nd others,
for keeping succours out of Calvi for a few summer months, are
handsomely mentioned. _Such things are_. I have got upon a subject
near my heart, which is full when I think of the treatment I have
received.... The taking of Corsica, like the taking of St. Juan's, has
cost me money. St. Juan's cost near L500; Corsica has cost me L300, an
eye, and a cut across my back; and my money, I find, cannot be repaid
me."

As regards the justice of his complaints, it seems to the author
impossible to read carefully Hood's two reports, after the fall of
Bastia and that of Calvi, and not admit, either that Nelson played a
very unimportant part in the general operations connected with the
reduction of Corsica, with which he became associated even before it
was effectively undertaken, and so remained throughout; or else that
no due recognition was accorded to him in the admiral's despatches.
Had he not become otherwise celebrated in his after life, he would
from these papers be inferred to stand, in achievement, rather below
than above the level of the other captains who from time to time were
present. That this was unfair seems certain; and notably at Calvi,
where, from the distance of the operations from the anchorage, and the
strained relations which kept Hood and Stuart apart, he was
practically the one naval man upon whose discretion and zeal success
depended. It is probable, however, that the failure to do him justice
proceeded as much from awkward literary construction, phrases badly
turned, as from reluctance to assign due prominence to one subordinate
among several others.

How readily, yet how keenly, he derived satisfaction, even from
slight tributes of recognition, is shown by the simplicity and
pleasure with which he quoted to Mrs. Nelson the following words of
Sir Gilbert Elliot, the Viceroy of Corsica, then and always a warm
friend and admirer: "I know that you, who have had such an honourable
share in this acquisition, will not be indifferent at the prosperity
of the Country which you have so much assisted to place under His
Majesty's government." "Whether these are words of course and to be
forgotten," wrote Nelson, "I know not; they are pleasant, however, for
the time." Certainly his demands for praise, if thus measured, were
not extreme.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] The italics are the author's.

[21] The italics are Nelson's.

[22] Written at the siege of Calvi.

[23] Author's italics.

[24] Golfe Jouan;