 
 Lord Nelson. He could not know 
 who I was, but he entered at once 
 into conversation with me, if I can 
 call it conversation, for it was almost 
 all on his side and all about himself; 
 and in really a style so vain and 
 silly as to surprise and almost to 
 disgust me. I suppose something 
 that I happened to say may have 
 made him guess that I was some¬ 
 body, as he went out of the room 
 for a moment, I have no doubt to 
 ask the office-keeper who I was, for 
 when he came back he was an alto- 
 
 Reproduced, by permission , from 
 Laughton's “Nelson Memorial." 
 
 NELSON. 
 
 From a crystal intaglio set in the 
 lid of a bonbonniere given by Lady 
 Hamilton to the grandfather of the 
 Rev. John Levien, and now in the 
 possession of Mrs. Levien. 
 
 From the original] [in the Possession 0/ Earl Nelson. 
 
 ANCHOR CHARM. 
 
 This Charm is of brass, bronzed and gilt; a similar one, but 
 not an exact duplicate, is among the Nelson relics in the Painted 
 Hall, Greenwich. These charms were popular among sailors in 
 the early port of the century—a unique testimony to the rever¬ 
 ence and affection with which Nelson inspired those under him. 
 
 Front a Cast of the Gem in the 
 possessio 7 i of Earl Nelson. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 From an engraved sard. 
 
 for their coming from the chalk 
 
 gether different man, both in manner and matter. All that I had thought a 
 charlatan in style had vanished, and he talked of the state of the country, and of 
 the aspect and probabilities of affairs on the Continent, with a good sense and a 
 knowledge of subjects both at home and abroad that surprised me ... in fact, 
 he talked like an officer and a statesman.” Nelson has left no record of this meet¬ 
 ing, but it would be interesting to know what he thought of the great Duke. 
 
 1 he fleets of Napoleon were moving once more. In vain their master 
 watched 
 
 YilleneuYe moves 
 to Cadiz. 
 
 cliffs of Bou¬ 
 logne ; the ra¬ 
 diance of the 
 Channel shimmered untroubled 
 before him all that summer, and 
 no forest of masts came up over 
 the horizon. The anxiety of Na¬ 
 poleon was intense. “Appear here 
 but for twenty-four hours and you 
 have fulfilled your mission,” he 
 wrote to the hesitating officer. 
 He ordered his admiral at Brest 
 to move out of the harbour and 
 make ready for a junction with 
 the long-looked-for squadron. The 
 tremendous drama was approach¬ 
 
 ing its culmination. 
 
 On August 11 
 
 Villeneuve put to sea, reinforced 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Stephen Cribb , South sc A. 
 
 THE “VICTORY’S” ANCHOR ON SOUTHSEA COMMON. 
 
 The anchor stands near the spot where Nelson embarked on his last fateful voyage. 
 
1805.] 
 
 The final parting 
 
 199 
 
 by the ships from Ferrol. He had in all twenty-nine sail of the line; but so short of stores and 
 provisions were his vessels that he deemed it absolutely impracticable to sail northwards into the 
 Channel. Off Brest was Cornwallis with a mighty fleet—though with singular want of judgment 
 the British admiral had risked his game by dividing his fleet into two weak detachments. Villeneuve 
 then could not enter Brest without a battle. In the Channel there was no port for him to shelter or 
 provision, for as yet Cherbourg was only an open roadstead. The magnificent plan seemed to his timid 
 eyes impossible and impracticable. Believing a false report that a large British fleet was close to Ferrol, 
 and observing on the horizon 
 frigates which he assumed to be 
 its advanced guard, Villeneuve 
 turned south for Cadiz, hoping 
 there to refit and reprovision 
 his ships; and the measure 
 of his capacity is shown by 
 the fact that though Colling- 
 wood was off Cadiz with only 
 three ships, the French could 
 not take him. The British 
 admiral retired, keeping just 
 outside gunshot of the French, 
 and when they had entered port 
 resumed his stubborn watch. 
 
 The news that Villeneuve had 
 turned south reached Napoleon. 
 
 H is vast scheme was a ludicrous 
 fiasco. He broke forth in a 
 tumult of rage at the failure of 
 his projects : “ What a fleet! 
 
 What sacrifices for nothing! 
 
 What an admiral ! All hope 
 has vanished ! Villeneuve in¬ 
 stead of entering the Channel 
 has retired to Cadiz ! He will 
 be blockaded there.” And in¬ 
 stantly the bayonets began to 
 flow in a long unbroken stream 
 from Boulogne to the battle¬ 
 fields of Germany. The in¬ 
 vasion of England had been 
 abandoned; the conquest of 
 the Continent had been sub¬ 
 stituted in its stead. 
 
 The sands of Nelson’s life were running out swiftly. On September 2 Captain Blackwood reached 
 Merton with the news that Villeneuve’s fleet had put into Cadiz. “ I think I shall yet have to beat 
 
 them,” Nelson said. Duty, now as ever, was foremost in his mind, but both to 
 him and to Lady Hamilton the fast approaching parting had all the bitterness 
 of death itself. “ I am broken-hearted,” she wrote, “as our dear Nelson is 
 It seems as though I have had a fortnight’s dream and have awakened to all the 
 misery of this cruel separation. But what can I do? His powerful arm is of so much consequence 
 to his country. But I do nor cannot say more.” Did she strengthen his resolve or did she strive to 
 weaken it ? Interest and passion drew her one way, patiiotism the other. In her heart, too, as in 
 his years before, there must have been a conflict; if in her the lower motives conquered, who are we 
 
 /. P. Knight , A.R.A.i 
 
 [From the Engraving by S. IV. Reynolds. 
 NELSON AND WELLINGTON. 
 
 I11 the waiting-room at the Colonial Office, September 1805. 
 
 Nelson’s services 
 required. 
 
 immediately going. 
 
2 00 
 
 Nelson and His limes. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 to cast the stone ? But tradition relates that she overcame her grief and urged him to go—not that 
 he was likely to need any urging. There was no affectation in her sorrow. Lord Minto notes that 
 the day before the parting she neither ate nor drank, and sat swooning at table. Nelson, in this final 
 hour of his trial, never wavered. “I will do my best,” he wrote; “and I hope God Almighty will 
 go with me. I have much to lose but little to gain, and I go because it is right.” Amidst the 
 preparations for departure, he did not forget the poor blind widow of his brother, Maurice Nelson. 
 
 On September 13 he left Merton for ever. He prayed over the child of his love, had one last 
 
 heart-rending scene with Lady Hamilton, and hurried into his chaise. His own sublime words have 
 
 taught us the greatness of his sacrifice to duty. In his private diarv, which was 
 Icjilycs Merton* ~ " 
 
 never meant for the eyes of strangers, he wrote that very night, in a mood of 
 
 noble resignation: “At half-past ten drove away from dear, dear Merton, where I left all which I hold 
 
 dear in this world, to go to serve my King and country. May the great God, whom I adore, enable 
 
 Fred. Foe.] [Reproduced by kind permission of the Proprietors of the “ Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News." 
 
 BOUND FOR TRAFALGAR’S BAY. 
 
 Nelson, after breakfasting at the George Hotel, Portsmouth, left by a back door into Penny Street to avoid the crowd, which, however, overtook him on Southsea Common. 
 
 me to fulfil the expectations of my country; and if it is His good pleasure that I should return, my 
 
 thanks will never cease being offered up to the throne of His mercy. If it is His good providence to 
 
 cut short my days upon earth, I bow with the greatest submission, relying that He will protect those 
 so dear to me that I may leave behind. His will be done. Amen, Amen, Amen.” 
 
 Early on Saturday, September 14, he reached Portsmouth. An enormous crowd had gathered 
 to witness his embarkation, but he strove to elude its attentions by taking his boat at the bathing 
 Embarks at machines, on Southsea beach, instead of at the usual landing-place. The crowd 
 Portsmouth. was n °t so easily to be avoided. Men poured about him as about a saint, eager 
 to look upon his resolute face, sobbing and falling down before him in prayer. 
 Never had mortal man so true and tender a welcome. “ I had their huzzas before, I have their hearts 
 
 now, he said to Hardy as he stepped from English soil into the boat. The throng continued watching 
 
 and cheering as the boat receded, he standing up the while and waving with his hat a farewell to their 
 cheers. The boat became a speck, it neared the Victory at anchor in Spithead, and Nelson had gone. 
 
C. Stanfield , ft.A.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by J. Cousen. 
 
 THE “VICTORY” TOWED INTO GIBRALTAR AFTER THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TRAFALGAR AND DEATH, 1805. 
 
 (Nelson’s Age, 46-47.) 
 
 Voyage to Cadiz—Nelson and Collingwood—Collingwood’s Character—The Captains at Cadiz—Enthusiasm of the Fleet—Calder 
 —Annihilation of the Enemy the Aim—Presentiment of Death—Not Unnatural—Nelson’s Ill-health—The Blockade of 
 Cadiz—“Only numbers can annihilate”—“The Nelson Touch”—The Allied Fleet at Cadiz—The Enemy Ordered to 
 Sea—Council of War—The Allies come out—Touch maintained by Blackwood—Nelson’s Last Farewell to Lady 
 Hamilton—Nelson’s Movements—An Eventful Night—The Day of Battle—The Enemy’s Manoeuvres—Spirit of the 
 Fleet—The Scene before Battle—The Three Admirals Doomed—Fears for Nelson’s Life—Nelson’s Prayer—“England 
 expects that every man will do his duty ”—The British Approach—Danger of the Light Wind—The Battle Opens— 
 Collingvvood’s Gallantry—The Victory under Fire—The Victorys Heavy Losses—The Victory Breaks the Line—Her 
 First Broadside—She Grapples the Redoubtable— Nelson is Wounded—The Victory’s cock-pit—“In the valley of the 
 shadow'”—The Fight for the Victory —No Unity in the Battle—Hardy’s. Visit to Nelson—Last Moments of Nelson— 
 His Public Character—His Private Character—Greatness of His Death—His Portraits—Victory Secured—Losses— 
 The Order to Anchor—Completeness of the Victory—Napoleon and Trafalgar—Sorrow in the Fleet—And in the 
 Country—Honours to the Dead—Gifts to Nelson’s Family—Treatment of Collingwood—Lady Hamilton and Horatia— 
 Si monument-urn quaeris circumspice. 
 
 ELSON'S voyage to Cadiz was uneventful. In company with the Victory were the 
 line-of-battle ships Ajax and Thunderer, and the frigate Euryalus; the latter he sent on 
 in advance to give the British admiral off Cadiz notice of his coming, 
 Voyage to a iz. an q to re q ues t that no salutes should be fired to welcome his arrival. 
 
 He was anxious to keep the enemy in ignorance of the reinforcement of our fleet, and 
 of his presence ; for such was the terror of his name that the mere fact of Nelson being opposed to 
 them would mevitablv damp the ardour of the French and Spaniards for battle. Off Cadiz at this 
 time was Collingwood, in command of twenty-five sail of the line, four or five of which cruised close 
 up to the port, and the others fifteen or twenty miles away in the offing. Inside the haibour were 
 eighteen French and sixteen Spanish sail of the line, under the command of Villeneuve, now preparing 
 once more to take the sea. 
 
 1 5 
 
202 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 From the Engraving by Chas. Turner , after the Painting in the j 
 possession of Lady Coi/ingwood, 1811. 
 
 6 
 
 originality of conception; he was slow, method: 
 
 cal, and painstaking. Bu 
 
 Collingwood's f 
 
 character. for a11 that he waS 1 
 
 Nelson what Stonewa 
 
 Jackson was to Lee. “ Such an executive off! 
 cer,” said Lee of Jackson, “ the sun neve 
 shone on. I have but to show him my desigi 
 and I know that if it can be done it will b 
 done. No need for me to send and watcl 
 him. \ et by reason of his outward coldnes 
 and reserve, Collingwood was not popular ii 
 the fleet. He was famous for his habit o 
 keeping everything to himself, and communi 
 eating nothing. A very poor man with a family 
 he could entertain but little. Nelson, on the 
 
 , . . contrary, though even now in debt, showee 
 
 his customary hospitality. He came to them, not only as a chief who had always led to glory, bu 
 
 a., a in \ and affectionate friend. He was welcomed with a burst of extraordinary enthusiasm 
 
 CUTHBERT, LORD COLLINGWOOD, 1750-1810. 
 at Entere< J the nav v as volunteer on the Shannon frigate 
 
 . 1, ,‘if e e even ' Lieutenant 1773, for services at Bunker’s Hill Court imrtiiiled 
 
 t;8o ; captain of Tme 
 
 Late in the evening of September 28, the Victory joined the British fleet, and Collingwood passed 
 from the position of commander-in-chief to that of second in command. Neither then, however, nor at 
 
 any other time did the slightest 
 
 Collingwood trace of jealousy show itself in his 
 noble character. “ We can, my 
 dear Coll., have no little jealousies,” Nelson wrote to 
 him: “ we have only one great object in view, that 
 of annihilating our enemies, and getting a glorious peace 
 for our country. No man has more confidence in 
 another than I have in you. We are one, and I 
 hope ever shall be.” 
 
 In outward temperament Collingwood was the very 
 converse of his life-long friend. He lacked his warm 
 demonstrativeness of affection; he had not his daring 
 
 R. Evans.] \_Frorn an Engraving after the original in 
 
 the Painted Hall , Greenwich. 
 
