was the seizure of four treasure-ships by the English. The act was
perfectly justifiable, for those treasures were intended to furnish
means for France; but the circumstances which attended it were as
unhappy as they were unforeseen. Four frigates had been despatched to
intercept them. They met with an equal force. Resistance, therefore,
became a point of honour on the part of the Spaniards, and one of their
ships soon blew up with all on board. Had a stronger squadron been sent,
this deplorable catastrophe might have been spared: a catastrophe which
excited not more indignation in Spain than it did grief in those who
were its unwilling instruments, in the English government, and in the
English people. On the 5th of October this unhappy affair occurred, and
Nelson was not apprised of it till the twelfth of the ensuing month.
He had, indeed, sufficient mortification at the breaking out of this
Spanish war; an event which, it might reasonably have been supposed,
would amply enrich the officers of the Mediterranean fleet, and repay
them for the severe and unremitting duty on which they had been so long
employed. But of this harvest they were deprived; for Sir John Orde was
sent with a small squadron, and a separate command, to Cadiz. Nelson's
feelings were never wounded so deeply as now. "I had thought," said he,
writing in the first flow and freshness of indignation; "Fancied--but
nay; it must have been a dream, an idle dream; yet I confess it, I DID
fancy that I had done my country service; and thus they use me! And
under what circumstances, and with what pointed aggravation? Yet, if
I know my own thoughts, it is not for myself, or on my own account
chiefly, that I feel the sting and the disappointment. No! it is for my
brave officers: for my noble minded friends and comrades. Such a gallant
set of fellows! Such a band of brothers! My heart swells at the thought
of them."

War between Spain and England was now declared; and on the eighteenth of
January, the Toulon fleet, having the Spaniards to co-operate with them,
put to sea. Nelson was at anchor off the coast of Sardinia, where the
Madelena islands form one of the finest harbours in the world, when,
at three in the afternoon of the nineteenth, the ACTIVE and SEAHORSE
frigates brought this long-hoped-for intelligence. They had been close
to the enemy at ten on the preceding night, but lost sight of them in
about four hours. The fleet immediately unmoored and weighed, an