CHAPTER V

Nelson rejoins Earl St. Vincent in the Vanguard-Sails in pursuit of the French to Egypt-Returns to Sicily, and sails again to Egypt-Battle of the Nile.

EARLY in the year 1798, Sir Horatio Nelson hoisted his flag in the Vanguard, and was ordered to rejoin Earl St. Vincent. Upon his departure, his father addressed him with that affectionate solemnity by which all his letters were distinguished. "I trust in the Lord," said he, "that He will prosper your going out and your coming in. I earnestly desired once more to see you, and that wish has been heard. If I should presume to say I hope to see you again, the question would readily be asked, How old art thou? Vale! vale! Dominie, vale!'" It is said that a gloomy foreboding hung on the spirits of Lady Nelson at their parting. This could have arisen only from the dread of losing him by the chance of war. Any apprehension of losing his affections could hardly have existed; for all his correspondence to this time shows that he thought himself happy in his marriage; and his private character had hitherto been as spotless as his public conduct. One of the last things he said to her was, that his own ambition was satisfied, but that he went to raise her to that rank in which he had long wished to see her.

Immediately on his rejoining the fleet, he was despatched to the Mediterranean, with a small squadron, in order to ascertain, if possible, the object of the great expedition which at that time was fitting out, under 1. Vale, etc. Farewell, Master, farewell.

Bonaparte, at Toulon. The defeat of this armament, whatever might be its destination, was deemed by the British government an object paramount to every other; and Earl St. Vincent was directed, if he thought it necessary, to take his whole force into the Mediterranean, to relinquish, for that purpose, the blockade of the Spanish fleet, as a thing of inferior moment: but, if he should deem a detachment sufficient, "I think it almost unnecessary," said the First Lord of the Admiralty, in his secret instructions, "to suggest to you the propriety of putting it under Sir Horatio Nelson." It is to the honor of Earl St. Vincent, that he had already made the same choice. This appointment to a service in which so much honor might be acquired gave great offence to the senior admirals of the fleet. Sir William Parker, who was a very excellent officer, and as gallant a man as any in the navy, and Sir John Orde, who on all occasions of service had acquitted himself with great honor, each wrote to Lord Spencer, complaining that so marked a preference should have been given to a junior of the same fleet. This resentment is what most men in a like case would feel, and if the preference thus given to Nelson had not originated in a clear perception that (as his friend Collingwood said of him a little while before) his spirit was equal to all undertakings, and his resources fitted to all occasions, an injustice would have been done to them by his appointment. But if the services were conducted with undeviating respect to seniority, the naval and military character would soon be brought down to the dead level of mediocrity.

The armament at Toulon consisted of thirteen ships of the line, seven forty-gun frigates, with twenty-four smaller vessels of war, and nearly 200 transports. Mr. Udney, our counsel at Leghorn, was the first person who procured certain intelligence of the enemy's design

against Malta; and, from his own sagacity, foresaw that Egypt must be their after object. Nelson sailed from Gibraltar on the 9th of May, with the Vanguard, Orion, and Alexander, seventy-fours; the Caroline, Flora, Emerald, and Terpsichore, frigates; and the Bonne Citoyenne sloop of war, to watch this formidable armament. On the 19th, when they were in the Gulf of Lyons, a gale came on from the N. W. It moderated so much on the 20th, as to enable them to get their top-gallantmasts and yards aloft.1 After dark, it again began to blow strong but the ships had been prepared for a gale, and therefore Nelson's mind was easy. Shortly after midnight, however, his main topmast went over the side, and the mizzen-topmast soon afterwards. The night was so tempestuous, that it was impossible for any signal either to be seen or heard; and Nelson determined, as soon as it should be daybreak, to wear, and scud before the gale: but at half-past three the foremast went into three pieces, and the bowsprit was found to be sprung in three places.

When day broke, they succeeded in wearing the ship with a remnant of the sprit-sail :2 this was hardly to have been expected: the Vanguard was at that time twentyfive leagues south of the islands of Hiéres, with her head lying to the N. E., and if she had not wore, the ship must have drifted to Corsica. Captain Ball, in the Alexander, took her in tow, to carry her into the Sardinian harbor of St. Pietro. Nelson, apprehensive that this attempt might endanger both vessels, ordered him to cast off: but that excellent officer, with a spirit like his commander's, replied, he was confident he could save the Vanguard, and 1. Masts and yards aloft. As was customary in violent storms, the top-gailant and other upper masts had been unrigged, lowered, and lashed to the masts below.

2. Wearing

with the sprit-sail. Turning the ship with the wind by means of a small sail spread under the bowsprit.

by God's help he would do it. There had been a previous coolness between these great men; but from this time Nelson became fully sensible of the extraordinary talents of Captain Ball, and a sincere friendship subsisted between them during the remainder of their lives. "I ought not," said the Admiral, writing to his wife, "I ought not to call what has happened to the Vanguard by the cold name of accident: I believe firmly it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummate vanity. I hope it has made me a better officer, as I feel confident it has made me a better man. Figure to yourself, on Sunday evening, at sunset, a vain man walking in his cabin, with a squadron around him, who looked up to their chief to lead them to glory, and in whom their chief placed the firmest reliance that the proudest ships of equal numbers belonging to France would have lowered their flags;-figure to yourself, on Monday morning, when the sun rose, this proud man, his ship dismasted, his fleet dispersed, and himself in such distress, that the meanest frigate out of France would have been an unwelcome guest." Nelson had, indeed, more reason to refuse the cold name of accident to this tempest than he was then aware of; for on that very day the French fleet sailed from Toulon, and must have passed within a few leagues of his little squadron, which was thus preserved by the thick weather that came on.

The British government at this time, with a becoming spirit, gave orders, that any port in the Mediterranean should be considered as hostile, where the governor or chief magistrate should refuse to let our ships of war procure supplies of provisions, or of any article which they might require.

In these orders the ports of Sardinia were excepted. The continental possessions of the King of Sardinia were at this time completely at the mercy of the French, and

that prince was now discovering, when too late, that the terms to which he had consented, for the purpose of escaping immediate danger, necessarily involved the loss of the dominions which they were intended to preserve. The citadel of Turin was now occupied by French troops; and his wretched court feared to afford the common rights of humanity to British ships, lest it should give the French occasion to seize on the remainder of his dominions:-a measure for which, it was certain, they would soon make a pretext, if they did not find one. Nelson was informed, that he could not be permitted to enter the port of St. Pietro. Regardless of this interdict, which, under his circumstances, it would have been an act of suicidal folly to have regarded, he anchored in the harbor; and, by the exertions of Sir James Saumarez, Captain Ball, and Captain Berry, the Vanguard was refitted in four days; months would have been employed in refitting her in England. Nelson, with that proper sense of merit wherever it was found, which proved at once the goodness and greatness of his character, especially recommended to Earl St. Vincent the carpenter of the Alexander, under whose direction the ship had been repaired; stating, that he was an old and faithful servant of the crown, who had been nearly thirty years a warrant carpenter;1 and begging most earnestly that the Commander-in-Chief would recommend him to the particular notice of the Board of Admiralty. He did not leave the harbor without expressing his sense of the treatment which he had received there, in a letter to the Viceroy of Sardinia. "Sir," it said, "having, by a gale

1. Warrant carpenter. In the British Navy all officers of lieutenant's rank or higher hold commissions from the Crown and are called "commissioned officers"; subordinate officers, such as boatswains, gunners, carpenters, etc., are usually promoted from seamen, are ineligible for commissioned rank, and hold their positions on warrants issued by the Admiralty.