 SIR THOMAS MAS TERM AN HARDY, 1769-1839. 
 
 After six months in a brig-of-\var, 1781-82, he spent some years~ in 
 the merchant service. Lieiftenant 1793 ; promoted commander for cutting 
 out the Mutinc at Santa Cruz. Commanded the Mu tine at the Nile; 
 captain 1798, volunteer in the Elephant at Copenhagen i8ot ; flag- 
 captain to Nelson in the Victory off Toulon during the chase of Villeneuve, 
 and at Trafalgar 1805. Baronet 1806, K.C.B. 1815, commodore on South 
 American Station 1819-24, rear-admiral 1825, Commissioner of the Admi¬ 
 ralty 1830, Governor of Greenwich Hospital 1834, vice-admiral 1837. 
 
1805.] 
 
 The Trafalgar Captains. 
 
 203 
 
 The Captains at 
 Cadiz. 
 
 The captains came on board to pay him the customary visit on his arrival. He put before them in 
 
 outline his plan. “ Some shed tears, all approved,” he wrote : “ it was new, it was singular, it was 
 
 simple; and from admirals downwards it was repeated, ‘ It must 
 
 succeed if ever they will allow us to get at them! You are, my 
 
 Lord, surrounded by friends whom you inspire with confidence.’ ” 
 Now, as always, he strove to kindle mutual confidence, and to inspire 
 his own high ardour in those he led ; now, as always, he succeeded. 
 
 And what manner of men were those now gathered round him 
 to share the effulgence of his renown ? No longer was it needful 
 
 in the British Navy to choose the officers with 
 care. Years of war, his own example, and Jervis’s 
 careful teaching had worked like leaven. “ Choose 
 yourself, my Lord,” he had said to the head of the Admiralty, when 
 bidden to select those whom he wished to have under him ; “ the 
 same spirit actuates the whole profession; you cannot choose wrong.” 
 Generous words of praise, and to be richly deserved by the men 
 who stood in his cabin ! There was Admiral Louis, whom Nelson 
 had so warmly thanked for his valour at the Nile; Hallowed, the 
 faithful companion of the siege of Calvi, a giant in stature and in 
 deeds ; Rotherham, whose splendid intrepidity in the coming battle 
 was to be so soon forgotten ; Eliab Harvey, whose courage, zeal, and 
 perseverance were alloyed with a fierce and passionate disposition, 
 which brought evil on his reputation in after days ; Fremantle, the 
 veteran of Teneriffe and the progenitor of gallant officers; Codrington, 
 the future victor of Navarino; Duff and Cooke, who were to share 
 the fate of the man they loved; Israel Pellew, of the great West 
 Country family which has given to our Navy two furious fighters; and, still to come, the gallant Berry, 
 whose numberless battles were in themselves a recommendation to 
 any admiral or administration, who had followed faithfully the fortunes 
 of Nelson, the almost inseparable companion of his renown. Lastly 
 there was Hardy, perhaps the most dearly loved by Nelson of all 
 that gathering of conspicuous warriors, of whom he said, “ Providence 
 has imbued him with an instinctive right judgment.” At Nelson’s 
 
 Preese .] [From the Engraving by 
 
 R idley & Holl. 
 
 SIR THOMAS LOUIS, 1759-1807. 
 
 Born in Exeter. Entered the Navy in 1770. 
 Lieutenant 1777 ; was in the action off Ushant 
 1778, and the relief of Gibraltar 1780; commander 
 178T, captain 1783. Took part in the Battle of 
 the Nile 1798, when he was specially thanked by 
 Nelson for his support. He received the Orders 
 of St. Ferdinand and of Merit for his seivices in 
 connection with the capture of Gaeta and Civita 
 Vecchia. He was engaged in the operations at 
 Alexandria in x8or, and the chase of Vilieneuve 
 in r8o'S, but was at Gibraltar watering during the 
 Battle of Trafalgar. Rear-admiral 1804; second 
 in command at St. Domingo 1806, and rewarded 
 with a baronetcy. Joined Collingwood off Cadiz 
 1806, and served in the Mediterranean 1807. 
 
 From an Engraving in the possession op] [Originally published in Or me s Graphic 
 
 Lt.-Colonel IV. H. Snell. L, J e °f Nelson ' 
 
 NELSON EXPLAINING HIS PLAN OF ATTACK BEFORE THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 
 Seated at the table with Nelson are Collingwood and Northesk, and Mr. Scott, Nelsons Secre.arj. 
 
 1 . Hotiner, R.A.] [From the Engraving by 
 
 C. Turner, A.R.A. 
 
 SIR HENRY BLACKWOOD, 1770-1832. 
 
 Fourth son of Sir J. Blackwood, of Ballyleidy, 
 co. Down, and Dorcas, Baroness Dufferin and 
 Claneboye. Lieutenant 1790 ; as first lieutenant of 
 the invincible he shared in the general promotion 
 for the victory of June 1, 1794, and was immedi¬ 
 ately appointed to the Megcera. Captain 1795. 
 Commanded the Penelope in the gallant attack on 
 the Guilliumc Tell , i8co. In July 1805 he called 
 on Nelson at Merton with special information, and 
 accompanied him to the Admiralty; and he was in 
 command of the inshore squadron, in the huryalus , 
 before Trafalgar. With Hardy, he w itnessed Nel¬ 
 son's signature of the codicil to his will, and he w as 
 train-bearer to the chief mourner (Sir Peter Parker) 
 at Nelson’s funeral. Captain of the fleet under the 
 Duke of Clarence 1814, baronet and rear-admiral 
 1814, K.C.B., 1819, commander-in-chief in the 
 East Indies 1819-22, and at the Nore 1827-30. 
 vice-admiral 1821. 
 
204 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 comincr the spirit of the fleet had risen as the sea before the strong west wind. There was an eagerness 
 not only to obey, but to anticipate his commands. “ He is so good and pleasant a man,” wrote 
 Captain Duff, “that we all wish to do what he likes, without any kind of orders. I have been very 
 lucky with most of my admirals, but I really think the present the pleasantest I have ever met with.” 
 “Lord Nelson has arrived,” said Codrington: “a sort of general joy has been the consequence.” 
 
 Nelson, in truth, realised, as did Napoleon, that the enthusiasm of his followers was essential to 
 great success. Both were born leaders of men ; both displayed a deep interest in their officers and 
 
 in the rank and file of those who followed them to death. They understood that 
 
 Enthusiasm of the } luman beings do not lose their emotions and become mere machines when clad 
 fleet. 0 
 
 in uniform and placed behind a gun. Of Nelson’s tenderness for his men this 
 instance may be given : In the days immediately before Trafalgar a mail was leaving for home, when 
 
 it was found that one of the petty officers 
 of the Victory had forgotten to place his 
 letter to his wife in the bag. The vessel 
 with the mail was fast receding before the 
 fact came to Nelson’s knowledge. “ Hoist 
 a signal to bring her back,” was his order : 
 “ who knows that he may not fall in action to¬ 
 morrow? His letter shall go with the rest.” 
 In that fleet there was, however, one 
 
 gloomy face. Vice- 
 
 Calder. b J 
 
 Admiral Calder, the 
 
 jealous rival of Nelson at St. Vincent and 
 
 [Reproduced by permission 0/ the Lords Commissioners 
 0/ the Admiralty. 
 
 ° Ifi the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution .] 
 
 COCKED HAT WORN BY NELSON, AND THE LAUREL 
 WREATH LAID UPON HIS COFFIN. 
 
 The hat is obviously a foul-weather one, and its crown is waterproofed. 
 
 the commander of the British fleet in 
 the indecisive action which had headed 
 Villeneuve south to Ferrol, had been 
 summoned home for a court of inquiry 
 to be held on his proceedings. He was 
 Nelson’s personal enemy, or was sus¬ 
 pected to be. As a man in distress— 
 perhaps in undeserved distress—he met 
 with the most delicate and considerate 
 attention from Nelson. The latter brought 
 
 In the Painted Hall,] 
 Greenwich. 
 
 out orders that he was to transfer his 
 
 NELSON’S PIGTAIL, CUT OFF AFTER HIS DEATH. 
 
 flag from the three-decker Prince of Wales to one of the unserviceable ships and go home. The loss of 
 a splendid vessel on the eve of a battle, the Admiralty thought, was not to be tolerated. Yet Calder 
 felt so bitterly the indignity of such a change, and, with a strange want of patriotism, importuned 
 Nelson so earnestly to let him keep his Prince of Wales, that Nelson wrote “ My heart could not stand it,” 
 and yielded assent. So presently the disgraced admiral sailed off with his fine three-decker, at an hour 
 when every ship was of consequence. Nelson was glad to see him go, for his presence had a chilling effect 
 on the enthusiasm of the fleet. Yet as the Victory bore down for battle he had generous words for his fallen 
 rival. “ Hardy,” he said to his captain, “ what would poor Sir Robert Calder give to be with us now ? ” 
 
 Of the inner life of Nelson during these last days, we can say this, that a tranquil satisfaction 
 filled his mind. The secret fretfulness of other years had passed away. “ I am not come forth to find 
 difficulties, but to remove them,” he said; and though his fleet was too weak for its work, he did not 
 feel or express any doubts of his success. Yet he urged that more ships which had been promised 
 
1805.] 
 
 Bag 'em ess for the Battle. 
 
 2 CK 
 
 'Wtiy Jack -you, «•/•»» vo Lm/ in a Bren Civ 
 Cotton, .1 tvpp ore you l.xml to batter, fitnr 
 Jingo A title .. . 
 
 -/Vf* Hoi jnti% f *.W jtjv fximiii ,t Oty A?// 
 
 4unjtf*t *f Arif nm*+r p* J _ rmSly^-di l i culcL 
 
 UyuMuj: ii,lhr: t (till n 1/or.sc « UllOt/ct. 
 
 /flit Chopper"' 
 
 Annihilation of the 
 enemy the aim. 
 
 should be sent if possible. “ I verily believe,” he wrote to a friend of Pitt, the Prime Minister, 
 "the country will soon be put to some expense for my account, either a monument or a new pension 
 
 and honours, for I have not the smallest doubt 
 
 but that a very few days, 
 almost hours will put us in 
 battle. The success no man 
 can ensure; but the fighting them, if they are to 
 be got at, I pledge myself, if the force arrives 
 which is intended. I am very, very, very anxious 
 for its arrival, for the thing will be done if a 
 few more days elapse; and I want, for the sake 
 of our country, that it should be done so effec¬ 
 tually as to leave nothing to wish for—and what 
 will signify the force after the battle ? It is 
 annihilation that the country wants, and not 
 merely a splendid victory of twenty-three to 
 thirty-six.” And to Lady Hamilton he wrote: 
 “ It is only numbers which can annihilate. A 
 decisive stroke on their fleet would make half a 
 
 IVoodwa rd. ] 
 
 \From the original Etching. 
 
 JACK JUNK’S OPINION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 
 
 Jack, asked if he had not picked up some French while in a French prison, 
 replies : “No, Bob, I never somehow fancied it; they call things out of their names 
 so d—nably ! ” 
 
 Presentiment of 
 death. 
 
 (Lt/b 
 
 ru. 
 
 
 VTcL'JV 
 
 
 WthaA*) 
 
 peace, and, my dear Emma, if I can do that I shall as soon as possible ask to come home and get my 
 rest—at least, for the winter. . . . What greater reward could the country bestow than to let me come 
 
 to you and Horatia, and dear, dear Merton ; and to come to you a victor would be a victory twice gained.” 
 
 Within his own mind the presentiment of death was deepening. “In less than a fortnight expect 
 to hear from me or of me, for who can foresee the fate of battle,” he wrote to a friend. His words 
 
 to Lady Hamilton 
 reveal at once his 
 apprehension and his 
 passionate yearning for home. “ God send 
 it [the battle] for our sakes as that of 
 our country well over. Ah, my beloved 
 Emma, how I envy Sutton going home; 
 his going to Merton and seeing you and 
 Horatia. I do really feel that the twenty- 
 five days I was at Merton were the very 
 happiest of my life. Would to God they 
 were to be passed over again.” Yet, even 
 in this letter, there is a note of cheerful 
 resignation. He who had urged her to 
 “ cheer up and look forward to many, 
 many happy years,” was not likely to dim 
 her eyes with any words of unmanly re¬ 
 pining or alarm. In the sight of his fleet 
 his bearing was sublime. Though he stood 
 upon the eve of the loss of all that was 
 dearest, of life when full happiness had 
 been attained at last, he repeatedly affirmed 
 to Hardy his readiness to lay down his 
 life for his country, his desire to die in 
 the hour of battle and in the moment of 
 victory. “Not pleasures, ’ said Carlyle, 
 
 “but suffering and death are the lures 
 which draw true hearts.” 
 
 
 C*~ aAA 
 
 TW- Cl " 
 
 w ^ , 
 
 5 -U^rW V— U 
 
 ViAsnJy 
 
 o ___ 
 
 From the original 
 
 [in the British Museum. 
 
 FACSIMILE OF PART OF A LETTER FROM NELSON TO LADY HAMILTON, 
 
 Dated October 6, 1805. 
 
206 
 
 A 7 els on and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Puerto 
 , Real 
 
 ARSENAL 
 
 /tfATTERY 
 LA BERMESl 
 
 WATTERS OF 
 XA OALLINA 
 
 FORT LEWIS 
 
 PUNTALES 
 
 CASTLE 
 
 Las Puercas 
 (The Hogs) < 
 
 TORREGORDA 
 
 /(Light House 
 
 S. Sebastian 
 
 Not unnatural. 
 
