: "We have
been cruising off Minorca for a long month, every moment in
expectation of reinforcements from England. Great good fortune has
hitherto saved us, what none in this fleet could have expected for so
long a time. Near two months we have been skulking from them. Had they
not got so much cut up on the 14th of March, Corsica, Rome, and Naples
would, at this moment, have been in their possession, and may yet, if
these people [the Admiralty] do not make haste to help us. I am out of
spirits, although never better in health."

His depression was due less to the inadequacy of the British fleet
than to the dismissal of Lord Hood from the command, news of which was
at this time received. When about to sail from England, to resume his
duty as commander-in-chief, he got into a controversy with the
Government about the force necessary in the Mediterranean, and, giving
offence by the sharpness of his language, was ordered to haul down his
flag. He never again went to sea. Nelson deplored his loss in terms
unusually vivacious: "Oh, miserable Board of Admiralty! They have
forced the first officer in our service away from his command." In
more temperate but well-weighed words, he said: "This fleet must
regret the loss of Lord Hood, the best officer, take him altogether,
that England has to boast of. Lord Howe is certainly a great officer
in the management of a fleet, but that is all. Lord Hood is equally
great in all situations which an admiral can be placed in." In the
judgment of the present writer, this estimate of Hood is as accurate
as it is moderate in expression. It was nothing less than providential
for the French that he was not in command on the 14th of March, or in
the yet more trivial and discreditable affair of July 13th, when, to
use again Nelson's words, "To say how much we wanted Lord Hood at
that time, is to say, will you have all the French fleet or no
action?"

On the 14th of June the expected reinforcement from England, nine
ships-of-the-line, joined the fleet off Minorca; and a few days later
a large convoy also arrived, with which the whole body of ships of war
put into San Fiorenzo Bay on the 29th. This concluded for Nelson a
period of three months, counting from the action of March 14th, of
pretty monotonous cruising with the fleet, the last in which he was to
take part until his admiral's flag was hoisted, two years later.
Though unmarked by any event of importance, the time was passed not
unprofitab