for those whose unheroic bearing so
belied the words he had written six months before: "His Majesty is
determined to conquer or die at the head of his army." Under other
conditions and influences, none would have been more forward to
express dissatisfaction and contempt.

Withal, despite the favorable outlook of affairs and the most joyous
season of the year, his depression of spirits continued. "I am far
from well," he writes on the 3d of May, "and the good news of the
success of the Austrian arms in Italy does not even cheer me." But in
the midst of the full current of success, and of his own gloom, an
incident suddenly occurred which threw everything again into confusion
and doubt, and roused him for the time from his apathy. On the 12th of
May a brig arrived at Palermo, with news that a French fleet of
nineteen ships-of-the-line had escaped from Brest, and had been seen
less than a fortnight before off Oporto, steering for the
Mediterranean.

FOOTNOTES:

[80] Palermo possessed a strategic advantage over Syracuse, in that, with
westerly winds, it was to windward, especially as regards Naples; and it
was also nearer the narrowest part of the passage between Sicily and
Africa, the highway to the Levant and Egypt. With easterly winds, the enemy
of course could not proceed thither; and at this time there was no enemy's
force in the Mediterranean, so that westward movements had not to be
apprehended. All dangers must come from the westward. These considerations
were doubtless present to Nelson; but the author has not found any mention
of them by him at this period.

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM THE INCURSION OF THE FRENCH FLEET UNDER BRUIX TO THE RESTORATION
OF THE ROYAL AUTHORITY AT NAPLES.--THE CARACCIOLO EXECUTION.--NELSON'S
DISOBEDIENCE TO ADMIRAL LORD KEITH.

MAY-JULY, 1799. AGE, 40.

The intention of the French to send a fleet into the Mediterranean had
transpired some time before, and the motive--to retrieve the
destruction of their naval power in that sea by the Battle of the
Nile--was so obvious that the attempt was regarded as probable. As far
back as the 7th of January, Nelson had written to Commodore Duckworth,
commanding the detachment of four ships-of-the-line at Minorca, that
he had received notification of the force expected from Brest. If they
got into the Mediterranean, he was confident they would go first to
Toulon, and he wished to concert beforehand with Duckworth, who was
not under his order