ravina, who was waiting his arrival with
six Spanish sail of the line, and two thousand two hundred and eighty
troops. On the approach of the French fleet off Cadiz, the 9th of April,
Sir John Orde, who was blockading that port with five ships of the line,
incapable of preventing their junction with the Spaniards, retired from
his station; unpursued by the French fleet, which might easily have
forced him into action. L'Aigle, a French ship of the line, which had
been some time at Cadiz, immediately came out of the harbour; and was
soon after followed by six Spanish sail of the line, and five frigates,
under Admiral Gravina: when, having compleatly effected their junction,
a strong easterly wind expeditiously carried them out of sight.

At this period, it has been seen, Lord Nelson had, from circumstances,
supposed the Toulon fleet likely to be met with in the Sicilian seas.
Having sent frigates, in all directions, to gain intelligence of the
enemy, the moment it was ascertained that they had actually sailed, he
was beating to windward, off the coast of Sardinia, on the 16th of
April, when he was informed, by an Austrian vessel from Lisbon, that
sixteen ships of war had been seen, the 7th inst. standing to the
westward. His lordship, now, justly apprehensive that this must have
been the French fleet, felt extremely uneasy, that they had thus eluded
all his vigilance. His agony is not to be described; and he was only
consoled, at length, by reflections that, in assuring himself of the
safety of Naples, Sicily, the Morea, Egypt, and Sardinia, before he
proceeded to the westward, he had certainly done what was perfectly
right. "I must ever regret, however," writes his lordship, "my want of
frigates which I could have sent to the westward; and I must also
regret, that Captain Mowbray did not cruize until he heard something of
the French fleet. I am unlucky, but I cannot exert myself more than I
have done for the public service!"

In fact, the exertions of Lord Nelson, during the whole of this arduous
and perplexing service, were inconceivably great. He had, besides the
usual cares of a commander in chief, the very difficult task of
conciliating a variety of discordant states, from whom he was under the
necessity of drawing constant supplies of fresh provisions and other
requisites, which they were deterred from affording by the dread of a
powerful and unprincipled enemy, perpetually menacing them with
destruction, whatever