ts would have been entitled to the immunity
stipulated, if they had already delivered up the castles. They had not
done so; the flags of truce marked only a cessation of hostilities,
not the completion of the transaction. By the terms, the evacuation
and embarkation were to be simultaneous: "The evacuation shall not
take place until the moment of embarkation." The status of the
opponents was in no wise altered by a paper which had not begun to
receive execution. The one important circumstance which had happened
was the arrival of the British squadron, instead of Bruix's fleet
which all were expecting. It was perfectly within Nelson's competence
to stop the proceedings at the point they had then reached.

[After writing the above, the author, by the courtesy of the Foreign
Office, received a copy of Sir William Hamilton's despatch of July 14,
1799, giving his account of the events happening after June 20th, the
date when Nelson left Palermo for Naples. In this occurs a statement
which would seriously modify, if not altogether destroy, the
justification of Nelson's conduct in annulling the capitulation, which
rests upon the condition that it had not received any substantial
execution. Hamilton says: "_When we anchored in this Bay the 24th of
June the capitulation of the castles had in some measure taken
place_.[83] Fourteen large Polacks or transport vessels _had taken on
board_ out of the castles the most conspicuous and criminal of the
Neapolitan Rebels, that had chosen to go to Toulon, the others had
_already_ been permitted with their property to return to their own
homes in this kingdom, and hostages selected from the first royalist
nobility of Naples had been sent into the castle of St. Elmo that
commands the city of Naples, and where a French garrison and the flag
of the French Republic was to remain until the news of the arrival of
the Neapolitan Rebels at Toulon.... There was no time to be lost, _for
the transport vessels were on the point of sailing for Toulon_, when
Lord Nelson ordered all the boats of his squadron to be manned and
armed, and to bring those vessels, with all the Rebels on board,
directly under the sterns of his ships, and there they remain, having
taken out and secured on board His Majesty's ships the most guilty
chiefs of the rebellion."

Occurring in an official despatch, from a minister of Nelson's
sovereign, his own warm personal friend and admirer, closely
associated with him throughout