 CADIZ HARBOUR. 
 
 Nautic Miles 
 
 The presentiment of death must naturally weigh upon the mind of the soldier or sailor who has 
 battle before him. It was, we have seen, always Nelson’s habit to prepare for death before each engage¬ 
 ment, and now, on the eve of a desperate battle, with the clear knowledge 
 that exposure was the penalty of his rank, and that he, above all men, would be 
 aimed at by the enemy, it is not wonderful that the foreboding grew upon him. Before he left England 
 
 he had visited the under¬ 
 taker with whom the coffin 
 given him by Hallowed had 
 been deposited and warned 
 him that he might want it 
 soon; and though he spoke 
 jestingly, it must have been, 
 as often is the case with 
 men, that he veiled his graver 
 thoughts with a smile. 
 
 It is the consciousness 
 of duty well performed that 
 consoles the great mind in 
 its hour of trial, and certainly 
 
 Nelson did not lack this. He cannot but have 
 
 „ , , been moved and fired by the 
 
 Nelson s ill-health. 
 
 recollection of the extraordi¬ 
 nary demonstration which had marked his de¬ 
 parture from Portsmouth, and by the welcome 
 enthusiasm of his fleet. He longed above all things 
 for the battle, which, whether or not it ended his 
 life, would end this period of anxiety for his 
 country’s safety. His health was not good, and 
 Dr. Scott, his secretary, and others in his imme¬ 
 diate company, watched it with solicitude and fear. 
 
 “ It was considered by Nelson’s friends,” says the 
 doctor, “that his constitution was altogether worn 
 out. The wound at St. Vincent had produced 
 disease of the liver.” Against this must be set 
 the fact that, after his death, all the vital organs 
 were found to be sound and healthy. But the 
 testimony of Dr. Scott, a close observer, cannot 
 be put aside. Nelson was beginning to feel the 
 effect of years of arduous toil and anxiety. So 
 it was almost certain that this would be his last 
 service at sea. He still, however, looked forward 
 to work at the Admiralty, which he naturally expected would be the reward of his old age—if he lived. 
 
 The blockade of Cadiz was conducted by him in such a manner as to give the enemy every chance 
 
 The blockade of sea ’ ^ they wanted to do so, but no chance of getting away from the 
 
 Cadiz. immediate pursuit and attack of his fleet. Inshore were from two to six sail of 
 
 frigates and small craft, watching the Allies with ceaseless assiduity. They were 
 commanded by Captain Blackwood, an officer of great zeal and vigour. Fifty to sixty miles from land. 
 
 Charles Lucy.] [From the Engraving by C. IV. Sharpe . 
 
 NELSON IN THE CABIN OF THE “VICTORY.” 
 
1805. 
 
 207 
 
 Disposition of the British Fleet. 
 
 and therefore quite out of sight of the Spanish coast, cruised the main body of the British fleet. Between 
 
 the frigates and the main body, maintaining touch and 
 passing signals, was a small squadron of battleships. 
 The advantages of this arrangement are obvious. The 
 trap was always open to the enemy, who could not 
 know Nelson’s exact strength or movements — they 
 knew that he was present. If west winds blew the 
 British fleet would have a good offing, and was clear 
 of the lee-shore; if east winds, it had plenty of room 
 in which to manoeuvre and snatch from the enemy 
 the weather-gauge, should Nelson desire that position. 
 Earl}- in October his fleet was joined by the re-coppered 
 Royal Sovereign, by the Defiance, Leviathan, Belleisle, 
 Africa, and Agamemnon, the latter under Berry. “ Here 
 comes Berry,” Nelson said as the Agamemnon hove in 
 sight. “ Now we shall have a battle.” For Berry’s 
 luck in bringing engagements was proverbial. On his 
 way out he had barely escaped a French prison, as the 
 Agamemnon was hotly chased by five French ships of 
 the line, which had escaped from Rochefort, and which 
 were cruising about the Portuguese coast. Meantime 
 the British fleet lost five of its best ships, detached to 
 Gibraltar for water and provisions. They were sent 
 away by Nelson that they might be back in time for 
 the battle, though Admiral Fouis, who went with them 
 in command, expressed his fear that the enemy would 
 come out whilst they were away. “ Don't mind, Fouis,” 
 they won’t come out yet, and my fleet must be completed." The need of pro- 
 
 But Nelson was 
 
 From the original] 
 Miniature . 
 
 [The property 0/ the Army and 
 Navy Ctub. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON. 
 
 This miniature hung in Nelson’s cabin on the morning of Trafalgar. 
 “ Take care of my guardian angel,” he said, when the fittings of his 
 cabin were being removed in clearing for action. 
 
 Nelson told him, 
 
 visioning and watering the ships was as imperious as that of coaling in our day. 
 
 
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 From the ordinal holograph in the Fainted Hal,. Greenwich^ lBy permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE LAST THREE PAGES OF THE CODICIL TO NELSON’S WILL. 
 
 Signed on board the Victory “in sight of the combined fleets of France and Spain, distant about ten miles. 
 
2 o8 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 “Only numbers can 
 annihilate.” 
 
 wrong for once; the moment Villeneuve heard of Louis’s 
 arrival at Gibraltar he put out to the attack. A sixth 
 ship followed Louis a little later, but before the enemy 
 came out; a seventh left with Calder for England, thus 
 reducing Nelson’s fleet off Cadiz to twenty-seven sail of the 
 line. A reinforcement of six or eight fast ships was expected 
 from England, but did not arrive in time for the battle. 
 
 Nelson was determined that Villeneuve should not on 
 this occasion, as twice before at Toulon, give him the slip. 
 
 But to carry out a close and vigilant 
 watch eight frigates at least were re¬ 
 quired, and he never had more than 
 four or five. As to the actual fighting he had no fears. 
 “ I have twenty-three sail with me,” he wrote, after the 
 six ships had been detached to Gibraltar, “ and should 
 they come out I shall immediately bring them to battle. 
 But although I should not doubt of spoiling any voyage 
 they may attempt, yet I hope for the arrival of the ships 
 from England that, as an enemy’s fleet, they may be 
 annihilated.” His countrymen should notice his often 
 reiterated opinion that for complete success numbers were 
 above all necessary — even against such a disorganised 
 and ill-trained enemy. 
 
 His plan of battle, “the Nelson touch,” was drawn 
 up and circulated amongst his captains. He supposed a 
 
 British fleet of forty sail, as his would 
 be when reinforced and joined by all 
 its detachments, pitted against an allied fleet of forty-six 
 —for besides the thirty-four ships in Cadiz, the Spaniards 
 had seven ready at Carthagena, and the French five 
 hovering about the coast, but afraid to make a dash for 
 Cadiz. The British fleet was to be ordered in two lines 
 
 of sixteen ships each, and one of eight fast-sailing ships. Nelson expected that the enemy would be 
 
 drawn up in one long line, covering five or six miles of sea, the extremities far apart and unable to 
 
 support each other. His own fleet, sailing in three columns, was to edge down on the enemy; then 
 
 Collingwood, the second in 
 command, with one column of 
 sixteen ships was to bring his 
 ships into line-abreast and cut 
 the hostile line near the rear, 
 so as to sever from the rest of 
 the fleet twelve ships. He was 
 to attack these twelve with his 
 sixteen. Nelson himself with 
 the second column, and the 
 “ advanced ” or fast - sailing 
 squadron, was to watch the 
 enemy’s van and centre, striking 
 the centre as soon as a favour¬ 
 able opportunity offered. A 
 great force was directed upon 
 the enemy’s centre to capture 
 
 “The Nelson touch.” 
 
 From a Photograph] 
 
 [by IVest Son, Southsea. 
 
 THE TRAFALGAR VASE. 
 
 Presented by the Committee of the Patriotic Fund to Viscountess 
 Nelson “as a lasting memorial ” of him “ who gloriously fell in the 
 moment of victory.” The vase was photographed while in the 
 possession of Messrs. E. & E. Emanuel, of Portsea ; it is now the pro¬ 
 perty of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 
 
 T3 
 
 \ 
 
 Commander in chief 
 ^ Centre of the enemy 
 
 -Advanced squadron 
 I breaking enemy's line. 
 
 Nelson’s 16 ships 
 breaking enemy’s line. 
 
 Nelson's plan of attack.L 
 
 Collingwood 
 16 ships 
 against 
 enemy's 12. 
 
 Nelson's plan of attack. II. 
 
From a Photograph] [by IVest Son, Sout/isea. 
 
 THE BIG GUNS OF THE “VICTORY.” 
 These guns formed part of the ship’s armament at 
 
 From a Photograph ] . [by Symmons Co., Chancery Lane. 
 
 THE BIG GUNS; OF TO-DAY IN COURSE OF MANUFACTURE. 
 
 The illustration represents the workshop in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, where the large guns are turned. 
 
 men. The Spanish crews are described as a “terrible rabble.” They were to be sent out under inexperienced 
 captains; and without a day's respite would have to confront the finest sailors that the world has ever seen. 
 Great jealousy had arisen between the two nations, and Gravina, the Spanish commander-in-chief, was 
 perhaps the only Spaniard who zealously supported Villeneuve. The French could not obtain from the 
 Spanish dockyard the stores and provisions they wanted. The Spaniards on their part had no money to pay 
 their crew’s or purchase fresh meat. So dire was their exhaustion that the King and Queen of Spain had 
 not, in October, a shilling to pay for the moving of their baggage from the Palace of San Ildefonso to the 
 Escurial. The rigorous blockade maintained by the British fleet was reducing the great armada to a state 
 bordering upon starvation, and the hospitals of Cadiz were filling with miserable wretches, whose health the 
 fatal trip to the West Indies had destroyed, and who could no longer confront hardship and privation. 
 
 The Allied fleet 
 at Cadiz. 
 
 Trafalgar. A different view is given on page 17. 
 
 Meantime at Cadiz the final 
 catastrophe was preparing. Ol 
 
 the thirty- 
 four French 
 and Spanish 
 ships which lay there, one, a 
 Spaniard, was unable from va¬ 
 rious defects to put to sea. All 
 the others were weakly manned 
 and ill-provisioned. The French 
 ships alone were over 2,200 men 
 short of their complements; and of 
 the diminished crews many were 
 landsmen or soldiers, who could 
 not fill with success the place of sea- 
 
 1:805. 
 
 Condition of the A llied Fleets. 
 
 or destroy the hostile commander-in-chief. The Allied van was left out of the battle, with no opponent. 
 Nelson, knowing his enemy well, calculated that this van would be slow to bring help, and would not 
 arrive before the battle in the rear and centre was won. He proceeded to consider various other 
 possibilities and to make plans for each. But the battle was fought substantially on the plan given, 
 on y there was no British advanced squadron; circumstances compelled the attack to be made in line- 
 
 ahead and not line-abreast, simulta¬ 
 neously by Nelson and Collingwood, 
 and the enemy was weaker than 
 had been anticipated. The plan 
 was simple and effective. Its great 
 object was to bring overwhelming 
 force quickly to bear on a part of 
 the enemy’s fleet. It embodied at 
 sea Napoleon's tactics on land. It 
 was admirably suited to the occa¬ 
 sion, and was certain to achieve 
 decisive results. Such was “ the 
 Nelson touch ” which moved British 
 captains to tears of enthusiasm. 
 
2 10 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 The Allied fleet at Cadiz was suffering from a 
 sense of moral inferiority to the British. Villeneuve 
 
 and Gravina had no doubt as 
 The enemy ordered , , u • 
 
 to who would win. 1 hey saw 
 to sea. _ J 
 
 off Cadiz the vigilant British 
 cruisers ; from time to time they heard of that terri¬ 
 ble unseen squadron in the offing, which by its very 
 presence paralysed all their energy. In this mood 
 of despair the final orders of Napoleon reached 
 Villeneuve. The Allied fleet was to put to sea and 
 sail to Carthagena: Villeneuve was to attack the 
 enemy and fight a decisive battle. And the French 
 minister of marine seconded this imperious com¬ 
 mand. “His Majesty,” he wrote, “counts the loss 
 of his vessels for nothing, if he loses them with 
 honour.” Another admiral was already on the way 
 to replace Villeneuve and send him home to trial 
 and disgrace. 
 
 The unhappy man assembled a council of war. 
 
 All the best of the French and Spanish officers 
 
 „ „ were present. The decision was 
 
 Council of war. 
 
 unanimous against fighting. The 
 ships, the council agreed, were badly manned ; many 
 of the crews had had no practice at sea; they were 
 not in a condition to render effective service. Then Villeneuve produced Napoleon's peremptory orders 
 to fight. The officers bowed their heads and yielded. The Emperor’s words imputed cowardice to 
 
 his fleet. At least his officers could show by a horrible holocaust of dead that the charge was false. 
 
