asure. Mr. Nelson, however, was soon persuaded that
the attachment, which Lady Nelson regarded with natural jealousy and
resentment, did not in reality pass the bounds of ardent and romantic
admiration: a passion which the manners and accomplishments of Lady
Hamilton, fascinating as they were, would not have been able to
excite, if they had not been accompanied by more uncommon intellectual
endowments, and by a character which, both in its strength and in
its weakness, resembled his own. It did not, therefore, require much
explanation to reconcile him to his son--an event the more essential to
Nelson's happiness, because, a few months afterwards, the good old man
died at the age of seventy-nine.

Soon after the conclusion of peace, tidings arrived of our final and
decisive successes in Egypt; in consequence of which, the common council
voted their thanks to the army and navy for bringing the campaign to
so glorious a conclusion. When Nelson, after the action of Cape St.
Vincent, had been entertained at a city feast, he had observed to the
lord mayor, "that, if the city continued its generosity, the navy would
ruin them in gifts." To which the lord mayor replied, putting his hand
upon the admiral's shoulder: "Do you find victories and we will find
rewards." Nelson, as he said, had kept his word, had doubly fulfilled
his part of the contract, but no thanks had been voted for the battle of
Copenhagen; and feeling that he and his companions in that day's glory
had a fair and honourable claim to this reward, he took the present
opportunity of addressing a letter to the lord mayor, complaining of the
omission and the injustice. "The smallest services," said he, "rendered
by the army or navy to the country, have always been noticed by the
great city of London with one exception--the glorious 2nd of April--a
day when the greatest dangers of navigation were overcome; and
the Danish force, which they thought impregnable, totally taken or
destroyed, by the consummate skill of our commanders, and by the
undaunted bravery of as gallant a band as ever defended the rights of
this country. For myself, if I were only personally concerned, I should
bear the stigma, attempted to be now first placed upon my brow, with
humility. But, my lord, I am the natural guardian of the fame of all
the officers of the navy, army, and marines who fought, and so profusely
bled, under my command on that day. Again I disclaim for myself more
merit than nat