s might
enable him to form the best plan for effectually accomplishing this
purpose; and, a few days afterwards, sent Captain Ball, in the
Alexander, with a frigate and sloop, to cruise off Malta, which was then
under the blockade of the Portuguese squadron.

On the 9th of October, writing to Lord Spencer, he says--"Three weeks, I
admit, is a long time to refit a fleet after a battle; but, when it is
considered that nearly every mast in the fleet has taken much more time
than if they had been new; that Naples Bay is subject to a heavy swell,
of which we have felt the inconvenience; and that we go to sea
victualled for six months, and in the highest health and discipline; I
trust, some allowance will be made for me." He adds, with an almost
prophetic foresight--"Naples sees this squadron no more--except the king
calls for our help; and, if they go on, and lose the glorious moments,
we may be called for _to save the persons of their majesties_." Of
General Mack, who was then at Naples, for the purpose of taking under
his command the Neapolitan army, which had been recently raised to
oppose the French, he thus expresses his predictive
apprehensions--"General Mack cannot move without five carriages. I have
formed my opinion--I heartily pray, I may be mistaken."

On the Tuesday following the date of this letter, General Mack arrived
at Caserta; and Lord Nelson, the next Thursday, accompanied by Sir
William and Lady Hamilton, went to meet him at dinner with the King and
Queen of Naples. Their majesties introduced them to each other, with
every expression of esteem and regard. The queen, however, could not
help saying--"General, be to us, by land, what my hero Nelson has been
at sea!" The emperor, it seems, had desired the King of Naples to begin,
and promised that he would support him. At this interview, Mack said he
would march in ten days; and, by his conversation and address, seems to
have temporarily withdrawn our hero from the contemplation of his
actions, that unerring criterion of character. The judgment which Lord
Nelson had first formed of General Mack, on this principle, has since
appeared to be just. With such a general as Mack, and such a minister as
our hero describes the Marquis De Gallo to have been, in a letter to
Earl Spencer, we can scarcely wonder at any misfortunes which might
befal the amiable sovereigns with whose welfare they were fatally
entrusted.

"This Marquis De Gallo," says our hero, "I "detest