I have no fears.
Should the Dons come, I shall then hope I may be spared,[39] in my own
person, to help to make you at least a Viscount." A few days later,
having meantime heard of Wurmser's disasters at Castiglione: "Austria,
I suppose, must make peace, and we shall, as usual, be left to fight
it out: however, at the worst, we only give up Corsica, an acquisition
which I believe we cannot keep, and our fleet will draw down the
Mediterranean;" but at the same time, August 19, he writes to the Duke
of Clarence with glowing hopes and rising pride: "I hope Government
will not be alarmed for our safety--I mean more than is proper. Under
such a commander-in-chief as Sir John Jervis nobody has any fears. We
are now twenty-two sail of the line; the combined fleet will not be
above thirty-five sail of the line. I will venture my life Sir John
Jervis defeats them. This country is the most favourable possible for
skill with an inferior fleet; for the winds are so variable, that some
one time in twenty-four hours you must be able to attack a part of a
large fleet, and the other will be becalmed, or have a contrary wind."
That the Duke trembled and demurred to such odds is not wonderful; but
the words have singular interest, both as showing the clear tactical
apprehensions that held sway in Nelson's mind, and still more, at the
moment then present, as marking unmistakably his gradual conversion to
the policy of remaining in the Mediterranean, and pursuing the most
vigorous aggressive measures.

A fortnight after this letter was written, Genoa, under pressure from
Bonaparte, closed her ports against British ships, interdicting even
the embarkation of a drove of cattle, already purchased, and ready for
shipment to the fleet off Toulon. Nelson immediately went there to
make inquiries, and induce a revocation of the orders. While the
"Captain" lay at anchor in the roads, three of the crew deserted, and
when her boats were sent to search for them they were fired upon by a
French battery, established near the town. Nelson, in retaliation,
seized a French supply ship from under the guns of the battery,
whereupon the Genoese forts opened against the "Captain," which had
meantime got under way and was lying-to off the city. Nelson did not
return the fire of the latter, which was kept up for two hours, but
threw three shot into the French battery, "to mark," as he said, the
power of the English to bombard the town, and their humanity in not