d at
six in the evening ran through the strait between Biche and Sardinia:
a passage so narrow that the ships could only pass one at a time, each
following the stern-lights of its leader. From the position of the
enemy, when they were last seen, it was inferred that they must be bound
round the southern end of Sardinia. Signal was made the next morning to
prepare for battle. Bad weather came on, baffling the one fleet in its
object, and the other in its pursuit. Nelson beat about the Sicilian
seas for ten days, without obtaining any other information of the enemy
than that one of their ships had put into Ajaccio, dismasted; and having
seen that Sardinia, Naples, and Sicily were safe, believing Egypt to
be their destination, for Egypt he ran. The disappointment and distress
which he had experienced in his former pursuits of the French through
the same seas were now renewed; but Nelson, while he endured these
anxious and unhappy feelings, was still consoled by the same confidence
as on the former occasion--that, though his judgment might be erroneous,
under all circumstances he was right in having formed it. "I have
consulted no man," said he to the Admiralty; "therefore the whole blame
of ignorance in forming my judgment must rest with me. I would allow no
man to take from me an atom of my glory had I fallen in with the French
fleet; nor do I desire any man to partake any of the responsibility.
All is mine, right or wrong." Then stating the grounds upon which he had
proceeded, he added, "At this moment of sorrow, I still feel that I have
acted right." In the same spirit he said to Sir Alexander Ball: "When
I call to remembrance all the circumstances, I approve, if nobody else
does, of my own conduct."

Baffled thus, he bore up for Malta, and met intelligence from Naples
that the French, having been dispersed in a gale, had put back to
Toulon. From the same quarter he learned that a great number of saddles
and muskets had been embarked; and this confirmed him in his opinion
that Egypt was their destination. That they should have put him back in
consequence of storms which he had weathered, gave him a consoling sense
of British superiority. "These gentlemen," said he, "are not accustomed
to a Gulf of Lyons gale: we have buffeted them for one-and-twenty
months, and not carried away a spar." He, however, who had so often
braved these gales, was now, though not mastered by them, vexatiously
thwarted and impeded; and on Februa