as every day sighted by the British lookout frigates. Jervis held
grimly on, expecting the appearance of the seven ships of Admiral Man,
who had been ordered to rejoin him. That officer, however, acting on
his own responsibility, weakly buttressed by the opinion of a council
of his captains, had returned to England contrary to his instructions.
The commander-in-chief, ignorant of this step, was left in the sorely
perplexing situation of having his fleet divided into two parts, each
distinctly inferior to the Spanish force alone, of twenty-six ships,
not to speak of the French in Toulon. Under the conditions, the only
thing that could be done was to await his subordinate, in the
appointed spot, until the last moment. By the 2d of November further
delay had become impossible, from the approaching failure of
provisions. On that day, therefore, the fleet weighed, and after a
tedious passage anchored on the first of December at Gibraltar. There
Nelson remained until the 10th of the month, when he temporarily
quitted the "Captain," hoisted his broad pendant on board the frigate
"Minerve," and, taking with him one frigate besides, returned into the
Mediterranean upon a detached mission of importance.

Nelson's last services in Corsica were associated with the momentary
general collapse of the British operations and influence in the
Mediterranean; and his final duty, by a curious coincidence, was to
abandon the position which he more than any other man had been
instrumental in securing. Yet, amid these discouraging circumstances,
his renown had been steadily growing throughout the year 1796, which
may justly be looked upon as closing the first stage in the history
of British Sea Power during the wars of the French Revolution, and as
clearing the way for his own great career, which in the repossession
of the Mediterranean reached its highest plane, and there continued in
unabated glory till the hour of his death. It was not merely the
exceptional brilliancy of his deeds at Cape St. Vincent, now soon to
follow, great and distinguished as those were, which designated him to
men in power as beyond dispute the coming chief of the British Navy;
it was the long antecedent period of unswerving continuance in
strenuous action, allowing no flagging of earnestness for a moment to
appear, no chance for service, however small or distant, to pass
unimproved. It was the same unremitting pressing forward, which had
brought him so vividly to th