r the general cause,
and he alludes frequently to his wish to attend to them; but he
promised the King that he would be back in Naples in the first week of
November, to support the projected movement against the French. He
remained off Malta, therefore, only one week, during which adequate
arrangements were made for the blockade of the island, which had been
formally proclaimed on the 12th of October, and was conducted for most
of the following year by the Portuguese squadron; the senior British
officer, Captain Ball, acting ashore with the insurgent Maltese. These
had risen against the French during the summer, and now held them shut
up in La Valetta. The adjacent island of Gozo surrendered to the
British on the 28th. Hood continued in charge off Alexandria with
three ships-of-the-line; while the Ionian Islands were left to
themselves, until a combined Russian and Turkish squadron entered the
Mediterranean a few weeks later.

On the 5th of November Nelson returned to Naples. "I am, I fear, drawn
into a promise that Naples Bay shall never be left without an English
man-of-war. I never intended leaving the coast of Naples without one;
but if I had, who could resist the request of such a queen?" He could
ground much upon the Admiralty's orders, given when he was first sent
into the Mediterranean, to protect the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
and he had understood that the Emperor also would give his aid, if
Naples attacked. This impression received strength from an Austrian
general, Mack,--then of high reputation, but afterwards better known
by his surrender to Napoleon at Ulm, in 1805,--being sent to command
the Neapolitan army. Sir William Hamilton, however, writing on the
26th of October, was more accurate in saying that the Emperor only
advised the King "to act openly against the French _at Malta_, as he
would certainly support him;" for, Naples having a feudal claim upon
the island, action there could be represented as merely resistance to
aggression. In consequence of this misunderstanding, great confusion
ensued in the royal councils when a courier from Vienna brought word,
on the 13th of November, that that Court wished it left to the French
to begin hostilities; otherwise, it would give no assurance of help.
Nelson was now formally one of the Council which deliberated upon
military operations. In virtue of this position he spoke out, roughly
enough. "I ventured to tell their Majesties that one of the following
thi