superior, General Fox. "My heart," wrote Nelson, “is almost broken. If the enemy gets supplies in, we may bid adieu to Malta; all the force we can collect would then be of little use against the strongest place in Europe. To say that an officer is never, for any object, to alter his orders, is what I cannot comprehend. The circumstances of this war so often vary, that an officer has almost every moment to consider, what would my superiors direct did they know what is passing under my nose.' Still the blockade lingered; and even when at length General Fox arrived in Minorca, and ordered Colonel Graham to go to Malta, the force he sent was inferior in strength, and its means so limited, that it was all but useless from want of money. Trowbridge advanced what money he had, and Nelson secured the payment of the necessary bills by a mortgage on Bronte for more than 6,000l. "The cause cannot stand still for the want of a little money. If nobody will pay it, I will sell Bronte, and the Emperor of Russia's snuff box." At length Trowbridge got the expedition off, and arrived with it in Malta. But now food was more necessary than ever, and yet none was forthcoming, not only as a gift, but even to purchase. It was well known that the harvest had been enormous, but though the money was ready, the Sicilian authorities refused to send corn; they seemed to wish to destroy alike the Maltese and the French by starvation. Infatuated in his admiration of the Sicilian court, Nelson readily ac cepted every excuse, and received, with expressions of thankfulness, the wretched pittance which he wrung from them by his solicitations. For a time the people were kept from starving through the resources of Trowbridge and Ball. At length these resources failed, and the latter commander, with an energy and decision that would have done credit to Nelson in his earlier days, seized thirty Sicilian corn ships at Messina, and stored up their contents for the preservation of his poor faithful islanders. He thus incurred the hatred of the Sicilian court, but saved the lives of thousands, and rendered the condition of the garrison more and more difficult. On the 6th of January 1800, Nelson received orders from home to place himself under the command of Lord Keith, who had now returned to the Mediterranean. In about a fortnight after he received the order, Nelson left Palermo in the Foudroyant, joined Lord Keith in Leghorn roads, and returned with him and the fleet to Sicily. And now it was, that, without, if not contrary, to the orders of Lord Keith, whose command over him he bore with no good feeling, Nelson pushed through the Faro of Messina for Malta, and off Cape Pessaro intercepted the French squadron that was sailing to the relief of the island. The Généreux, one of those that had escaped from the battle of the Nile, three frigates, and a corvette composed the French fleet. Nelson's force was superior, and the French ships tried to escape; but at last the Généreux and one frigate surrendered, and the blockade of Malta was saved. "If I had not succeeded," wrote Nelson, "I might have been broke; and if I had not acted thus, the Généreux would not have been taken." One more survivor of the Nile remained, the Guillaume Tell, at this time closely watched in the harbour of Valetta. She also soon fell into the hands of the British. After a bold attempt to escape she surrendered to the Foudroyant, Lion, and Penelope frigate, and made thus a glorious finish to the Mediterranean fleet. Nelson was not present at her capture, and rejoiced that he had not taken a sprig from their laurels. "They are, and I glory in them," he wrote to Lord St. Vincent, "my children; they served in my school, and all of us caught our professional zeal and fire from the great and good Earl St. Vincent. What a pleasure, what a happiness, to have the Nile fleet all taken under my orders and regulations!" There were yet two frigates of that fleet in Valetta; one eventually got free, the other was captured. Such was the fate of the Nile fleet. CHAPTER VI. THE RETURN. 1800. The Journey through Germany.-Its Perils and Honours.-Return Home. - Ipswich.- London. - The West of England. - The -Yarmouth. NELSON'S stay in the Mediterranean was now drawing to a close. At the moment when the last stronghold in that sea was on the point of surrendering, he refused to remain to have the honour of signing the capitulation, but determined on returning home. The appointment of Lord Keith to the chief command, the capitulation of El Arish, by which the French army was to be allowed to leave Egypt, the fact of Sir William Hamilton being superseded, and himself passed over as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, all tended to make him dissatisfied with his position, and to increase his desire of returning home. From the blockade of Malta, which had been entrusted to his care by Lord Keith, he soon returned, on the 10th of March, to Palermo, and there remained, with his flag hoisted on a transport, until the 