e known but for the
after fame, which has caused all his most private correspondence to
have interest and to be brought to light. As a revelation of character
they have a legitimate interest, and they reveal, or rather they
confirm, what is abundantly revealed throughout his life,--that
intense longing for distinction, for admiration justly earned, for
conspicuous exaltation above the level of his kind, which existed in
him to so great a degree, and which is perhaps the most
potent--certainly the most universal--factor in military achievement.
They reveal this ambition for honor, or glory, on its weak side; on
its stronger side of noble emulation, of self-devotion, of heroic
action, his correspondence teems with its evidence in words, as does
his life in acts. To quote the words of Lord Radstock, who at this
period, and until after the battle of Cape St. Vincent, was serving as
one of the junior admirals in the Mediterranean, and retained his
friendship through life, "a perpetual thirst of glory was ever raging
within him." "He has ever showed himself as great a despiser of riches
as he is a lover of glory; and I am fully convinced in my own mind
that he would sooner defeat the French fleet than capture fifty
galleons."

After all allowance made, however, it cannot be denied that there is
in these complaints a tone which one regrets in such a man. The
repeated "It was I" jars, by the very sharpness of its contrast, with
the more generous expressions that abound in his correspondence. "When
I reflect that I was the cause of re-attacking Bastia, after our
_wise_ generals gave it over, from not knowing the force, fancying it
2,000 men; that it was I, who, landing, joined the Corsicans, and with
only my ship's party of marines, drove the French under the walls of
Bastia; that it was I, who, knowing the force in Bastia to be upwards
of 4,000 men, as I have now only ventured to tell Lord Hood, landed
with only 1,200 men, and kept the secret till within this week
past;--what I must have felt during the whole siege may be easily
conceived. Yet I am scarcely mentioned. I freely forgive, but cannot
forget. This and much more ought to have been mentioned. It is known
that, for two months, I blockaded Bastia with a squadron; only fifty
sacks of flour got into the town. At San Fiorenzo and Calvi, for two
months before, nothing got in, and four French frigates could not get
out, and are now ours. Yet my diligence is not mentioned; a