esses right."
Yet his conclusions, however reached, though subject to temporary
variations, were in the main correct. Strongly impressed though he was
with the importance and exposure of Egypt, he inclined upon the whole
to the belief that the French were bound to the westward, out of the
Straits and into the Atlantic. This confirmed him in taking his
general summer rendezvous to the westward, where he was to windward of
such a movement, as well as interposed between Toulon and any Spanish
fleet attempting to go there. "My station to the westward of Toulon,
an unusual one," he writes to Addington in August, 1803, "has been
taken upon an idea that the French fleet is bound out of the Straits
and probably to Ireland. I shall follow them to the Antipodes." Two
months later he says: "Plausible reasons may certainly be given for
every one of the plans" suggested by his various correspondents; but
he thinks that either Alexandria or outside the Mediterranean is the
most probable. "To those two points my whole attention is turned."
"Their destination, is it Ireland or the Levant? That is what I want
to know;" but in December he still holds to his first impression: "My
opinion is, certainly, out of the Mediterranean."

In this perplexity Elliot suggested to him to receive on board the
fleet some good Frenchmen, who could land from time to time and get
information in Toulon,--a proposition which drew from Nelson a
characteristic and amusing explosion. "Mr. Elliot wanted to send me
some _good_ Frenchmen, to go ashore and get me information. My answer
to all these offers is 'No.' I can be told nothing of any consequence
to me; but a copy of the French admiral's orders, when he is to put to
sea, and where he is destined to, is the only useful information I can
care about. I can see the number and force at Toulon any day I please,
and as for the names of the Captains or Admirals I care not what they
are called; therefore, as you may suppose, I have none of these 'good
Frenchmen' about me." "I put no confidence in them," he tells Elliot.
"You think yours good: the Queen thinks hers the same: I believe they
are all alike. Whatever information you can get me, I shall be very
thankful for; but not a Frenchman comes here. Forgive me, but my
mother hated the French." "I never trust a Corsican or a Frenchman. I
would give the devil ALL the good ones to take the remainder."

As winter advanced, his perplexities increased, for each
corresp