ollowed a
few months later, when a lull in the storm of fighting gave the sense
of neglect a chance to rankle. "My heart is full," he writes then to
his uncle Suckling, speaking not only of Bastia, but of the entire
course of operations in Corsica, "when I think of the treatment I have
received: every man who had any considerable share in the reduction
has got some place or other--I, only I, am without reward.... Nothing
but my anxious endeavour to serve my Country makes me bear up against
it; but I sometimes am ready to give all up." "Forgive this letter,"
he adds towards the end: "I have said a great deal too much of myself;
but indeed it is all too true." In similar strain he expressed himself
to his wife: "It is very true that I have ever served faithfully, and
ever has it been my fate to be neglected; but that shall not make me
inattentive to my duty. I have pride in doing my duty well, and a
self-approbation, which if it is not so lucrative, yet perhaps affords
more pleasing sensations." Thus the consciousness of duty done in the
past, and the clear recognition of what duty still demanded in the
present and future, stood him in full stead, when he failed to receive
at the hands of others the honor he felt to be his due, and which, he
never wearied in proclaiming, was in his eyes priceless, above all
other reward. "Corsica, in respect of prizes," he wrote to Mrs.
Nelson, "produces nothing but honour, far above the consideration of
wealth: not that I despise riches, quite the contrary, yet I would
not sacrifice a good name to obtain them. Had I attended less than I
have done to the service of my Country, I might have made some money
too: however, I trust my name will stand on record, when the
money-makers will be forgot,"--a hope to be abundantly fulfilled.

At the moment Bastia fell there arrived from England a new
commander-in-chief for the land forces, General Stuart, an officer of
distinguished ability and enterprise. Cheered by the hope of cordial
co-operation, Hood and Nelson resumed without delay their enthusiastic
efforts. Within a week, on the 30th of May, the latter wrote that the
"Agamemnon" was taking on board ammunition for the siege of Calvi, the
last remaining of the hostile strongholds. In the midst of the
preparations, at eleven P.M. of June 6, word was received that nine
French ships-of-the-line had come out of Toulon, and were believed to
be bound for Calvi, with reinforcements for the garrison. A