ned his ship,
he thought it "advisable to go in her myself." In this he doubtless
was influenced chiefly by his unwillingness to miss a battle,
especially against such great numerical odds. "I take for granted," he
admitted to the Viceroy, "that the admiral will send me back in a
cutter, but I shall give him a good ordered seventy-four, and take my
chance of helping to thrash Don Langara, than which few things, I
assure you, would give me more real pleasure." The particular
emergency seems, however, soon to have passed; for after two days with
the fleet he returned off Leghorn in the "Captain," somewhat comforted
as to the apprehensions of the British Cabinet. "Whatever fears we
may have for Corsica, it is certain Government at home have none, by
taking so very respectable a part of your force away." A regiment had
been transferred to Gibraltar with Man's squadron, when the latter
returned there.

These rising hopes and stirring expectations of brilliant service were
speedily dashed. On the 25th of September Jervis received orders from
the Admiralty to abandon Corsica, to retreat from the Mediterranean,
and to proceed with the fleet to England. In pursuance of these
instructions Nelson was directed to superintend the evacuation of
Bastia, the "most secret" letter to that effect reaching him at that
port on the 29th of September,--his birthday. The purpose of the
ministry filled him with shame and indignation. Confronted abruptly
with the course which four months before had seemed to him natural and
proper, the shock brought out the fulness of the change through which
he had passed meantime. He has no illusions about Corsica. The
inhabitants had disappointed all the expectations of the British,--"At
a peace I should rejoice at having given up the island." But the days
passing over his head had brought wider and maturer views of the
general policy of Great Britain, as well as increasing faith in the
powers of the fleet, vigorously used in aggressive warfare. "Whilst we
can keep the combined fleet in the Mediterranean [by our own
presence], so much the more advantageous to us; and the moment we
retire, the whole of Italy is given to the French. If the Dons detach
their fleet out of the Mediterranean, we can do the same--however,
that is distant. Be the successes of the Austrians on the other hand
what they may, their whole supply of stores and provisions comes from
Trieste, across the Adriatic to the Po, and when this is