vading
an order, like a frigate-captain parting company to better his chance
of prize-money. "I beg to assure you that I hold it impossible for any
officer, under such orders as their Lordships' to me, to designedly
miss Admiral Cornwallis off Brest."

On the 22d of May he was off Ushant, between which and Cornwallis's
rendezvous he passed twenty-four hours, fuming and fretting over a
delay that was losing him a fresh, fair, northerly wind; the more so,
that he was satisfied Cornwallis neither needed nor wanted the ship.
"From his conduct,"--not being on his rendezvous,--"I am clear there
can be nothing in Brest to demand his attention." On the 23d, however,
he could stand it no longer. "What a wind we are losing!" "If the
wisdom of my superiors had not prevented me," he growled, "at this
moment I should have been off the coast of Portugal. I am aware of the
importance of my getting to the Mediterranean, and think I might
safely have been allowed to proceed in the Victory." At 6 P.M. of that
day, Cornwallis not turning up, he tumbled himself and his suite on
board the frigate "Amphion," which was in company, and continued his
voyage, going out in all the discomfort of "a convict," to use St.
Vincent's expression; "seven or eight sleeping in one cabin," as
Nelson himself described it. "It is against my own judgment but in
obedience to orders," he told the Earl; while to the Prime Minister,
with whom he was in personal correspondence, he lamented the loss,
"for I well know the weight of the Victory in the Mediterranean." As
he anticipated, Cornwallis did not want the ship, and she joined
Nelson two months afterwards off Toulon.

Late in the evening of June 3d, the "Amphion" anchored at Gibraltar,
whither she brought the first certain news of the war, though it had
been declared nearly three weeks before. The next day was actively
employed in giving necessary instructions to the yard officials, and
detailing cruisers to guard the entrance to the Straits, and to
maintain the communications with the Barbary coast, upon which the
Rock depended for supplies of fresh provisions. At 4 P.M. the ship
again sailed for Malta, accompanied by the frigate "Maidstone," to
which, on the 11th of June, was transferred, for direct passage to
Naples by the north of Sicily, the new British minister to the Two
Sicilies, Mr. Elliot, who had embarked with Nelson on board the
"Victory," and afterwards gone with him to the "Amphion." Throughout