rmittent, for
Saumarez, whose squadron fell in with the admiral's division several
times, notes that on the 26th of August he spent half an hour on board
the flagship, and found him in perfect health; and on the 7th of
September Nelson himself writes to the British minister at Florence
that he felt so much recovered, it was probable he would not go home
for the present. A few days later he wrote to Hood, off Alexandria,
that he relied upon the thoroughness of the blockade to complete the
destruction of the French army. "I shall not go home," he added,
"until this is effected, and the islands of Malta, Corfu, &c.,
retaken."

It is to the furtherance of these objects, all closely allied, and in
his apprehension mutually dependent, that his occasional letters are
directed. His sphere of operations he plainly conceives to be from
Malta, eastward, to Syria inclusive. "I detest this voyage to Naples,"
he wrote to St. Vincent, two days before reaching the port. "Nothing
but absolute necessity could force me to the measure. Syracuse in
future, whilst my operations lie on the eastern side of Sicily, is my
port, where every refreshment may be had for a fleet." The present
necessity was that of refit and repair, to which Syracuse was
inadequate. "For myself," he sent word to Sir William Hamilton, "I
hope not to be more than four or five days at Naples, for these times
are not for idleness." Not long after his arrival this conviction as
to the movements requiring his personal presence underwent an entire
change; and thenceforth, till he left for England two years later, it
was only the presence of clear emergency, appealing to his martial
instincts and calling forth the sense of duty which lay at the root of
his character, that could persuade him his proper place was elsewhere
than at the Court of Naples. It is only fair to add that, upon the
receipt of the news of his great victory, the Admiralty designated to
St. Vincent, as first in order among the cares of the squadron within
the Mediterranean, "the protection of the coasts of Sicily, Naples,
and the Adriatic, and, in the event of war being renewed in Italy, an
active co-operation with the Austrian and Neapolitan armies." Long
before these instructions were received, the very day indeed that they
were written, Nelson had become urgently instrumental in precipitating
Naples into war. Next in order of interest, by the Admiralty's
letters, were, successively, the isolation of Egy