honour, and deep love of truth, to understand the surprise and indignation with which he read Vice-Admiral La Touche Tréville's official report, wherein he ventured to assert that, on the 14th of June, the English Admiral "recalled his Ship and his two Frigates, which were among the Islands, and bore away. I pursued him until night; he ran to the South-East. In the morning, at daylight, I saw no more of him." The insult sank deep in NELSON'S mind. To the Admiralty he merely said, that "Although I most certainly never thought of writing a line upon Monsieur La Touche's having cut a caper a few miles outside of Toulon on the 14th of June, where he well knew I could not get at him without placing the Ships under the batteries which surround that Port, and that, had I attacked him in that position, he could retire into his secure nest whenever he pleased, yet as that gentleman has thought proper to write a letter stating that the Fleet under my command ran away, and that he pursued it, perhaps it may be thought necessary for me to say something, but I do assure you, Sir, that I know not what to say, except by a flat contradiction; for if my character is not established by this time for not being apt to run away, it is not worth my time to attempt to put the world right;" but in his Private Letters he used the most emphatic language on the subject. "You will have seen Monsieur La Touche's letter," he said to his brother, "of how he chased me, and how I ran. I keep it; and, by God, if I take him, he shall Eat it;" while to

his friend Davison, he observed, "I am expecting Monsieur La Touche (as he has wrote a letter that I ran away) to come out of his nest. The whole history was too contemptible for my notice, but I have thought it right, not upon my own account, but for the satisfaction of the Admiralty, &c. to send a copy of the Victory's Log: for if my character for not running away, is not fixed by this time, it is not worth my trouble to put the world right at my time of life; and if any Englishman has believed for one moment the story, I may, to my friend, say, without fear of being thought arrogant, that they do not deserve to have me serve them; but I have kept Monsieur La Touche's letter; and if I take him, I shall either never see him, or, if I do, make him eat his letter. Perhaps sovereign contempt is the best." Similar expressions occur in many other letters; but as the French Admiral died early in August following, the meeting never took place, and the command of the French Squadron was given to ViceAdmiral Villeneuve.

In August 1804, LORD NELSON'S state of health obliged him to apply for leave to go to England, which reached him in December; but the War with Spain, and the great probability that the Enemy would put to sea, induced him to remain, and he kept the authority to give up his Command a profound secret. At this period his feelings were greatly mortified by his Command being divided, and the Ships off Cadiz formed into a separate Squadron, under Vice-Admiral Sir John Orde, his senior

Officer, whose jealousy of NELSON had shown itself some years before. "I almost begin to think that he is sent off Cadiz to reap the golden harvest," he said, "as Campbell was sent off Cadiz by Cornwallis (by orders from England) to reap my sugar harvest. It's very odd, two Admiralties to treat me so: surely, I have dreamt that I have done the State some service.'

While the Squadron was at the Madalena Islands for water and refreshments, intelligence was brought to him, in the afternoon of the 19th of January, 1805, that the Enemy, consisting of eleven Sail of the Line, under ViceAdmiral Villeneuve, had put to sea; and as it was steering South, or S. by W., he concluded that it was bound round the Southern end of Sardinia, whereas its real destination was out of the Straits, and thence to the West Indies. LORD NELSON'S Squadron, likewise consisting of eleven Sail of the Line, immediately got under weigh, ran through the Passage between Biche and Sardinia, and then bore away, round the East side of that Island, for Cape Carbonaro, its South-Easternmost point. A heavy gale of wind forced the Enemy back to Toulon, on the 21st; but LORD NELSON, impressed with the belief that they had either returned to Port, crippled in the gale, or that they had gone to Egypt, passed the Faro of Messina with a foul wind, (being the first Fleet that was ever known to have "beaten" through,) and proceeded to Egypt. His Letters show that his anxiety was not less, and his exertions to obtain information as great, as when in a similar pursuit in 1798; and it was not until his return from

Alexandria, on the 19th of February, that he knew the French Fleet was in Toulon.

Towards the end of March, the Squadron went to Sardinia; and on the 4th of April, the day after LORD NELSON sailed from Pula Roads, in the Gulf of Cagliari, he received information that the French had quitted Toulon in the night of the 31st of March, when he used every effort to get to the Westward, supposing that they intended to make the Island of Galita.

Our Annals afford no instance in which a man was more entirely devoted to the service of his Country, than NELSON during his pursuit of the French Fleet in 1805. It was well said, soon after the event, that "in this part of his glorious career of Public duty, this was perhaps the most glorious;" and that "few great characters in our History were capable of adopting, and none have ever put so great and noble a measure into execution." From the moment he heard of the departure of the French Squadron from Toulon, until it was beyond his reach, the ardour of pursuit, the aspirations of valour, the responsibilities of command, the eager desire to meet the Enemy, and the bitterness of his disappointment at having missed them, are powerfully described in his Letters. No one can read these genuine expressions of his feelings without emotion; and to Officers they are animating examples in their career of professional fame. While ignorant of the destination

1 Annual Register, 1805, p. 226.

of the Enemy, NELSON said, "I have nothing to wish for but to meet them"-"I am, in truth, half dead; but what man can do to find them out, shall be done;" "I can neither eat, drink, or sleep. It cannot last long what I feel"-" Under the severe affliction which I feel at the escape of the French Fleet."-Impeded by a foul wind, he said, "My good fortune seems flown away. I cannot get a fair wind, or even a side wind. Dead foul!-dead foul! . . . I believe this ill luck will go near to kill me." Yet even when his mind was thus a prey to care and anxiety, his usual goodness of heart displayed itself in kind feelings and good offices.

He learnt, at last, that the Enemy had passed the Straits. To follow them, "either to the West Indies, or to the Antipodes," was to NELSON a simple act of duty. Accordingly, on the 11th of May 1805, he pursued, with only ten Sail of the Line, the Combined Fleet composed of eighteen; and all he thought it necessary to say to his dearest friend of the immense responsibility he incurred, or of the risk which so great a disparity of force involved, was, "My lot is cast, and I am going to the West Indies, where, although I am late, yet chance may have given them a bad passage, and me a good one: I must hope the best." He certainly need not have supposed that the world would (as he seems to think the Admiralty might)" imagine he was on a party of pleasure, running after eighteen Sail of the Line with ten, and that to the West Indies." During his voyage he drew up a Plan of Attack, remarkable alike for its terseness,