lose Sardinia, I lose the French fleet."

His apprehensions were not verified; as also they were not during his
command, either in the Morea, in Naples, or in Sicily. Napoleon took
no active steps against Sardinia, although the proceedings there did
not escape the sharp eyes of the French agents, but elicited from them
vivacious remonstrances. "The government of the Republic," wrote one,
"has a right to complain of this excessive complaisance. To give
regular support to a squadron blockading a port, to revictual it, in
one word, periodically, is to tread under foot the neutrality which is
professed. I shall notify my government of a fact which demands all
its attention, and in which it is painful to me to see a cause of
misunderstanding between France and his Sardinian Majesty." It is
singularly confirmatory of the reality of Bonaparte's intention to
attempt the invasion of England, that he confined his efforts in the
South--in the Mediterranean--to feints and demonstrations. What he did
there looked to the future, not to the present; although, doubtless,
he stood always so ready that no opportunity offering advantage would
have passed neglected. The active mind of Nelson, condemned to the
uncertainties of the defensive and to military idleness, however it
may have been burdened with administrative routine and official
correspondence, found ample time to speculate on the designs of
Bonaparte, and the latter took care that he should have matter enough
to occupy him--and if possible mislead him--in rumor and in movements.
"At Marseilles they are fitting, as reports say, eighty or ninety
gunboats, and intend sending them, by the canal of Languedoc to
Bordeaux; but I am sure this is not true. They are to go alongshore to
the Heel of Italy, and to embark and protect their army either to
Sicily or the Morea, or to both; and the Navy of Europe can hardly
prevent these alongshore voyages." In this will be noticed the
recurrence of ideas familiar to him in the Riviera eight years before;
the expectation of ex-centric operations into which Bonaparte was
rarely betrayed.

Frequent stories also reach him of projects to invade and seize
Sardinia. Vessels are fitting for that purpose, now at Marseilles, now
at Villefranche; now the expedition is to come from Corsica only. "A
light linen jacket, trowsers, red cap, and a pair of shoes, is the
whole expense of Government; the plunder of the Sardinian Anglo-Sardes
is held out as the re