good streets, well paved and
lighted.

While Captain Nelson was at St. Omer's, he received a most polite letter
from the principal personage among those whom he had detained off Porto
Cavallo, when he went to look into the harbour of the Havannah. This
gentleman's rank he did not at all know till he got to France. His
assumed name was that of the Count de Deux Ponts: but he was, in fact, a
Prince of the German Empire, a General of the French Army, Knight of the
Grand Order of St. Louis, and second in command at the capture of York
Town. His brother was heir-apparent of the Electorate of Bavaria, and of
the Palatinate. So that Captain Nelson had the honour of taking prisoner
a man who was not unlikely to become a sovereign prince of Europe, and
capable of carrying into the field an army of a hundred thousand men.
This letter, which had been dispatched the first moment it was known by
the grateful writer that Captain Nelson had arrived in France, was truly
expressive of the attention that had been paid him when on board the
English ship, and contained a very kind and pressing invitation to
Paris; of which it was the captain's full intention to have availed
himself, had he remained as long in the country as was originally
intended.

Though he visited only a few English families, lest he should never
speak French, he made but slow progress in learning the language; and,
early in the year 1784, was recalled from it's pursuit by the prospect
of an appointment.

About the 20th of March, accordingly, he was commissioned for the Boreas
frigate of twenty-eight guns, then at Long Reach, under the command of
Captain Wells: and, unfortunately, was attacked the very same day, by
the ague and fever; which continued, every other day, for above a
fortnight, and pulled him down most astonishingly. This, however, was
not his sole misfortune. On his recovery, he sailed at daylight, just
after high water; but the pilot run the ship aground, where it lay with
so little water that the people could walk round, till next flood. That
night, and part of the following day, the ship lay behind the Nore, with
a hard gale of wind and snow. "On Tuesday," says he, in a true sailor's
letter to Captain Locker, dated at Portsmouth, April 21, 1784, "I got
into the Downs: Wednesday, I got into a quarrel with a Dutch Indiaman,
who had Englishmen on board; which we settled, though with some
difficulty. The Dutchman made a complaint against me; but the Adm