 Early on October 19 a soft breeze carried 
 the fragrance of the orange-groves to sea, and the 
 
 British frigates noted an un- 
 The Allies come out. . . . 
 
 usual activity in Cadiz Har¬ 
 bour. The enemy was at last coming out. “ Keep 
 your five frigates and let me know every move¬ 
 ment,” Nelson had written some days before to 
 Captain Blackwood, the officer in command of 
 the in-shore watch. “ I rely on you that we 
 can’t miss getting hold of them, and I will give 
 them such a shaking as they never yet experi¬ 
 enced ; at least, I will lay down my life in the 
 attempt.” Signals were made immediately along 
 the chain of ships which stretched as a feeler 
 from Nelson’s fleet up to Cadiz. Frigates came 
 and went hurriedly, firing a gun every three 
 minutes to tell their errand. Blackwood without 
 a moment’s delay sent off one of his small ships 
 to call up Louis from Gibraltar. All day Nelson 
 remained far away, invisible, baiting the trap for 
 the enemy to enter; and one by one slowly and 
 painfully the Allies warped and sailed out of the harbour. By sundown eight ships had effected their exit. 
 
 The night was long and anxious for Blackwood. Nelson, out of sight, was heading for the Straits, 
 with the main body of his fleet from his cruising ground fifty or sixty miles south-west of Cadiz. On 
 Blackwood fell the duty of maintaining a vigilant watch upon the enemy; a little energy and decision 
 
 From the originals in the Painted} [Sy permission of the Lords Commissioners 
 Hall, Greenwich. of the Admiralty. 
 
 WAISTCOAT AND STOCKING. 
 
 Worn by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, and still stained with the blood 
 from bis fatal wound. 
 
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 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF NELSON’S 
 On the last page, in Lady Hamilton’s handwriting, are the words : “This letter 
 
1805.] 
 
 The Enemy comes out of Port . 
 
 2 I I 
 
 LAST LETTER TO LADY HAMILTON, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 
 was found open on His desk and brought to Lady Hamilton by Cap 1 '- Hardy. Oh, miserable, wretched Emma. 
 
 Oh, glorious and happy Nelson.” 
 
 Touch maintained 
 by Blackwood. 
 
 Nelson’s last farewell 
 to Lady Hamilton. 
 
 on their part and he might be driven off, though there were battleships to 
 
 support him in the long chain which linked him to 
 Nelson. All that night guns were sounding from the 
 British scouts; rockets and blue lights were flaring, as 
 the enemy cruised to and fro off Cadiz, and the British frigates kept touch. 
 
 The signal, “ The enemy is coming out of port,” brought the image of 
 death perceptibly nearer to Nelson’s thoughts. The battle long desired was 
 
 at hand at last. At noon of the igth he went to his 
 cabin, and expecting the encounter to take place next 
 day, wrote his solemn letter of farewell to Lady Hamilton. 
 To Horatia he wrote as tenderly and as simply, and emphasized, as if to 
 place it beyond all doubt, the fact that she was his daughter. 
 
 By daylight of Sunday, October 20, the British fleet lay in glorious 
 array close to the mouth of the Straits, in the waters where nine years 
 
 before Nelson had rescued Hardy; where more than 
 twenty years before Howe, carrying help to hard-pressed 
 Gibraltar, had confronted with success a Spanish fleet. The weather was 
 rough and rainy; no enemy was in sight, and presently signals came down 
 from the look-outs that the Allies still lay to the north. The British fleet 
 turned and retraced its course. During the morning Collingwood and several 
 of the captains came on board the Victory for their last interview. The 
 fleet all day beat about in these famous waters, and now and again the 
 lofty cliffs of Cape Trafalgar showed through the sea mist upon the eastern 
 horizon. All that morning the enemy was pouring out of Cadiz harbour, 
 and by noon the whole Franco-Spanish fleet, thirty-three sail of the line 
 strong, was at sea, heading for the south. 
 
 The night before the battle closed in hazy and rainy. Captain Blackwood 
 still kept vigilant watch; about him on the one side rode in long line the 
 
 Nelson’s movements. 
 
 [From the original in the Painted 
 Hall , Greenwich , by per mission 
 0/ the Lords Commissioners of 
 the Admiralty. 
 
 THE COAT WORN BY NELSON 
 AT THE 
 
 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 
 The doth is rent immediately be¬ 
 neath the strap of the epaulette, where 
 the fatal bullet entered. 
 
212 
 
 Nelson and Ilis Times. 
 
 ' [1805. 
 
 The day of battle. 
 
 thirty-three stern-lights of the enemy’s fleet : on the other, the scattered lights of the British cruisers. 
 
 The constant boom of the British signal guns, and the blaze of rockets and Bengal 
 An eventful night, p e pt Nelson informed of Villeneuve’s proceedings and showed the Allies that 
 
 the British were on the alert. A little before dawn the British fleet altered course; hitherto it had 
 
 sailed almost parallel to the Allies but far out of their sight. Nelson 
 now felt that he had drawn his enemy out a sufficient distance from 
 Cadiz. He turned to the north-east, and in two columns his fleet, in 
 very scattered order, drew nearer for its final rush upon the foe. 
 
 The morning of the 21st dawned, grey and cloudy. It was a day 
 of glorious omen in the Nelson family, for on October 21, forty-eight 
 years before, Nelson’s uncle had fought an honourable action with a 
 
 superior French squadron. The wind was very light 
 from the west-north-west ; a heavy swell, telling of 
 storms to come, broke in from the Atlantic upon the sullen reefs and 
 precipices of Cape Trafalgar, twenty miles away. The enemy were in 
 sight, standing southward, in a long single line between the British 
 fleet and the shore. At daylight Nelson came on deck. He wore 
 his old undress uniform coat, on the breast of which were sewn — as 
 was the custom — the stars of four orders won in battle by his sword. 
 About him and in every ship the officers were dressed simply for the 
 great day. Rotherham, the captain of the Royal Sovereign, shone in 
 all the glory of a gold-laced cocked hat and epaulettes : he had always 
 fought in his cocked hat, he said, and he always would. At 6.40 the 
 Victory signalled to form line of battle in two columns, the northern¬ 
 most led by Nelson in his famous ship, the southernmost by Collingwood in his not less famous 
 Royal Sovereign. In Collingwood’s column were fifteen ships of the line, in Nelson’s eleven; one ship, 
 the Africa, separated in the night from the fleet, lay far away to the north. 
 
 The second signal was the order to prepare for battle. The reefs were shaken out of the sails, 
 the studding-sail booms rigged out, and the studding-sails set, the hammocks were lashed up and stowed 
 
 or placed as screens lor those armed with muskets, the decks cleared, the guns 
 cast loose and 
 
 IV. F. Young.\ [From the original. 
 
 CHEST OF DRAWERS. 
 
 Formerly Nelson’s, now at Walmer Castle, the 
 residence of the Warden of the Cinque Ports. 
 
 The enemy’s 
 manoeuvres. 
 
 loaded, the 
 cock-pit got ready for the wound¬ 
 ed, the men stripped to the waist, 
 some, as British seamen often did, 
 tying handkerchiefs round their 
 heads. Whilst this was going 
 forward the enemy was seen to 
 turn and sail northwards. The 
 effect of this manoeuvre would be 
 to bring Cadiz under the lee of 
 the Allies. The wind, however, 
 was so light that they could make 
 little progress. Nelson at once 
 with swift decision changed his 
 plan, to defeat Villeneuve’s in¬ 
 tentions—which seemed to betray 
 a wish to retreat. The British 
 fleet was now to attack in two 
 columns or lines-ahead. Such an 
 attack was unquestionably danger¬ 
 ous. It could only be practised 
 
 From a Photograph ] 
 
 r by Gregory Sr 3 Co., Strand. 
 
 THE QUARTER-DECK OF H.M.S. “VICTORY/’ 
 
 The wreath indicates the spot where Nelson fell when wounded in the Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
1805.] 
 
 The Mode of Attack. 
 
 213 
 
 by a well-drilled, well-trained, confident fieet, where the captains would not hang back, but could be 
 trusted to press into battle. It could only be used with success against a disorderly, ill-drilled, badly- 
 shooting fleet, where there was reluctance to obey and jealousy among the captains. The probability of such 
 a change at the last minute must have been discussed by Nelson with his officers beforehand, for, without 
 any elaborate signals, as if each captain had known his part from the first, the new plan was executed. 
 Like an intelligent machine guided and controlled by one mind, the British fleet bore down very slowly 
 indeed before the light wind, in two irregular columns, upon the enemy ten or twelve miles away. 
 
 Nelson’s spirits were, perhaps, the highest 
 He had summoned Blackwood 
 on board for a long inter¬ 
 view, and all the time 
 that the British fleet was advancing upon the 
 enemy the two were in conversation. He was 
 heard to declare to Captain Hardy that he 
 would not be contented with less than twenty 
 sail captured. His own confidence animated 
 
 
 DritioH Fleet 
 
 I Franco- 
 J Spanish 
 Y Fleet 
 
 u 
 
 Reefs 
 
 C.Camarinal 
 
 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 
 
 POSITION of FLEETS 
 just after daylight Oct.21 
 
 J°/Tarifa A LT'AH 
 Tarifa Point . C ' 
 nr 
 
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 iCeuta 
 
 ST B A ' 
 
 Nautical Miles 
 
 i _5_i 
 
 C.Spartel 
 
 in the fleet. 
 
 Spirit of the fleet. 
 
 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. I. 
 
 (MID-DAY) 
 
 "Span ish FldgsJi ips & 
 ~ B ritish Battlesh ips J-l lfo * 
 
 FrencJ'Jdattlesh ipsAmf 
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 Span ish Battlesh ips$4~ 
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 17 
 
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 the fleet. The 
 captains were con¬ 
 sidering which of 
 the enemy’s ships 
 they should take. 
 
 The men were 
 eager for victory, 
 which they 
 thought would 
 mean peace and 
 home. “ The de¬ 
 light manifested 
 exceeded every¬ 
 thing I ever wit¬ 
 nessed, surpassing 
 even those gratu- 
 lations when our 
 native cliffs are 
 descried after a 
 long period of 
 distant service,” 
 said an officer who 
 was present at the 
 battle. The spirit 
 of all is shown by 
 
 the letter of a young midshipman, who died on that heroic day : 
 
 T 
 
 # 
 
 
 33 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 
 .* 
 
 36 ^ 
 
 1* 
 
 37 
 
 38? 
 
 « 4 
 
 
 % 
 
 ft 
 
 24C5fi> 
 
 27dS> 29C^S>- 
 28djp- 30dJS>- 
 
 cw>- 
 
 31 
 
 
 ift 
 
 & 
 
 1 
 
 Entreprenante 
 
 15 
 
 Temeraire 
 
 29 
 
 Mars 
 
 
 2 
 
 Sirius 
 
 16 
 
 Victory 
 
 30 
 
 Belleisle 
 
 
 3 
 
 Phoebe 
 
 17 
 
 Prince 
 
 31 
 
 Royal Sovereign 
 
 
 4 
 
 Pickle 
 
 18 
 
 Thunderer 
 
 32 
 
 Africa 
 
 
 5 
 
 Euryalus 
 
 19 
 
 Defence 
 
 33 
 
 Formidable 
 
 £ 
 
 6 
 
 Spartiate 
 
 20 
 
 Defiance 
 
 34 
 
 Rayo 
 
 
 7 
 
 Minotaur 
 
 21 
 
 Swiftsure 
 
 35 
 
 Santissima Trinidad 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 Orion 
 
 22 
 
 Dreadnought 
 
 36 
 
 Bucentaure 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 Agamemnon 
 
 23 
 
 Polyphemus 
 
 37 
 
 Neptune 
 
 10 
 
 Ajax 
 
 24 
 
 Revenge 
 
 38 
 
 Redoubtable 
 
 11 
 
 Britannia 
 
 25 
 
 Achilles 
 
 39 
 
 Jndomptable 
 
 12 
 
 Conqueror 
 
 26 
 
 Colossus 
 
 40 
 
 Santa Ana 
 
 13 
 
 Leuiathan 
 
 27 
 
 Bellerophon 
 
 41 
 
 Algesiras 
 
 ,4 
 
 14 
 
 Neptune 
 
 28 
 
 Tonnant 
 
 42 
 
 Principe de Asturias 
 
 H 
 & 
 
 # 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 Wind W.N.W. 
 
 We have just piped to breakfast,” 
 
 he wrote; “thirty-five sail besides smaller vessels are now on our beam, about three miles off. 
 Should I, my dear parents, fall in defence of my King, let that thought console you. I feel not 
 
 the least dread on my spirits.” 
 
 All the ships in both fleets were radiant with new paint. The British vessels were black an 
 yellow, with the hoops on the white masts painted white or whitewashed. Afar off the Allied fleet 
 with its forest of masts shone in the sun, which had showed at last from the clouds to witness the 
 battle. The immense Santissima Trinidad gleamed red and white with a dazzling white figure-head; t e 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 2 14 
 
 The scene before 
 battle. 
 
 
 
 v •’</ 
 
 rK 
 
 
 J. M. IV. Turner, F.A.] [In the National Gallery. 
 
 THE “FIGHTING t£m£rAIRE” TUGGED TO HER LAST BERTH. 
 
 This picture represents the last voyage of the fine 98-gun ship which, under Captain Eliab Harvey, so nobly supported 
 
 the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 Santa Ana was a sombre 
 black ; 
 the other 
 French 
 
 and Spanish ships were 
 black and yellow, black 
 and red, or black and 
 white. All had black 
 hoops on their white 
 masts. As the British 
 fleet bore down with can¬ 
 vas fluttering gently be¬ 
 fore the wind, with every 
 stitch of sail set, rolling 
 on the heavy swell, the 
 bands played martial 
 tunes ; the strains of 
 “ Rule Britannia,” “ God 
 save the King,” and 
 “ Britons strike Home ” 
 stirred the autumn air. 
 
