Nelson."

"To the Masters of the English Ships in the Port of Palermo."

To this it may be sufficient to add that, on their persisting in a
desire to sail, he granted them the convoy; repeating, in another
letter, "but still with the reservation for the underwriters and myself,
as I think the case requires." He also wrote to Mr. Windham, informing
that gentleman of the necessity which he had felt himself under to
comply with their desire; and requesting him to acquaint Captain Derby,
whom he sent on that service, in the Bellerophon, whether he might with
safety leave them at Leghorn. If not, his lordship observed, the signal
should be made for convoy; and those who chose to quit a place of danger
might be brought back, with the comfort of having lost the present
convoy for England. However, he adds, it is his duty, and it is his
inclination too, to do every thing for the protection of our commerce
consistently with the other important duties required of him. Captain
Derby was directed, should circumstances require, to wait a reasonable
time for such of the merchant ships as might have perishable cargoes on
board, to enable them to dispose of them.

In the letter to Mr. Windham above quoted, his lordship says, alluding
to the cruelties of the French, who were then over-running Italy--"Your
excellency's account of the treatment of his Royal Highness the Grand
Duke, of the King of Sardinia, and of the poor old Pope, makes my heart
bleed; and I curse, in the bitterness of my grief, all those who might
have prevented such cruelties!"

It will be recollected, that the venerable Pope Pius VI, who had been
seized and carried off by the French, and whose fate Lord Nelson thus
feelingly commiserates, as if anticipatory of the event, was at the
period of being thus forced from Rome in his eighty-second year; and
that his holiness expired, at Valence, on the 19th of August following,
after a captivity of six months: his body being consumed, by unslacked
lime thrown into the grave, to prevent it's receiving, at any future
period, the honours which might be esteemed due to a modern martyr; who,
perhaps, possessed equal piety and resignation, with many holy sufferers
of ancient times, for a like rigid adherence to the Christian religion,
who have been canonized by the Roman Catholic church.

On the last day of February, the 28th, Lord Nelson sent instructions to
his friend Captain Ball, at Malta, to preside over the meetings