ed schemes,--there is something impressive in noting
the fact, generally disregarded, that Nelson was also present and
assisting at the very opening scene of the famous campaign in Italy.
This was not, certainly, the beginning of Napoleon's career any more
than it was of Nelson's, who at the same moment hoisted for the first
time his broad pendant as commodore; but it was now that, upon the
horizon of the future, toward which the world was fast turning, began
to shoot upward the rays of the great captain's coming glory, and the
sky to redden with the glare from the watchfires of the unseen armies
which, at his command, were to revolutionize the face of Europe,
causing old things to pass away, never to be restored.

The Austrians had asked for a clear assurance that their movement to
the seashore should receive the support of the fleet, whether on the
Riviera or at Spezia, upon the possession of which also Nelson had
laid stress, as a precaution against the invasion of Tuscany. These
engagements he readily made. He would support any movement, and
provide for the safety of any convoys by water. He told the
aid-de-camp whom Beaulieu sent to him that, whenever the general came
down to the sea-coast, he would be sure to find the ships; and to the
question whether his squadron would not be risked thereby, he replied
that it would be risked at all times to assist their allies, and, if
lost, the admiral would find another. "If I find the French convoy in
any place where there is a probability of attacking them," he wrote
about this time, "you may depend they shall either be taken or
destroyed at the risk of my squadron, ... which is built to be risked
on proper occasions." Here was indeed a spirit from which much might
be expected. The fleet, doubtless, must be husbanded in coastwise work
so long as the French fleet remained, the legacy of past errors,--this
Nelson clearly maintained; but such vessels as it could spare for
co-operation were not to be deterred from doing their work by fear of
harm befalling them. Warned by the recriminations of the last
campaign, he had minutes taken of his interview with the Austrian
officer, of the questions he himself put, as well as of the
undertakings to which he pledged himself; and these he caused to be
witnessed by the British consul at Genoa, who was present.

On the 8th of April the "Agamemnon," having shortly before left the
fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, anchored at Genoa; and the follo