d when he was introduced by
the king and queen to the British admiral, the queen said to him, "Be to
us by land, general, what my hero Nelson has been by sea." Mack, on
his part, did not fail to praise the force which he was appointed to
command. "It was," he said, "the finest army in Europe." Nelson agreed
with him that there could not be finer men; but when the general, at a
review, so directed the operations of a mock fight, that by an unhappy
blunder his own troops were surrounded, instead of those of the enemy,
he turned to his friends and exclaimed with bitterness, that the
fellow did not understand his business. Another circumstance, not less
characteristic, confirmed Nelson in his judgment. "General Mack:" said
he, in one of his letters, "cannot move without five carriages! I have
formed my opinion. I heartily pray I may be mistaken."

While Mack, at the head of 32,000 men, marched into the Roman state,
5000 Neapolitans were embarked on board the British and Portuguese
squadron, to take possession of Leghorn. This was effected without
opposition; and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, whose neutrality had been
so outrageously violated by the French, was better satisfied with the
measure than some of the Neapolitans themselves. Nasseli, their general,
refused to seize the French vessels at Leghorn, because he and the Duke
di Sangro, who was ambassador at the Tuscan court, maintained that the
king of Naples was not at war with France. "What!" said Nelson, "has not
the king received, as a conquest made by him, the republican flag taken
at Gozo? Is not his own flag flying there, and at Malta, not only by his
permission, but by his order? Is not his flag shot at every day by the
French, and their shot returned from batteries which bear that flag? Are
not two frigates and a corvette placed under my orders ready to fight
the French, meet them where they may? Has not the king sent publicly
from Naples guns, mortars, &c., with officers and artillery, against the
French in Malta? If these acts are not tantamount to any written paper,
I give up all knowledge of what is war." This reasoning was of less
avail than argument addressed to the general's fears. Nelson told him
that, if he permitted the many hundred French who were then in the mole
to remain neutral, till they had a fair opportunity of being active,
they had one sure resource, if all other schemes failed, which was to
set one vessel on fire; the mole would be destroyed, pr