 With all the pomp and 
 circumstance of war it 
 
 drew nearer and nearer, and the men waited in breathless anxiety for the game of death to begin. 
 The enemy seemed to expect the tremendous onset with equal courage and determination. The 
 
 Allied line was a very close-formed one, so closely formed 
 indeed, that it appeared almost as if there were two lines, 
 the ships of the one placed opposite the gaps in the other. 
 This, however, was due to accident, to the clumsiness of the 
 Allied captains and not to any deep-laid design of Villeneuve. 
 
 Over the heads of the three admirals-in-chief of the 
 three fleets about to join battle, death hovered menacingly. 
 
 Nelson was to die in the full glory of 
 his success; Villeneuve to perish by a 
 strange and mysterious fate in melan¬ 
 choly disgrace ; Gravina to languish for months before the 
 end came, of a mortal wound. The waste stretches of the 
 Atlantic were to beat that night red with human blood, 
 and heavy with human bodies, upon the reefs of Andalusia. 
 The painted ships were to be wrecked and torn and shattered 
 before the sun went down upon the greatest sea-fight that 
 the world has ever known. Yet on both sides there was 
 the same ardour for the fight ; French and Spaniards waited 
 as resolutely as the war-tried British for the slaughter to 
 begin. On both sides there w'as the brightest valour and 
 the sublirnest devotion; but though the enemy had valour 
 and devotion they wanted skill. 
 
 Noting the northward movement of the Allies, Nelson 
 bade Blackwood exercise a general super¬ 
 intendence of the frigates, and ordered 
 him to spare no efforts to destroy the 
 enemy’s ships, which he feared might escape crippled from 
 
 The three admirals 
 doomed. 
 
 From a Thotograph by ] 
 
 [Eyre S/>ottisu>oode. 
 
 Fears for Nelson's 
 life. 
 
 NELSON RELICS IN THE GUARD CHAMBER, 
 WINDSOR. 
 
 A portion of the Victory 1 s mast, with a hole through it made 
 by a cannon ball at Trafalgar. On it is placed a bust of Nelson 
 by Sir F. Chantrey (1835). 
 
1805.] 
 
 Waiting for the Battle to begin. 
 
 215 
 
 From the original in the Museum of the Royal] 
 
 United Service Institution. 
 
 A PORTION OF THE FLAG OF THE “VICTORY.” 
 See note to illustration on page 229. 
 
 the battle into the harbour of Cadiz. Blackwood was not 
 to think of saving ships and men; his errand was to be 
 destruction—the annihilation of the enemy’s fleet. Great 
 uneasiness for Nelson filled Blackwood, Hardy, and the 
 officers of the Victory. They feared that his stars would 
 attract the attention of the enemy’s marksmen, and there¬ 
 fore they wished him to cover these insignia of rank with 
 a handkerchief. Blackwood and Hardy, it would seem, 
 remonstrated with him ; none of the other officers ventured 
 to mention the subject. It was perhaps to Hardy that 
 Nelson used the words, “ In honour I gained them, and in 
 honour I will die with them.” Blackwood further represented 
 to him the necessary exposure of the Victory in opening 
 the attack at the head of her column, and begged him 
 either to move his flag to a frigate or to suffer some other 
 ship to go ahead. As to removing his flag, Nelson would 
 not hear of it. He reminded Blackwood that the admiral 
 must set a great example. His life might be precious 
 above all others to his fleet and country ; his death might 
 bring confusion ; but the sight of his courage would kindle 
 his crew; the action of his ship would fire the fleet he 
 led. Yet, reluctantly, he allowed the Temcraire, now sailing 
 abreast of the Victory, to be ordered to go ahead. He had, 
 however, made the important provision that she was only to go ahead if she could, and by crowding 
 all sail he made it impossible for her to obey. In the hours of the slow approach, Nelson made the 
 round of the ship, visiting the crews of all the 
 guns, speaking a word to the captain of each, 
 encouraging them, and exhorting them not to 
 waste a shot. He commended the manner in 
 which the hawse-holes were barricaded. With 
 him, on this round, were Blackwood, Hardy, and 
 three frigate captains. 
 
 The preparations for battle were nearly com¬ 
 pleted in the British ships when Nelson left the 
 
 deck. Already he had drawn 
 up a codicil to his will, leav¬ 
 ing to King and country the woman who would 
 most bitterly feel his loss, and his daughter 
 Horatia. This was the only favour he asked of 
 his King and country, “ at this moment when 
 I am going to fight their battle.” Doubtless he 
 felt that the woman whom, in his last touching 
 letter, he called the “ dear friend of his bosom,” 
 would be treated with some consideration by his 
 King and country. His dying entreaty was dis¬ 
 regarded. He now knelt in pray^er and wiote in 
 his private diary the words which fitly conclude 
 his correspondence, breathing, as they do, the 
 exalted spirit of a mind braced for death. “ May 
 the great God whom I worship grant to my 
 country, and for the benefit of Europe in gene¬ 
 ral, a great and glorious victory; and may 7 no 
 
 Nelson’s prayer. 
 
 T. J. Barker .] [From the Engraving by F. Jouberi 
 
 NELSON AT PRAYER IN HIS CABIN BEFORE THE BATTLE. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 2 16 
 
 misconduct in any one tarnish it ; and may humanity after victory be. the predominant feature in the 
 British fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing 
 light upon my endeavours for serving my country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause 
 which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen, Amen, Amen.” As he continued on his knees writing, Pasco, the 
 senior lieutenant of the Victory, came in with a signal, wishing to ask of Nelson as a last favour before 
 the battle that he might be permitted to act in the capacity of first lieutenant—he was then doing 
 duty as a signal-lieutenant—in which case he would have a claim to promotion to captain’s rank. But 
 with a noble reluctance to press the claims of self at such a moment he said nothing, and only showed 
 his signal. If he lost his well-deserved promotion, his conduct wins our regard. A little before 
 Blackwood had made a similar request, that he might be permitted to take command of one of the two 
 line-of-battle ships, whose captains had gone home for Calder’s trial. These ships were now commanded 
 by first lieutenants. But Nelson would not sacrifice, even for a dear and intimate friend, the first lieu¬ 
 tenants who had trained the ship’s companies and worked hard during the tedious days of the blockade. 
 
 Royal Sovereign . 
 
 Enemy’s van. 
 
 [In the Museum 0/ the Royal United Service Institution. 
 
 -nemy s rear. 
 
 From the Model by Thos. D. Dighton .] 
 
 pi 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, TWENTY MINUTES PAST NOON. 
 
 The moment selected is that when the Victory breaks through the enemy’s lines ; she is engaging the ships on both sides as she passes. The Royal 
 Soz>ereit>n has already cut through the enemy’s rear, and is hotly engaged with the Santa Ana. She is followed by the Belleisle f Mars , and Tonnant y 
 which have each selected her antagonist. The Africa is seen nearing the weather column, after running the gauntlet of the French van. 
 
 Coming on deck from his cabin, Nelson walked the quarter-deck for some minutes with Blackwood. 
 It was now near half-past eleven, and the gap between the headmost vessels of the British fleet and 
 
 the enemy’s line was fast diminishing. To the south as he looked from the 
 Victory's quarter-deck Nelson could see the Royal Sovereign, Collingwood’s flagship, 
 much in advance of her line and rapidly closing the enemy. With her new copper 
 she sailed exceedingly fast. Not many minutes remained before the battle would 
 begin. Yet some signal he felt was wanting to stir and fire the fleet—one of those electric touches 
 of which Napoleon knew so well the value. “Nelson confides that every man will do his duty,” 
 
 “England expects 
 that every man will 
 do his duty.” 
 

 The Immortal Signal. 
 
 2 1 
 
 was his first idea; this, at the suggestion of those round him, took the final shape of ‘‘England 
 expects that every man will do his duty.’ A tremendous burst of cheering from the ships greeted 
 the signal as it passed swiftly down the two lines. It was the last and greatest of the “ Nelson 
 touches,” an immortal legacy to his country. “Now,” said Nelson, “I can do no more. We 
 must trust to the great Disposer of all events and the justice of our cause. I thank God for this 
 great opportunity of doing my duty.” 
 
 Burning with enthusiasm, kindled to the highest glow of ardour, forgetting the menace of death 
 and torture, the British crews went down to the attack. Two more signals were made—both probably 
 before fire was opened the one directed the fleet to prepare to anchor, as Nelson felt a storm coming 
 
 IV. J. Hug gifts.] 
 
 [From the Engraving by E. Duncan., after the Picture in the Royal Collection. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR: THE “ VICTORY ” BREAKING THE LINE. 
 
 The British 
 approach. 
 
 up from the sea and feared for the safety of his ships on a lee-shore; the other was his famous 
 
 battle call “ Engage more closely.” Collingwood's line was heading in little order 
 for the black Santa Ana, one of the Spanish flagships, sixteenth from the Allied 
 rear; Nelson’s for the Santissima Trinidad, twenty-second from the rear and near 
 the Allied centre. Far off, at Cadiz, eager spectators watched the approach of “the mad Englishmen 
 in confusion and disorder.” For Nelson’s line was not more orderly than Collingwood’s; the British 
 fleet had reached a pitch of training when order could be neglected; the main point was to bring 
 the ships as quickly as possible into action, and it was quite immaterial whether they came on in 
 a mathematically correct line so that they supported each other. 
 
 The Allied line curved in a crescent, and was not better formed than the two British lines now 
 advancing perpendicularly to it to cut it. As the horns of the crescent were turned inwards to the 
 
 British fleet, the fire of nearly all the Allied ships would be used with effect 
 against the two British columns. The chief danger and loss, from the method of 
 attack adopted by Nelson, must necessarily fall upon the ships that led the British 
 lines. For some moments the Victory and Royal Sovereign must maintain their battle against the 
 
 K 
 
 Danger of the 
 light wind. 
 
Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 2 18 
 
 whole hostile fleet. Allowing much for the extremely bad gunnery of the enemy, they could not 
 fail to be very roughly used. The lightness of the wind was peculiarly dangerous to them, both 
 because it protracted the period of approach, and because it would greatly delay the arrival of the 
 ships astern. But Nelson had determined at all costs to cut the enemy off from Cadiz: if he were 
 to succeed in this object his attack must not be for an instant delayed. 
 
 The Royal Sovereign to the south was well in advance of the Victory, and before twelve was 
 within range of the enemy’s guns. Already the first shot of that momentous day had been fired, by 
 
 accident, in the Bellerophon. The Sovereign crossed “the solemn, ominous gap” 
 e a e opens. b e t ween the two combatants, her crew ready at their quarters along the dim low 
 decks, silent as death. The French and Spaniards held their fire awhile, marvelling at her 
 audacity. Then suddenly the roll of guns broke the awful silence. It ceased for a moment and all 
 the flagships hoisted their flags, all the ships their colours. Each British ship had a white ensign 
 and two Union Jacks flying. The firing broke out again from the Allied fleet, and the guns 
 
 R. Sovereign. Santa Ana. Mars. Fougueux. Temeraire. Redoubtable. Victory. Conqueror. Bucentaure. Lezna- Neptune. Sant. 
 
 (Brit.) (Sp.) (Brit.) (Fr.) (Brit.) (Fr.) (Brit.) (Brit.) (Fr.) than. (Fr.) Trinidad. 
 
 (Brit.) (Sp.) 
 
 C. Stanjield , R.A.] [From the Rngravmg by IV. Miller. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR: THE SURRENDER OF THE “REDOUBTABLE.” 
 
 thundered continuously upon the Royal Sovereign. But the aim was bad; her men lay prone on her 
 decks by Collingwood’s orders, and her loss was not yet heavy. A few minutes after the French 
 had opened fire, the Victory's crew saw the Sovereign plunge into the cloud of smoke. She was lost 
 to view for some anxious moments ; then her ensign showed over the smoke on the further side of 
 the Allied line, alongside the Santa Ana. The enemy’s line was broken. 
 
 “ Rotherham, what would Nelson give to be here,” said Collingwood to his flag-captain as he led 
 gallantly through the line. “ See how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action,” 
 
 _ ... said Nelson to Hardy, almost at the same instant. The terrific cannonade swelled 
 
 Collingwood s 
 
 gallantry. U P “ om the sou th. Slowly, astern of the Sovereign, came the Bclleisle and Mars, 
 
 the first with “ Victory or death ” chalked by her men upon the guns. As the 
 Bclleisle passed the Tonnant, which had originally been ahead of her, the latter’s captain hailed with: 
 “ A glorious day for old England : we shall have one apiece before to-night! ” One by one the ships 
 entered the pall that shrouded from Nelson’s sight the rearward battle of the Allies, and the roar of 
 their broadsides joined in the hoarse diapason of the conflict. Above the smoke the tall masts of 
 
1 S05 •] 
 
 Nelsori s Farewell to Blackwood. 
 
 219 
 
 The “Victory” 
 under fire. 
 
 F. Perrot. ] [From the original French Lithograph. 
 
 A FRENCH VERSION OF TRAFALGAR. 
 
