had not the smallest
apprehensions of any serious designs on Minorca; and greatly feared
that, if he should entirely quit the protection of Sicily and Naples,
they would both soon be irrecoverably lost. It was, therefore, with
extreme reluctance, that he proceeded on the present business; and
having, next day, the 17th, been joined off Malta by the Alexander and
Goliath, his force was now fifteen sail of two-decked English ships, and
three Portuguese, with a fireship and cutter.

On the 20th, the Swallow Portuguese corvette brought dispatches of the
17th, from the Earl of St. Vincent; acquainting Lord Nelson of the near
approach of the squadron under Sir Alan Gardiner, and that Lord Keith
was going in search of the French fleet. Having now, therefore, no hope
of any sufficient reinforcement to enable him to do the same, his
lordship determined once more to offer himself for the service of
Naples, which he seems to have imagined the French intended to visit;
and, indeed, information to that effect had repeatedly arrived, by
different ships, as well British as foreign. Accordingly, having parted
for Palermo, he arrived off that port on the 21st; but, the ship being
becalmed, he was under the necessity of proceeding some leagues in his
barge. Having reached Palermo early in the morning of this day, he
waited on Sir William Hamilton; and requested that, the instant they had
breakfasted, the carriage might be ready to take himself, with Sir
William and Lady Hamilton, to the king and queen. Nothing could possibly
have been more opportune than this unpremeditated visit; for his
lordship now learned, that General Acton had actually written to him, by
the desire of their majesties, though he had not yet received the letter
most earnestly intreating his return, for the purpose of going into the
Bay of Naples, and there completing the business which had been so
auspiciously commenced under his judicious arrangements. Such, indeed,
was the then critical state of affairs at Naples, that it required both
the ablest heads, and the best hearts, to seize the favourable moment,
already beginning to flit away, for effectually restoring loyalty and
order in that devoted country. During the absence of Lord Nelson and
Captain Troubridge, from Sicily and Naples, Cardinal Ruffo, with his
army of twenty thousand Calabrese and other loyalists, aided by some
hundred Russian troops, had defeated the Neapolitan republicans, after
the evacuation of