under all the circumstances which I have stated, I trust their
Lordships will approve my having gone to Egypt in search of the French
fleet." There was, however, no occasion for him to be forward in
suggesting the sacrifice of himself, as he did to Melville. "At this
moment of sorrow I still feel that I have acted right. The result of
my inquiries at Coron and Alexandria confirm me in my former opinion;
and therefore, my Lord, if my obstinacy or ignorance is so gross, I
should be the first to recommend your superseding me." It may be noted
here that Nelson never realized--he did not live long enough to
realize--how thoroughly Bonaparte had learned from Egypt his lesson as
to the control of the sea by sea-power, and what it meant to a
maritime expedition which left it out of the account. To the end of
his reign, and in the height of his sway, he made no serious attempt
to occupy Sardinia or even Sicily, narrow as was the water separating
the latter from Naples, become practically a French state, over which
his brother and brother-in-law reigned for six years. Nelson to the
last made light of the difficulties of which Bonaparte had had bitter
experience. "France," he wrote to the Secretary for War, "will have
both Sardinia and Sicily very soon, if we do not prevent it, and Egypt
besides." "We know," he said in a letter to Ball, "there would be no
difficulty for single polaccas to sail from the shores of Italy with
300 or 400 men in each, (single ships;) and that, in the northerly
winds, they would have a fair chance of not being seen, and even if
seen, not to be overtaken by the Russian ships. Thus, 20,000 men would
be fixed again in Egypt, with the whole people in their favour. Who
would turn them out?"

Nelson left the Gulf of Palmas as soon as the wind served, which was
on the 9th of March. It was necessary to revictual; but, as the time
of the storeships' arrival was uncertain, he thought best to make a
round off Toulon and Barcelona, to renew the impression of the French
that his fleet was to the westward. This intention he carried out,
"showing myself," to use his own words, "off Barcelona and the coast
of Spain, and the islands of Majorca and Minorca, until the 21st of
March." "I shall, if possible," he wrote to a captain on detached
service, "make my appearance off Barcelona, in order to induce the
enemy to believe that I am fixed upon the coast of Spain, when I have
every reason to believe they will put to sea,