 The dismasted vessel in the centre is the Redoubtable she is maintaining a conflict with the 1 ictory on her 
 larboard beam, the Tcmeraire to starboard, and the Tonnant astern. 
 
 the French and Spaniards were seen by the breathless spectators in the British rear to fall “as if by 
 enchantment.” Astern of the Mars came the Tonnant and Bellerophon. No sound was heard on board 
 them but the clear orders of their captains : “ Steady! starboard a little ! steady so ! ” 
 
 In silence the Victory con¬ 
 tinued her majestic approach, 
 
 now standing 
 somewhat to 
 the north and 
 threatening the French van, whilst 
 on the quarter-deck every glass 
 searched the French centre for 
 the flagship. Close astern was 
 Eliab Harvey with the three- 
 decker Tcmeraire, a mighty man of 
 valour in a glorious ship. Ten or 
 fifteen minutes after the Sovereign 
 had passed into the enemy’s 
 line the Victory turned slightly 
 and headed for the Allied centre. 
 A shot was fired from a French 
 ship to try the distance ; it fell 
 short and there was silence for 
 
 some minutes. A second shot 
 
 fell alongside; a third, fourth, and 
 fifth passed over. It was at this moment that Nelson dismissed Blackwood to his frigate. He 
 was to row back along the advancing line of ships and urge each captain to hurry into battle. 
 The young officer took his admiral’s hand and said: “ I trust, my Lord, that on my return 
 to the Victory I shall find your Lordship well, and in possession of twenty prizes.” Nelson answered 
 him with grave and solemn words : “ God bless you, Blackwood, I shall never speak to you again.” 
 As he went over the side a shot tore through the Victory’s maintopgallant-sail, and told the enemy that 
 she was within easy range. A minute passed, and then with a tremendous roar the Allied centre poured 
 in upon the reeling Victory a hailstorm of shot from 200 guns, tearing her bows and raking her from 
 
 stem to stern. But for the heavy swell which made the Trench 
 
 and Spanish ships roll excessively, but for the unskilfulness of 
 their gunners, the British flagship must have been blown to 
 pieces. She steered through the iron tempest for the bow of 
 Nelson’s old enemy, the Santissima Trinidad. What glorious 
 recollections of those early days, when fame first came to him, 
 the presence of this ship must have evoked ! 
 
 In the dying breeze, carried forward by the swell, the Victory 
 drew nearer. The enemy’s ships closed up in a veritable forest 
 
 of masts round the Santissima Trinidad to 
 The “Victory’s” repel her onset> The carnage had already 
 
 heavy losses. begun . Nelson>s public secretary, John Scott, 
 
 was cut in two almost at his side by a round shot. As they 
 threw his body overboard, Nelson asked who it was. A little later 
 a shot killed eight marines, standing drawn up on the poop. 
 
 The crew of the Victory had not been ordered to lie down, by 
 some oversight, but at this loss Nelson ordered the marines to 
 scatter about the deck. Other shots shattered the wheel and 
 ■carried away the mizzen-topmast. Flying splinters passed between 
 Hardy and Nelson, and cut Hardy’s left foot, tearing the buckle 
 
 \ ^ / _ _ 
 
 From a Drawing ] VV A - Maurin. 
 
 JEAN JACQUES bTIENNE LUCAS, 1764-1819. 
 
 Captain of the Redoubtable in the Battle of Trafalgar 
 where, after a most gallant fight, he was captured and 
 taken to England He was released in April 1806. and 
 commanded the Regulus in an action against Cochrane 
 in 1809. Rear-admiral 1814. 
 
220 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 THE BALL WHICH KILLED NELSON. 
 
 Set in a locket for Dr. Beatty, and now in the posses¬ 
 sion of Her Majesty the Queen. In the upper figure 
 a is a piece of the coat, b the ball, c indentations caused 
 by striking the bone, d fragments of gold lace, e of the 
 silk pad, and / of the bullion. 
 
 Victory's decks or lay in her cock-pit; the studding-sail booms 
 on her foreyard had been shot away, and her sails forward 
 were torn to tatters. Her period of trial was, however, all 
 but over. She steered under the stern of the Bucentaure, and 
 about half-past twelve opened fire. 
 
 1 he Victory passed so close to the Bucentaure that as she 
 rolled her yards touched the rigging of the French ship’s mizzen- 
 
 .. „ mast. She opened with a 68 - pounder 
 
 Her first broadside. 
 
 carronade loaded with one shot and a keg 
 of musket balls; this was fired into the Bucentaure's stern 
 cabin windows. One by one as the guns on the three tiers of her larboard battery bore on the 
 enemy, they were fired double and treble shotted with the most deadly effect. The sound of splintering 
 wood was heard above the roar of the guns, and the fierce tumult of the seamen’s cheering as they 
 dealt these terrible blows. A cloud of dust and minute fragments blinded Nelson and Hardy. That 
 one bioadside is said to have covered the French ship’s decks with killed or wounded, and to have 
 dismounted twenty of the Bucentaure's guns. Moving forward into the press of ships Hardy turned to 
 starboard, receiving from the Neptune a most deadly fire which shot through cables, anchors, and 
 cathead, and dropped on board the 74-gun Redoubtable. The Allied line was now broken in two 
 places; both in the centre and rear battle was fairly joined. The Redoubtable and Victory fell foul of 
 
 from his shoe. The two stopped their brisk walk and looked at each other. “ This is too warm work, 
 Hardy, to last long,” said Nelson, and went on to praise the cool courage of the crew 7 . About this 
 time a gun was accidentally fired in the Victory, a circumstance which led the eager spectators in 
 the ships astern to suppose that she had begun her battle. 
 
 The French commander-in-chief’s flag could now be seen flying in the Bucentaure, the next astern 
 to the Santissima Trinidad; following him closelv, but a little to leeward, was another French ship, 
 
 the 80-gun Neptune, then the 74-gun Redoubtable. The four were so close that it 
 was impossible to break the line without running on board one or other of them. 
 
 Let the weakest fend off,” must have been in Nelson's 
 
 The “Victory” 
 breaks the line. 
 
 mind when Hardy 
 this fact to him. 
 help it,” he replied, 
 signify which we run on board of. 
 Go on board which you please ; 
 take your choice.” Already fifty 
 killed and wounded strewed the 
 
 The old saying of Troubridge, 
 pointed out 
 “ I cannot 
 ‘it does not 
 
 ■S. Drummond.] [From an Engraving in the possession of Messrs, E. E. Emanuel , Port sea. 
 
 NELSON CARRIED BELOW. 
 
1805.] 
 
 Nelson receives his Death-wound. 
 
 221 
 
 each other; the anchors interlocked, and one of the Victory's studding-sail booms caught in the French 
 ship’s rigging. This happened soon after one. Astern of the Victory arose the din of battle. Far down 
 the British line the ships were firing: Berry in his Agamemnon could not hold in his men, though 
 their shots as yet could have little effect. Only the Orion was silent, and her captain, Codrington, 
 
 summoned his officers on deck to gaze “at the grand and awful scene before them.” 
 
 A fierce encounter between the Victory and Redoubtable followed. They lay side to side with 
 guns touching, veiled in an impenetrable cloud of smoke. The weapons on the Victory's lower decks 
 
 soon got the upper hand, firing as they did thrice as fast as the French. But 
 S “ Re^doubtable ” ° n u PP er deck of the Victory the fire from the Redoubtable's three tops played 
 
 with the most deadly effect. The French ship had not only marksmen, but also 
 
 small mortars, and a large stock of hand grenades placed in the tops. In a very few minutes the 
 
 Victory's deck was swept almost 
 
 clear. Man after man dropped 
 lifeless, or was carried down to 
 the cock-pit, where the sur¬ 
 geons, as the number of wounded 
 grew constantly, began to appre¬ 
 hend defeat. The Redoubtable 
 did not suffer in the same de¬ 
 gree, for Nelson, from fear of 
 fire, which he esteemed the 
 greatest of dangers in battle, 
 would not permit the stationing 
 of marksmen or the accumula¬ 
 tion of explosives aloft. 
 
 It was nearly half-past one 
 when Nelson, conspicuous with 
 
 his four 
 
 Nelson is wounded. , 
 
 stars as he 
 walked to and fro by Hardy’s 
 side on the quarter-deck, turned 
 suddenly, and before Hardy 
 could reach him fell on his 
 knees, his one hand touching 
 the deck. A bullet from the 
 mizzen-top of the Redoubtable, 
 not fifty feet away, had struck 
 him. Hardy bent over him with 
 anxious love. “ They have done 
 for me at last, Hardy,” the 
 wounded man said. “ I hope 
 
 not,” answered the captain, eager to believe the best. “Yes,” replied Nelson, “my backbone is shot 
 through ” A sergeant-major of marines and two seamen were already raising him from the deck. 
 Hardy ordered them to carry him below. That the crew might not be disheartened, Nelson covered 
 his face with a handkerchief. But the little group had been noticed from the lofty deck of the 
 Santissima Trinidad, and as the hero was borne below a shout of triumph went up from her. 
 
 Carried down from deck to deck to the cock-pit, Nelson was laid by one of the midshipmen s 
 berths The scene in that dim abode of so much human agony, and so much human devotion, where 
 
 both the infinite insignificance and the eternal greatness of man were being 
 
 The “Victory’s” man jf est ed, haunted the beholders to their dying day. Here was death in very 
 
 c0ck ' pit * terrible aspect with every horrifying circumstance; here sublime resignation and 
 
 that heroic spirit which counts death as a lesser evil than faithlessness to duty and to right. 
 
 THE BATTLE 
 OF 
 
 TRAFALGAR. 
 
 RE FERENC ES 
 
 French battleships — %, 
 
 „ Flagehipe....... J*>- 
 
 „ Prizes .i+P-TZ 
 
 Spanish battleships ...I 
 ,, Three-dec kers.% 
 
 ii Flagships _ 
 
 n Frizes . 
 
 British battleships., 
 n .Three-deckersS 
 ii Flagships.. 
 
 1 Ajax 
 
 2 Agamemnon 
 
 3 Orion 
 
 4 Conqueror 
 
 5 Leuiathon 
 
 6 Neptune 
 
 7 Victory 
 
 8 Temeraire 
 
 9 Royal Souereign 
 
 10 Be I leisi e 
 
 11 Mars 
 
 12, Tonnant 
 
 13 Bellerophon 
 
 14 Colossus 
 
 15 Achilles 
 
 16 Minotaur 
 16a Euryalus 
 
 17 Bucentaure 
 
 18 Redoubtable 
 
 19 Neptune 
 
 20 San Leandro 
 
 21 San Justo 
 
 22 Santa Ana 
 
 23 Indomptable 
 
 24 fougueux 
 
 25 Pluton 
 
 26 Monarca 
 
 27 Algesiras 
 
 28 Formidable 
 
 29 Sant."Trinidad 
 
 NOTE: The enemy's ships 
 to the left moving south 
 'were.the vessels in the van. 
 
222 
 
 Nelson and His Times 
 
 [1805. 
 
 In the possession of] 
 
 [the Lady Llangattock. 
 
 heroic as it had al¬ 
 ways been ; the mind 
 still ruled the body 
 with an iron deter¬ 
 mination, and no 
 word of complaint 
 broke from his lips. 
 
 “Doctor, I am gone,” 
 he said to Dr. Scott, 
 who knelt over him 
 praying; “I have to leave Lady Hamilton and my daughter 
 Horatia as a legacy to my country.” The surgeons completed 
 their examination and found that his forebodings were justified. 
 The bullet had passed down from the shoulder through the 
 chest into the spine. The wound was mortal, and Hardy 
 
 and Scott were told so. 
 
 LEATHER HAT, 
 
 Embroidered by Lady Hamilton, worn by Nelson at the 
 Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 The fight 
 
 was 
 
 still swelling overhead. 
 
 For some moments 
 the unsupported Victory was in desperate 
 danger. Alone in that gathering of enemy’s 
 ships she was maintaining the battle, but 
 Harvey in his “fighting Temeraire" was coming eagerly to 
 
 The fight for the 
 “ Victory.” 
 
 [In the possession 0 / Nelson Ward, Esq. 
 
 DEATH-MASK OF NELSON. 
 
 A plaster cast of his features, made after death for his 
 sister, Mrs. Matcham. 
 
 the 
 
 rescue. 
 
 of men, and 
 
 guns had, from 
 
 Photographed from the Swords ] 
 
 [m the possession of C. Collingwood Denny, Esq., Brighton. 
 
 SWORDS OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH ADMIRALS, SURRENDERED AT TRAFALGAR. 
 
 The upper one, of steel throughout, is that of Admiral Villeneuve. It was offered to Capt. Atcherley, of the Marines, 
 who took possession of the Bucentaure, when she struck to the Conqueror (Capt. Pellew). Atcherley refused to accept it 
 and took Villeneuve ra his boat that he might surrender to Pellew. The Conqueror had, however, gone off to engage 
 <\^ \ant,eum a Trtnuiod, and the French admiral finally handed his sword to the first lieutenant of the Mars, who Took 
 
 Th°°, d ' 1 W n n r £ almed I 1 ' \ he ?, entre sword ’ vvith silver and 8 ;it hilt . is that of Cisneros, Spanish rear- 
 
 . dmiral. Ihe lower one, which bas an ebony,hsndle,..was surrendered by the captain of the Santa Ana as that of the 
 I he blade bears the date 1797 . 
 
 SDanish vice-admiral Alava. 
 
 The French gathered on 
 the Redoubtable's deck to 
 board. They were in¬ 
 spirited by the fact that 
 the Victory's deck was al¬ 
 most clear 
 that her 
 some idea of the Redoubt¬ 
 able having surrendered, 
 for a moment suspended 
 their fire. Five men 
 climbed up to the Victory's 
 anchor and -were forcing 
 their w r ay into the British 
 ship, whilst the main body 
 of boarders tried to climb 
 
 Photo by West Co Son, l 
 Southsea. 
 
