f the glad
tidings from the Nile. At Naples the news aroused a delirium of joy, and
filled Queen Maria Carolina with a resolve to drive the French force
from the Roman States.

To Pitt also the news of Nelson's triumph brought intense relief. The
disappearance of Bonaparte's armada after the capture of Malta had
caused much concern. True, Naples, which was thought to be his
objective, was safe; but Ireland and Portugal were deemed in jeopardy.
No one at Whitehall anticipated the seizure of Malta and Egypt, still
less the emergence of plans for a French conquest of India. A tone of
anxiety pervades Pitt's letter of 22nd August to his mother: "The
account of Bonaparte's arrival at Alexandria is, I am afraid, true; but
it gives us no particulars, and leaves us in entire suspense as to
Nelson."[505] All the greater, then, was the relief on 2nd October, when
tidings of Aboukir at last arrived.

Further, there were signs of a Russo-French war. The romantic nature of
the Czar was fired by the hope of acquiring Malta. At Ancona, early in
1797, Bonaparte had intercepted a Russian envoy bearing offers of
alliance to the Knights of the Order of St. John; and their expulsion by
the French at Midsummer 1798 seemed to Paul a personal affront. Some of
the Knights proceeded to St. Petersburg and claimed his protection. The
affairs of the Order became his most cherished concern; and on 24th July
Sir Charles Whitworth, British ambassador at that Court, reported that
Russia would now become a principal in the war against France, her aim
being the re-establishment of peace on safe and honourable terms, but
not the restoration of the French monarchy, on which Catharine had
insisted. With this declaration the British and Austrian Cabinets were
in full accord; and thus at last there was a hope of framing a compact
Coalition. Fortunate was it that Bonaparte's seizure of Malta incensed
Paul against France; for, early in August, the Swiss thinker, Laharpe,
tutor of the future Czar Alexander I, brought tempting offers from
Paris, with a view to the partition of the Turkish Empire.[506] That
glittering prize was finally to captivate the fancy of Paul; but for the
present he spurned the offer as degrading.

Nevertheless, the news of Aboukir did not wholly please him. For, while
rejoicing at the discomfiture of the French atheists, he saw in Nelson's
victory a sign of England's appropriation of Malta. In truth, that
island now became the central