u will see me before you see this letter. We are certain to be at
war with Spain before another month is out, and I am heartily sorry for
it, for I like those fellows better than the French, because they are
not such liars. My successor has been appointed, I have reason to hope,
and must be far on his way by this time; probably Keith, but I cannot
say. Ministers cannot suppose that I want to fly the service; my whole
life has proved the contrary; if they refuse, I shall most certainly
leave in March or April, for a few months' rest I must have, or else
die. My cough is very bad, and my side where I was struck off Cape St.
Vincent is very much swelled, at times a lump as large as my fist is
brought on by violent coughing, but I hope and believe my lungs are
sound. I hope to do good service yet, or else I should not care so much.
But if I am in my grave, how can I serve the Country?

"'You will say, this is not at all like Nelson, to write about nothing
but his own poor self; and thank God, Lingo, I can say that you
are right; for if ever a man lived for the good of England and the
destruction of those'"--here Dolly held a hand up--"'Frenchmen, it is
the man in front of this ink-bottle. The Lord has appointed me to that
duty, and I shall carry out my orders. Mons. La Touche, who was preached
about in France as the man that was to extinguish me, and even in
the scurvy English newspapers, but never dared to show his snivelly
countenance outside of the inner buoys, is dead of his debosheries, for
which I am deeply grieved, as I fully intended to send him to the devil.

"'I have been most unlucky for some time now, and to tell the truth I
may say always. But I am the last man in the world to grumble--as you,
my dear Lingo, can testify. I always do the utmost, with a single mind,
and leave the thought of miserable pelf to others, men perhaps who never
saw a shotted cannon fired. You know who made eighty thousand pounds,
without having to wipe his pigtail--dirty things, I am glad they are
gone out--but my business is to pay other people's debts, and receive
all my credits in the shape of cannon-balls. This is always so, and I
should let it pass as usual, except for a blacker trick than I have ever
known before. For fear of giving me a single chance of earning twopence,
they knew that there was a million and a half of money coming into Cadiz
from South America in four Spanish frigates, and instead of leaving me
to catch them, th