 THE SPOT IN THE 
 “VICTORY’S” COCK-PIT 
 WHERE NELSON DIED. 
 
 “In the Yalley of 
 the shadow.” 
 
 Beatty, the Victory's surgeon, and a small group 
 of officers, who were not executive, gathered round 
 
 the dying admiral in the cock¬ 
 pit. “ Ah, Mr. Beatty,” Nelson 
 exclaimed, “ you can do nothing 
 for me ; my back is shot through.” Lemonade was 
 brought him, and he was fanned incessantly as his 
 clothes were removed and his body covered with a 
 sheet. He was certain the wound was mortal, and 
 from the first cherished no hopes; his back, he re¬ 
 peated, was broken; the lower extremities of his body 
 were already paralysed ; he had a 
 difficulty in breathing, and suffered 
 intense pain. But in these last 
 hours of agony his bearing was as 
 
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 •£ 58.2 
 
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7 7 
 
 24 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 into her chains and prepared to lower the Redoubtable's main yard to form an easy bridge. Men 
 gathered quickly under Hardy on the Victory's deck. Grenades, in that fearful hand to hand 
 struggle, rained from the Redoubtable's tops. The fight was undecided ; the Victory's losses of 
 men were fearful, when a terrible avenger arrived on the scene. The Temeraire ranged up to the 
 Redoubtable on the side away from the Victory. As Harvey came to the succour of his admiral he 
 let fly his broadside with the most destructive result to the Redoubtable. The French boarders were 
 simply mown down. The last effort of the French ship died away ; she was a beaten vessel. Of her 
 heroic crew—worthy in courage of their mighty antagonist—522 were killed or wounded, and only 
 123 unhurt. She struck her flag and the crisis of the battle passed. 
 
 
 A. IV. Devis.] 
 
 [From the original in the Painted Hall t Greenwich , by permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 THE DEATH OF NELSON. 
 
 Dr. Scott, the chaplain, is rubbing the breast of the dying admiral—the only relief it was possible to give. Dr. Beatty holds his wrist, and by his side 
 
 ? re l m 1 Ur > ’ P urs ^4 . anc * ‘.* r> Chevalier, steward ; the latter looking up into Dr. Beatty’s face. Capt. Hardy has just come in, and leans over the group. 
 
 or i e son s valet, Cuitan, is seen beyond the seaman who carries the lamp. Mr. Devis, the artist, went out to meet the Victory, and spent three weeks 
 
 on ter making studies for this pic.ure, which is by far the most accurate representation of the de^th scene. 
 
 Around and about this group of ships the battle was raging in detached combats. There was no 
 unity or ensemble. As fast as they could the British ships in the rear of the two lines which Nelson 
 No unity in the an< ^ Collingwood had so nobly led to battle, plunged into the smoke, sought out 
 
 battle. antagonists, came to the help of friends, and went from one beaten ship to another. 
 
 Everywhere the fight was desperate and bloody. The French and Spaniards met 
 the furious onset and the well-delivered cannonade of their enemy with the stolid courage of despair. 
 The} were dying for the honour of their flag—an offering to the pride of Napoleon. They fell in 
 hundreds and thousands. With rising courage as they saw the balance of victory inclining to their 
 side and flag after flag came fluttering down, the British ships pressed on. The Santa Ana fell to 
 Collingw ood about the time that the Redoubtable surrendered ; a very little later and another flagship, 
 the Al^Lnas, struck to the Tonnant. Soon after two the battle w'as indisputably won. Success had 
 
1805.] 
 
 Nelsons Last Moments. 
 
 225 
 
 only to be assured, and the full harvest of victory to be gathered in. So far the British ships showed 
 not the slightest inclination to rest on their laurels. No sooner was one combat over than the victor 
 would move on to another. But a little before three the tight slackened somewhat. It was at this 
 moment that the Allied van, hitherto out of the battle, turned at last and moved towards the Victory. 
 
 Nelson as he lay wounded must have gathered something of the state of the battle above. He 
 showed great anxiety, not only for victory, but for Captain Hardy’s safety. He replied to the kindly 
 
 assurances of those about him with the words: “ It is all over, it is all over.” 
 
 Messengers were sent to Hardy, and presently he came. The meeting of the two 
 friends was sorrowful. Nelson asked after the progress of the battle. He heard 
 that twelve of the enemy’s ships had struck, but that the enemy’s van was bearing down on the 
 
 Victory. “ I hope none of our ships have struck,” was his anxious enquiry. He was reassured. 
 
 Hardy’s visit to 
 Nelson. 
 
 Redoubtable (74). Santa Ana ( ii2\ captured 
 Temeraire (98). by Royal Sovereign . 
 
 Royal 
 
 Sovereign (100). 
 
 French ships 
 making off. 
 
 Victory 
 
 (100). 
 
 Captured 
 French ships. 
 
 St a. Neptune (g&), 
 
 Trinidad (130). Leviathan (74b 
 
 THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR : POSITION OF THE FLEETS AT 4.30 p.m. 
 
 Th« nicture is from a beautiful water-colour drawing by Lieut. Paul Harris Nicolas, of the Royal Marines, who was present on board th cBelleisU. It is 
 in the possession of Lieut.-Colonel Snell, of South Norwood, by whose permission it is here, for the first time, reproduced. Huggins painted a large picture 
 in oil from this drawing for King William IV. 
 
 Hardy was now returning to the deck. Before he went Nelson said to him: “ I am a dead man. 
 Hardy, I am going fast; it will be all over with me soon. . . . Pray let my dear Lady Hamilton 
 
 have my hair.” The firing began again overhead as the Victory opened to repulse the attack of the 
 
 French van; the concussion affected Nelson so much that he cried: “Oh! Victory, Victory, how you 
 distract my poor brain,” continuing “ How dear is life to all men,” as he felt the bitterness of death. 
 
 The chill of death crept upward, but Nelson’s mind remained active and his speech coherent 
 almost to the very end. The surgeons revealed to him that his wound was mortal, and turned from 
 
 him, overcome with emotion, to attend to other sufferers. The thought of duty 
 
 nobly performed filled Nelson’s mind; again and again he exclaimed: “God be 
 
 praised, I have done my duty.” His pain, he declared, increased, and he wished 
 
 for death. “Yet,” he added, “one would like to live a little longer too.” His mind travelled far 
 
 afield, and he spoke again of Lady Hamilton. A messenger was despatched to Collmgwood with a last 
 
 Last moments of 
 Nelson. 
 
226 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 affectionate farewell. Hardy came 
 down once more to see him, and 
 could now confirm the news of a 
 brilliant and decisive victory. The 
 captain leant over the failing ad¬ 
 miral; he told him fourteen or fifteen 
 ships had struck. Nelson replied: 
 
 “ That is well, but I bargained for 
 twenty,” and went on: “Anchor, 
 Hardy, anchor.” Hardy enquired 
 whether Collingwood should not 
 rather make the needed signal, and 
 assume the direction of the fleet. 
 Nelson answered: “Not while I 
 live, Hardy. No, do you anchor 
 Hardy; if I live I’ll anchor.” The 
 final parting came between these two 
 “ Don’t throw me overboard, Hardy," 
 Hamilton, Hardy; take care of poor 
 
 MEDAL COMMEMORATIVE OF THE VICTORY OF TRAFALGAR. 
 
 Struck at the expense of Mr. Bolton, Nelson’s brother-in-law, and distributed similarly to that of the 
 
 Nile (page 98). 
 
 companions, whom long years of war had brought together, 
 the dying man asked him. “Take care of my dear Lady 
 Lady Hamilton. Kiss me, Hardy.” The captain kissed him, 
 
 and he was heard to say : “ Now 
 I am satisfied. Thank God I 
 have done my duty.” Hardy 
 stood absorbed in sorrowful 
 thought some moments, then 
 again bent over him, and kissed 
 his forehead. He asked who it 
 was, and was told. He mur¬ 
 mured, “ God bless you, Hardy,” 
 and his captain left him for ever. 
 Very soon after consciousness 
 
 Front an Engraving ] [in the British Museum. 
 
 ACTION OF NOVEMBER 4, 1805. 
 
 The Santa Margaretta (Capt. Rathbone) and the 
 Phoenix (Baker) engaging four French sail of the line 
 during the approach of Sir R. Strachan’s squadron. 
 
 seemed to be failing. He said 
 to Dr. Scott: “ Doctor, I have 
 not been a great sinner ” ; again 
 repeated that he left Lady 
 Hamilton and Horatia as a 
 legacy to his country, adding, 
 
 “ Never forget Horatia.” He 
 prayed devoutly, or followed Dr. 
 
 Scott’s prayers, sustained as his 
 feet went down to death by the 
 constant recollection of faithful¬ 
 ness to duty. His last words 
 were “ God and my country.” 
 
 So died at the full zenith of his fame the greatest Englishman of the century; so ended a career 
 
 T. Whitcombe .] [From the Engraving by J. Jea-tes. 
 
 SIR R. STRACHAN’S ACTION, NOVEMBER 4, 1805. 
 
 In the centre the Ceesar> bearing the commodore’s flag, is engaging the Mont Blanc. To the left the 
 Namur (Halsted) is opposed to the Formidable , the French admiral’s flagship. On the right the Courageux 
 (Lee) has dismasted the Sco7'J>ion. In the distance the Hero (Gardner) attacks the Duguay Trouin . 
 
1805.] 
 
 ]\ els on s Character. 
 
 22 
 
 7 
 
 His public character. 
 
 which, for the depth and fervour of its devotion to great aims, reminds 
 
 us of the Elizabethans. What Sir Francis 
 Drake was to our Navy of the middle ages—a 
 spirit of legendary daring—that Nelson has become to the Navy of 
 our own day. It is difficult to analyse the springs of greatness in 
 him, but we know as the years recede and 
 the permanency of his work more and more 
 appears, that he was great with a colossal 
 greatness. His was the highest and most 
 heroic valour — courage of head as well as 
 heart. He feared no responsibility; he shrank 
 from no attempt because of its danger; he 
 always understood that signal success could 
 not be obtained without running risks. His 
 
 John IVhichelo.] [From the original Painting 
 presented by the Artist to 
 Admiral Sir IVm.Parker, 
 Bart., G.C.B. 
 
 NELSON IN 1805. 
 
 The latest portrait taken from life. Sketched at 
 Merton in the beginning of September 1805. 
 
 was the iron determination, the inflexible reso¬ 
 lution of a man who had full confidence in 
 himself. His was a clear understanding, an 
 appreciation almost intuitive of his enemy’s 
 weakness and of their course of action. He 
 possessed in a singular degree the art of controlling and inspiring men. The 
 ardour and emotionality of his temperament were combined with an exquisite 
 sweetness of nature to those he loved ; if he rebelled against incompetence 
 he never abandoned an unfortunate officer, or forgot an earnest subordinate. 
 For this reason he was followed with devotion. His whole nature reverberated 
 with zeal. The ignoble motives which sway many men had no place in his 
 heart. He had that originality which leads men to break with precedent and 
 attempt the untried. What, however, most of all contributed to his success 
 was, it may be, his tireless energy 
 and his clear apprehension of the 
 immense value of time. 
 
 BOTTLE 
 
 Containing some of the spirit in 
 which Nelson’s body was pre¬ 
 served during the voyage home ; 
 now in the Museum of the Royal 
 United Service Institution. 
 
 C A Pugin ] ' [Sketched in the Hall at the time. 
 
 NELSON’S BODY LYING IN STATE IN THE PAINTED HALL, GREENWICH. 
 
 The coffin was arrange! against the centre of the wall in the upper portion of the Painted Hall, 
 facing the steps '1 he lower part of the Hall was divided down the m.ddle, so that the enormous crowds 
 of visitors might pass up one side and down the other. 
 
 His private 
 character. 
 
 In his private life he was gene¬ 
 rous to a degree, simple, tender, 
 affectionate, and, 
 in spite of his bad 
 health, cheerful. 
 He had the deep piety of a Gordon. 
 A certain fretfulness and wayward¬ 
 ness were from time to time mani¬ 
 fest in his private letters, when he 
 conceived that he was badly treated, 
 which were due to the quickness and 
 susceptibility of his temperament. 
 
 5 great fault is his treatment of his wife, but his country will forget “quia multum amavit. 
 
 [From a contemporary Engraving. 
 
 THE COFFIN IN WHICH NELSON’S BODY 
 LAY IN STATE. 
 
228 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1805. 
 
 Greatness of his 
 death. 
 
 His death was the most splendid and majestic that the imagination can conceive. All generations 
 
 have called him the happiest man who dies in the highest command, on the battle-field in the embrace 
 
 of victory. His work was fully done; 
 
 the final blow to the 
 French Navy had 
 
 been struck ; little or 
 nothing more remained for him to achieve. 
 To all time his name will appeal to the 
 men of his race as synonymous with 
 duty done in the face of discomfort and 
 danger. His heroic death sealed and 
 
 confirmed a heroic career. “ Ah ! why did 
 the cannon-balls spare me to die in this 
 miserable manner!” cried Napoleon fifteen 
 years after, perhaps recalling and envy¬ 
 ing the admiral’s triumphant death. And 
 though Nelson could always have lived 
 secure in his England's love, we may feel 
 a satisfaction that our hero wrestled with 
 death in the light, and that he died as 
 he had lived—true to his noble ideals. 
 