23rd of April. On that day, once more in the Foudroyant, and accompanied by Sir W. and Lady Hamilton, he sailed for Malta, and, for little more than a fortnight, superintended the lingering blockade of that port. On the first of June, however, he was again at Palermo, whence, on the 10th, he sailed for Leghorn, with the Queen and her children, now eager to escape to Vienna for safety. During a month, Leghorn harbour was his abode, and his ship, from time to time, the refuge of the Sicilian Queen. On the 13th of July he struck his flag, and prepared for a journey through Ger many to England, as no ship of adequate force could then be spared for his return home. The Hamiltons and the Sicilian Queen accompanied Nelson on his journey. "It is at length decided," writes one of the party, "that we go by land; and I feel all the dangers and difficulties to which we shall be exposed. Think of our embarking on board small Austrian vessels at Ancona for Trieste, as part of a land journey, to avoid the danger of being on board an English man-of-war, where everything is commodious, and equally arranged for defence and comfort; but the die is cast, and go we must. Lord Nelson is going on an expedition he disapproves, and against his own convictions, because he has promised the Queen, and that others advise her. I pity the Queen. Prince Belmonte directs the march, and Lady Hamilton, though she does not like him, seconds his proposals, because she hates the sea, and wishes to visit the different Courts of Germany. Sir William says he shall die by the way, and he looks so ill, that I should not be surprised if he did. I am astonished that the Queen, who is a sensible woman, should consent to run so great a risk." "We left Leghorn," continues Miss Knight, "the day after I wrote to you by Mr. Tysons, and, owing more to good fortune than to prudence, arrived in twenty-six hours at Florence, after passing within two miles of the French advanced posts. After a short stay we proceeded on our way to Ancona. At Castel San Giovanni, the coach, in which was Lord Nelson and Sir William and Lady Hamilton, was overturned; Sir William and Lady Hamilton were hurt but not dangerously. The wheel was repaired, but broke again at Arezzo."* The delay at Arezzo nearly compromised the safety of the party, and had not an Austrian guard been ready to accompany them, they might have been captured by some advanced post of the French, or body of Neapolitan deserters that infested the road. On the 24th Ancona was reached the intended sail in the Austrian frigate, Bellona, given up, for some good reasons—and a passage secured for the entire party, in a Russian squadron of three frigates and a brig. One of the frigates was commanded * Miss Knight's Letter, June 11; id. Ancona, July 24. by an old English sailor, named Messer, of excellent reputation, who had once served under Lord Hood. With him Nelson felt once more at home, and talked of his old ship, and what new manœuvres he would practise, should he ever again obtain a command. At Trieste they at last arrived on the 9th of August. "Sir William and Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson," writes Miss Knight, "give a miserable account of their sufferings on board the commodore's ship, Count Vunavitsch. He was so ill in his cot. But his first lieutenant, a Neapolitan, named Capaci, was, it seems, the most insolent and ignorant of beings. Think what Lord Nelson must have felt; he says a gale of wind would have sunk the ship. Poor Lord Nelson, whose only comfort was in talking of ships and harbours with Captain Messer, has had a bad cold, but is almost well, and, I think, anxious to be in England. He is followed by thousands when he goes out, and, for the illumination that is to take place this evening, there are many Viva Nelsons prepared. He seems affected when he speaks of you, (Trowbridge,) and often sighs out, Where is the Foudroyant? From Trieste the party made the best of their way to Vienna, where the Queen of Naples and her family had arrived two days before them. At the Austrian capital, Nelson's stay was only three days, and he hastened on with his sick, and apparently dying, friend, Sir William, to Prague, where he passed the 29th of September, his fortysecond birthday. At Prague, the Archduke Charles welcomed the victor of the Nile with a fête, that eclipsed all the many popular attentions he had received on his route, though it could not bear witness to greater cordiality and esteem, than many a humbler tribute. Prince Esterhazy also gave him a grand fête, and added one more to the many triumphs with which his progress through Germany was adorned. From Prague the party travelled to Magdeburg, and from thence to Hamburg. At the former city it is said that the inn master contrived, much to our hero's amusement, to show him as a sight for money, admitting the curious to mount a ladder, and peep at him through a window. At Hamburg the inn-keeper, or some merchant, was more courteous; though bowed down with wine |