NELSON 



433 



watered, anil was meditating going up the Archi- 

 pelago to Constantinople, when he at last learned 

 that, after all, they had gone to Egypt. Thither 

 he immediately followed, and on the evening of 

 1st August found their fleet lying at anchor in 

 Alxnikir Bay. His plans had long before been 

 formed and discussed with the several captains 

 under his orders, everything was ready, and no 

 explanatory signals were needed. His fleet was 

 numerically inferior to that of the French, and 

 became still more ao by the accident of the 

 Culloden getting aground and being unable to take 

 any part in the liattle ; but the wind was blowing 

 along the French line, and, by concentrating his 

 attack on the weather end of it, it was crushed by 

 superior force, while the leeward-most ships were 

 unable to render any assistance ; and thus, creep- 

 ing gradually down the line, he captured or destroyed 

 the whole, with the exception of the two rear- 

 most ships, and two of the frigates, which fled. 



Never, in recent times, had there been a victory 

 ao complete, so overwhelming ; and when Nelson 

 with his shattered fleet returned to Naples he was 

 the object of an enthusiastic adoration which knew 

 no bounds. The queen, in her intense hatred of 

 the murderers of her sister, welcomed their con- 

 queror with all the ardour of a passionate nature, 

 and Lady Hamilton (q.v.), the wife of the English 

 ambassador, fell on his breast in a paroxysm of 

 hysterical rapture. A woman of extreme l>eauty, 

 winning manners, and shady antecedents, first the 

 mistress and then the wife of Sir William Hamil- 

 ton, she enslaved Nelson by her charms, and the 

 two became bound by a liaison which death only 

 severed. At home kelson was raised to the peer- 

 age by the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile ; 

 parliament voted him a pension of 2000 a year, 

 ami the East India Company awarded him a sum 

 of 10,000. Turkey and Russia sent him hand- 

 some and costly presents, and the king of Naples 

 conferred on him the title of Duke of Bronte, in 

 Sii-ily, with an estate valued at 3000 a year, 

 though during Nelson's life its revenues seem to 

 have been in abeyance. 



The government of Naples had already concluded 

 an alliance with Austria and declared war against 

 France ; but the French army swept away the 

 Neapolitan troops almost without resistance, and 

 the Neapolitan Jacobins received their French 

 brethren with open arms. For the king and his 

 court safety was only in flight, and Nelson con- 

 ducted them to Palermo. Afterwards, returning 

 as the king's representative, he sternly annulled 

 the convention which Cardinal Kuffo, contrary to 

 the king's express orders, had made with the rebels ; 

 he forceil the traitors to surrender at discretion, 

 and he promptly hanged Caracciolo (q.v.), one of 

 their leaders, who had added perjury to treason, 

 and having accented a command as commodore in 

 the king's navy had betrayed his trust, and waged 

 war against the authority he was pledged to main- 

 tain. 



The affairs of Naples were not yet regulated, the 

 outposts held by the French and their sympathisers 

 were not yet all reduced, when, on July 19, 1799, 

 Nelson received an order from Lord Keith, the 

 rommander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, to bring 

 or send the greater part of his force to Minorca, 

 which he conceived to be threatened by a joint 

 attack of France and Spain. Nelson refused to 

 olx-y the order ; and when it was repeated in still 

 more positive terms, he contented himself with 

 (tending Sir John Duckworth, his second in com- 

 mand, while he himself remained at Naples or 

 Palermo, anil controlled the blockade of Malta 

 which was carried on unremittingly during the 

 whole time. The Admiralty censured him for his 

 disobedience ; and indeed it can scarcely be main- 

 340 



tained that the affairs of Naples were of such 

 paramount importance as to justify this extra- 

 ordinary breach of discipline, the motives of which 

 have been much discussed. Perhaps the true 

 explanation of his conduct is that a severe wound 

 in the head, which he had received at the Nile, 

 had seriously affected his general health, and 

 caused a depression of spirits which it needed some 

 violent stimulus to overcome. Happy at last in 

 the capture of the two ships which had escaped 

 from Aooukir Bay, he obtained leave to resign his 

 command, which the state of his health rendered 

 irksome, and made his way home overland, by way 

 of Vienna and Dresden, in company with Lady 

 Hamilton and her husband, for whom he professed 

 and appears to have truly entertained a real 

 affection and esteem. He arrived in England in 

 November 1800. The four months spent on the 

 journey had done much to re-establish his health, 

 and he immediately volunteered for active service. 

 His meeting with his wife could not possibly be a 

 happy one ; and after an angry interview they 

 parted never to see each other again. 



On 1st January 1801 Nelson was promoted to be 

 vice-admiral, anil a few days later was appointed 

 second in command of the expedition ordered to 

 the Baltic, under Sir Hyde Parker. He hoisted 

 his flag in the St Oeorge, but that ship l>eing too 

 large for the approaches to Copenhagen, he moved 

 into the Elephant when the attack was determined 

 on. The whole conduct of this attack was en- 

 trusted to Nelson, with the smaller ships of the 

 fleet, Parker, with the others, remaining at anchor 

 some miles distant. After a furious combat of 

 from three to four hours' duration, the enemy's 

 ships were subdued. The shore batteries still con- 

 tinued to fire, till Nelson sent a flag of truce on 

 shore to point out that the worst sufferers from the 

 continued engagement were the crews of the leaten 

 ships, which received a great part of the fire of both 

 parties. A suspension of hostilities was agreed on 

 to permit of the prisoners being removed ; and this 

 lea to an armistice, which the news of the czar's 

 death shortly afterwards converted into a peace. 

 Nelson, who was raised a step in the peerage and 

 became a viscount, succeeded Parker as commander- 

 in-chief ; but, his health having given way, he was 

 permitted to return to England. He arrived in 

 the beginning of July, and was at once ordered to 

 undertake the defence of the coast, in view of the 

 preparations for invasion which were being made 

 in France ; and though he failed in an attempt to 

 destroy the flotilla collected in Boulogne, his watch 

 was so vigilant that the boats never ventured from 

 under the protection of their chains and batteries. 



On the renewal of the war Nelson was at once 

 sent out to the Mediterranean, where, with his flag 

 in the Victory, he cruised for more than eighteen 

 months in front of Toulon, drawing back occasion- 

 ally to Madalena for water and refreshment. 

 During one of these absences, in March 1805, the 

 French fleet put to sea under the command of 

 Vice-admiral Villenenve, and pot clear away to 

 Gibraltar, to Cadiz, and to Martinique, where they 

 expected to be joined by the fleet from Brest. 

 Nelson, however, though delayed for six weeks by 

 his ignorance of where Villeneuve had gone, was 

 only twenty days behind him ; and Villeneuve, 

 deceived as to the English numbers, and unwilling 

 to risk an engagement which might frustrate his 

 ulterior object, hastily returned to Europe. Nelson 

 again followed, again outsailed his enemy, and 

 arrived off Cadiz some days before the French 

 approached the shores of Europe. Then, conceiv- 

 ing that Villeneuve's aim might be to overpower 

 the fleet off Brest, he went north and reinforced 

 it with most of his ships, returning himself to 

 England. It was but for a few weeks. Within a 