 Many portraits of him remain. The 
 variations in expression are Protean, and 
 If we would see him as he looked stern- 
 beautiful bust in his family’s possession, 
 
 From a Photograph ] [by Symonds Co., Portsmouth. 
 
 THE “ NELSON ” BARGE, 
 
 In which Nelson’s body was conveyed in state from Greenwich to Westminster. Tt was built for 
 King George III., and used by him during his visits to Weymouth, was presented by Her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria to the Victory, and now stands on her quarter-deck. 
 
 His portraits. 
 
 recall something of the emotionality of his temperament. 
 
 set for battle, we should turn to the 
 
 which brings out so clearly his iron determination. The Abbot portraits recall 
 him in his softer moments; they show us a man made to be loved. The death-mask discloses 
 a face worn with years of exposure and anxious toil; like the sketch Whichelo made in 1805, it 
 emphasises the serenity which marked his last days. 
 
 H. Medlycott ] [From the Water-colour Drawing in the possession of W. Hugh Spottiswoode, Esy. 
 
 GREENWICH HOSPITAL. 
 
 1 he further of the two domes covers the entrance to the Painted Hall, where Nelson’s remains lay in state, and where many Nelson relics are now exhibited. 
 
1805-6. J 
 
 Losses of the Combatants . 
 
 229 
 
 Nelson passed away at half-past four, four hours after his Victory had opened fire. Soon after 
 three, the onset of the French van, which for some moments threatened the Victory and Temeraire, was 
 
 finally repulsed. By five the en- 
 
 Victory secured. ^ement w£ls 
 virtually over, 
 
 but the two last ships to be 
 captured did not strike till after 
 that hour. About half-past, the 
 French Achille, which had been 
 burning fiercely, blew up with a 
 fearful explosion. Then at last 
 silence sat upon the sea, and as 
 night fell it was possible to de¬ 
 termine the results. 
 
 The British fleet went into 
 action with twenty-seven sail of 
 
 the line, of 
 
 Losses. 
 
 which seven 
 
 were three-deckers, one an 80-gun ship, three 64-gun ships, and the rest seventy-fours. It lost 402 killed 
 and 1,139 wounded. The Allies opened the battle with thirty-three sail, of which four were three- 
 deckers, six 80-gun ships, one a sixty-four, and the remainder seventy-fours. Of this vast host eleven 
 fell back to Cadiz, and four kept the 
 sea—only to be taken with trivial loss 
 some days later by a British squadron 
 under Sir R. Strachan. The remnant, 
 eighteen ships, were captured by the 
 British. Of these eighteen, one blew up ; 
 one, the Redoubtable, could scarcely keep 
 afloat; eight were totally, and eight more 
 partially, dismasted. The Spanish loss 
 in killed was 1,022, in wounded 1,383. 
 
 The French loss was supposed to be 3,373 
 killed and drowned, and 1,155 wounded. 
 
 In addition a great number of prisoners 
 were taken in the captured vessels. 
 
 C. A. Pugn*.\ {Sketched on the spot at the time. 
 
 FUNERAL OF NELSON: THE BARGE CONTAINING THE BODY LEAVING GREENWICH. 
 
 From Fairburn's Edition of the Funeral of Lord PPelsoni] 
 
 PART OF THE PROCESSION AT NELSON’S FUNERAL: SEAMEN OF THE “VICTORY” 
 CARRYING HER UNION JACKS AND ENSIGN. 
 
 When the coffin was lowered into the Crypt of St. Paul’s, the Victory's flag was to have been placed upon it; but 
 the seamen who bore it with one accord rent it in pieces, that each might retain a fragment. One portion is represented 
 on page 215. 
 
 The order to 
 anchor. 
 
 Collingwood delayed 
 to give Nelson’s order to 
 anchor, 
 in which 
 he may 
 or may not have been 
 wise. A violent gale blew 
 from the west during the 
 night, and made com¬ 
 
 munication between the 
 prizes and the British 
 
 ships difficult; it lasted all through the 22nd and 23rd. Four of the prizes were destroyed, five 
 foundered at sea or were wrecked on the coast ; in four the crews were released during the storm, 
 
 C. A. Pugin] [Sketched on the spot. 
 
 FUNERAL OF NELSON : 
 THE FUNERAL CAR PASSING 
 TEMPLE BAR. 
 
230 
 
 Nelson and His Times. 
 
 [1806. 
 
 
 C. A. Pugin.} 
 
 
 '“mm 
 
 fftW' 
 
 Completeness of the 
 victory. 
 
 and re-captured the ships ; four only got safe to Gibraltar. Another Spanish ship, the Rayo, was captured 
 by the British fleet on October 24, on which day one Spanish and two French ships of the line went 
 ashore off Cadiz with terrible loss of life. This left a total of only eleven ships at Cadiz—in spite of the 
 re-captured vessels. These were closely blockaded by Collingwood, now reinforced by Louis’s intact squad¬ 
 ron, and gave no more trouble. When Spain rose against Napoleon the five French ships included in the 
 eleven were lost to France. And thus it came about that Villeneuve’s fleet was in the end totally annihilated. 
 
 The completeness of the victory is what distinguishes Trafalgar in common with all Nelson’s 
 battles. “Trafalgar,” says the historian of modern Europe, “was not only the greatest naval victory, 
 
 it was the greatest and most momentous victory won either by land or by sea 
 during the Revolutionary wars. No victory and no series of victories of Napoleon 
 produced the same effect upon Europe. Austria was in arms within five years of 
 Marengo and within five years of Austerlitz; Prussia was ready to retrieve the losses of Jena in 1813; a 
 
 generation passed after 
 Trafalgar before France 
 again seriously threaten¬ 
 ed England at sea. The 
 prospect of crushing the 
 British Nation, so long as 
 England had the means 
 to equip a Navy, va¬ 
 nished.” This great suc¬ 
 cess acted upon England 
 like atonic. Till Trafal¬ 
 gar on the defensive, she 
 
 [Sketched in the Cathedral. 
 
 FUNERAL OF NELSON : THE SERVICE IN ST. PAUL’S. 
 
 Napoleon and 
 Trafalgar. 
 
 could now begin the attack. The Army took up the work when the 
 Navy had smoothed the way, and carried it to its complete fulfilment. 
 
 The French were singing Te Dennis for the victory of Austerlitz 
 when the fatal news reached Napoleon. He received it in silence. 
 
 No notice appeared in the Moniteur of the 
 truth which all knew or guessed. A few 
 words in 1806 were his only public allusion 
 to the great catastrophe. “ A storm has caused us the loss of a 
 few ships after an imprudently-delivered battle.” 
 
 In the fleet the death of Nelson was known the night of 
 the battle, when it was seen that the Victory did not carry the 
 
 Sorrow in the fleet, comma nder - in - chief’s lights. It caused a 
 
 paroxysm of passionate sorrow amongst the men who “ under his fostering care had 
 been led to fame.” Collingwood’s public despatch only reflected the feeling of all when it said: “ My 
 heart is rent with the most poignant grief for the death of a friend to whom by many years of 
 intimacy and a perfect knowledge of his mind I was bound by the strongest ties of affection.” 
 
 Nor was the grief less keen in England when the news came home. Pitt spent the night on 
 which the tidings arrived in sleepless sorrow for the dead. Once more the coaches spread the news 
 And in the country v ^ c t° r y through the land, but they were wreathed with crape, not with laurel. 
 
 Nelson had gone beyond the reach of human gratitude and affection ; he had 
 imposed upon his country a debt which could never be repaid. What added to the acuteness of the 
 
 \Photographed specially for this Work . 
 THE TOMB OF NELSON IN THE CRYPT. 
 The sarcophagus was originally prepared for Wolsey. 
 
i8o6.j 
 
 Funeral of Nelson. 
 
 231 
 
 Honours to the dead. 
 
 universal sorrow was the fact that his countrymen realised that he had not been kindly used by those 
 in power. It was now too late to make reparation. 
 
 All possible honours—except the highest honour of acceding to his dying wish and prayer—were 
 bestowed upon the dead man and upon his family. His body was brought home in the shattered 
 
 Victory, through storm and tempest, and in December, 1805, was conveyed to the 
 Painted Hall at Greenwich, where the veteran Hood received the last remains of 
 the mighty seaman he had taught and honoured—a disciple who covered the master with glory. Here 
 the coffin lay in state ; stiff officials came and wept over it; London in its thousands poured forth to 
 
 pay him the last offices. On January 8, 1806, the 
 body passed in sad procession up the Thames, 
 amidst the booming of minute-guns and the tolling 
 of bells. As it landed at Whitehall a storm burst 
 over the citv, and thunder and lightning welcomed 
 Nelson home. On the following day it was borne 
 along the streets of London through a sea of bare 
 heads, in deep and impressive silence broken only 
 
 Designed by Wyatt & Westmacott .] [Photo by Priestleys , Egremont. 
 
 MONUMENT TO NELSON, THE EXCHANGE, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Of the many other monuments in various parts of the country, perhaps the most note- 
 worthy is the Obelisk on Portsdown Hill, erected by the survivors of Trafalgar. 
 
 )y the sobs of the onlookers, to its final resting- 
 ;>lace in St. Paul’s. Around it marched to the 
 ;hrill cadence of the fifes the troops who had 
 reconquered Egypt, and who were to restore the 
 fame of the British Army on the battle-fields of 
 Spain and Belgium. Admiral Sir Peter Parker, 
 
 ,vho had promoted Nelson to the rank of captain, 
 followed, bowed with years, as chief mourner. 
 
 Hardy, Blackwood, and manv seamen of the , , 
 
 Victory were in the procession. Night fell before the solemn service ended; the vast dome and 
 cavernous depths of the cathedral glowed with torches; in their sombre light the coffin was committed 
 to the grave Upon it were placed the shot-rent flags of the Victory, from which the seamen of that 
 ship had torn off many pieces that they might have some relic of them beloved commander 
 Nelson came home to sleep his last sleep in the «■ central roar ” of the capital of that country 
 
 sword and shield he had been through the hour of its moital danger. • 
 
 The gifts to his family were splendid, but not out of proportion to the immensity of his servmes^. 
 
 the sum of £108,000 for the purchase of an estate was voted to Nelson s ro ier, « ^ ^ 
 
 :reated Earl Nelson of Trafalgar; and a pension of £5,000 a year was assigne 
 
 J. Flaxman, R.A .] Mtograpnea spewj y ". 
 
 THE MONUMENT TO NELSON IN ST. PAUL’S CA 1 HEDRAL. 
 
Nelson and His Tunes. 
 
 232 
 
 [1806. 
 
 Gifts to Nelson's 
 family. 
 
 Treatment of 
 Collingwood. 
 
 Lady Hamilton and 
 Horatia. 
 
 descendants to maintain their dignity. To Nelson’s sisters the sum of £15,000 each was voted ; to 
 
 Lady Nelson an annuity of £2,000 a year. But neither for Lady Hamilton nor 
 for Horatia was there a thought ; the two whose names had so often leapt to his 
 lips in the hours of death were overlooked and forgotten. The national memorial, 
 which was to have been raised to him in London, was neglected from year to year. To Britain’s 
 lasting shame and dishonour it was finally completed in a great measure with Russian money. 
 
 To Collingwood the country behaved with discreditable meanness. A 
 Barony and a pension of £2,000 a year were his rewards. But he had 
 
 no sons, and the peerage was not to devolve upon 
 his daughters and their descendants. The Admiralty 
 ungraciously refused to permit him to make promotions 
 to the captured vessels. 
 
 Of those whom Nelson most loved, Lady Hamilton died in poverty at 
 Boulogne early in 1815 having squandered or anticipated an income of over 
 
 £2,000 a year. Nelson’s sisters showed her affection to 
 the end, 
 under the 
 most trying circumstances. Thus 
 they best manifested the depth 
 of their sorrow for their im¬ 
 mortal brother. Horatia lived 
 an obscurer but happier life. 
 
 THE NELSON 
 MONUMENT, 
 CALTON HILL, 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 She married 
 a clergyman, 
 Mr. Ward, 
 and only died 
 in 1881, leav¬ 
 ing many de- 
 
 from a Photograph] \hy Lawrence-, Dublin. 
 
 THE NELSON PILLAR, DUBLIN. 
 
 “ Si monumentum 
 quseris circumspice.” 
 
 scendants. The unhappy Lady Nelson died in 1831. 
 
 If we look for Nelson’s true monument we 
 shall find it in the British Empire of our day. 
 
 The sovereignty of the seas 
 which he won for us, and the 
 prestige of Trafalgar, strong 
 even now after the lapse of ninety years, made it 
 possible and protected its development. We can 
 best do him honour, and repay the immeasurable 
 debt which we owe him, by remembering his teach¬ 
 ing, by refusing to sacrifice duty to comfort, and 
 by persistently strengthening the great force which 
 he led to victory. 
 
 1 he years pass, and danger again threatens England. Her honour, her greatness, her interests 
 are menaced in every direction. But now, as of old, if we are true to ourselves, we need have no 
 fears. Nelson s example remains to all time to inspire us with lofty devotion. His body may be dust. 
 
 From a Photograph} [by Thiele , Chancery Lam 
 
 THE NELSON COLUMN, LONDON : TRAFALGAR DAY, 1897. 
 
 but still in all the worthy sons of his country— 
 
 “His high faith burns on to light men’s feet, 
 Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet.” 
 
 D 
 
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