ur intention of
returning to town, which would have the worst possible effect at this
critical juncture. The dispositions you have made, and are making,
appear to us all as the most judicious possible." "I hope you will
not relinquish your situation at a moment when the services of every
man are called for by the circumstances the Country is placed in, so
imperiously that, upon reflection, I persuade myself you will think as
I, and every friend you have, do on this subject." Nelson admitted, in
a calmer moment, that "although my whole soul is devoted to get rid of
this command, yet I do not blame the Earl for wishing to keep me here
a little longer." "Pray take care of your health," the latter says
again, "than which nothing is of so much consequence to the Country at
large, more particularly so to your very affectionate St. Vincent."
"Your health is so precious at all times, more particularly so at this
crisis."

St. Vincent tried in vain to conjure with the once beloved name of
Troubridge, whom Nelson used to style the "Nonpareil," whose merits he
had been never weary of extolling, and whose cause he had pleaded so
vehemently, when the accident of his ship's grounding deprived him of
his share in the Battle of the Nile. From the moment that he was
chosen by St. Vincent, who called him the ablest adviser and best
executive officer in the British Navy, to assist in the administration
of the Admiralty, Nelson began to view him jealously. "Our friend
Troubridge is to be a Lord of the Admiralty, and I have a sharp eye,
and almost think I see it. No, poor fellow, I hope I do him injustice;
he cannot surely forget my kindness to him." But when the single eye
has become double, suspicion thrives, and when tortured by his desire
to return to Lady Hamilton, Nelson saw in every obstacle and every
delay the secret hand of Troubridge. "I believe it is all the plan of
Troubridge," he wrote in one such instance, "but I have wrote both him
and the Earl my mind." To St. Vincent, habit and professional
admiration enabled him to submit, if grudgingly, and with constant
complaints to his _confidante_; but Troubridge, though now one of the
Board that issued his orders, was his inferior in grade, and he
resented the imagined condition of being baffled in his wishes by a
junior. The latter, quick-tempered and rough of speech, but true as
his sword, to use St. Vincent's simile, must have found himself put to
it to uphold the respect due to