his hard chase. 'Nelson,' said she, 'however we may lament your
absence, offer your services; they will be accepted, and you will gain
a quiet heart by it; you will have a glorious victory, and then you
may return here, and be happy.' He looked at her with tears in his
eyes: 'Brave Emma! Good Emma! If there were more Emmas, there would be
more Nelsons.' His services were as willingly accepted as they were
offered."

The fidelity with which Nelson destroyed Lady Hamilton's letters
prevents our knowing just what was her attitude towards his
aspirations for glory, and her acquiescence in his perils, in view of
the entire dependence of her future upon his life; a dependence such
as an honored wife could by no means feel, for the widow of Nelson
could rely safely upon the love of the nation. Certain it is that his
letters to her contain enough appeals to the sense she should have of
his honor, to show that he stood in need of no strengthening at her
hands; and it seems legible enough, between the lines, that he had
rather to resist the pull of her weakness, or her interest, than to
look for encouragement in the path of hardship and self-denial. It is
certain, too, that some days before Blackwood arrived, Nelson
understood that he might be wanted soon, and avowed his entire
willingness to go, while not affecting to conceal his hope that
circumstances might permit him to remain until October, the time he
had fixed to Collingwood for his return. Whatever the inside history,
the matter was quickly settled. On September 3d, the day after
Blackwood's arrival, he writes to Rose: "I shall rejoice to see you on
board the Victory, if only for a moment; but I shall certainly not be
an advocate for being at Portsmouth till one of the Victory's anchors
are at the bows."[118] The next day, the 4th, Lord Minto writes: "Lord
Nelson has been here to-day. He is going to resume the command of the
Mediterranean as soon as the Victory is ready, which will be within a
week." On the 5th he himself tells a friend, "_All my things_ are this
day going off for Portsmouth."

The ten days that followed were for him, necessarily, very busy; but
mental preoccupation--definiteness of object--was always beneficial to
him. Even the harassing run to and from the West Indies had done him
good. "I am but so-so," he had written to his brother upon arrival;
"yet, what is very odd, the better for going to the West Indies, even
with the anxiety." To this had succ