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The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson-Part16_Robert Southey(1774-1843)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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him in the tempest and had not been able to rejoin: they sought him

unsuccessfully in the Bay of Naples, where they obtained no tidings of



his course: and he sailed without them.

The first news of the enemy's armament was that it had surprised



Malta, Nelson formed a plan for attacking it while at anchor at Gozo;

but on the 22nd of June intelligence reached him that the French had



left that island on the 16th, the day after their arrival. It was clear

that their destination was eastward--he thought for Egypt--and for



Egypt, therefore, he made all sail. Had the frigates been with him, he

could scarcely have failed to gain information of the enemy; for want of



them, he only spoke three vessels on the way: two came from Alexandria,

one from the Archipelago, and neither of them had seen anything of the



French. He arrived off Alexandria on the 28th, and the enemy were not

there, neither was there any account of them; but the governor was



endeavouring to put the city in a state of defence, having received

advice from Leghorn that the French expedition was intended against



Egypt, after it had taken Malta. Nelson then shaped his course to the

northward for Caramania, and steered from thence along the southern side



of Candia, carrying a press of sail both night and day, with a contrary

wind. It would have been his delight, he said, to have tried Bonaparte



on a wind. It would have been the delight of Europe, too, and the

blessing of the world, if that fleet had been overtaken with its general



on board. But of the myriads and millions of human beings who would have

been preserved by that day's victory, there is not one to whom such



essential benefit would have resulted as to Bonaparte himself. It would

have spared him his defeat at Acre--his only disgrace; for to have been



defeated by Nelson upon the seas would not have been disgraceful; it

would have spared him all his after enormities. Hitherto his career had



been glorious; the baneful principles of his heart had never yet passed

his lips; history would have represented him as a soldier of fortune,



who had faithfully served the cause in which he engaged; and whose

career had been distinguished by a series of successes unexampled in



modern times. A romanticobscurity would have hung over the expedition

to Egypt, and he would have escaped the perpetration of those crimes



which have incarnadined his soul with a deeper dye than that of the

purple for which he committed them--those acts of perfidy, midnight



murder, usurpation, and remorseless tyranny, which have consigned his

name to universal execration, now and for ever.



Conceiving that when an officer is not successful in his plans it is

absolutely necessary that he should explain the motives upon which they



were founded, Nelson wrote at this time an account and vindication of

his conduct for having carried the fleet to Egypt. The objection which



he anticipated was that he ought not to have made so long a voyage

without more certain information. "My answer," said he, "is ready. Who



was I to get it from? The governments of Naples and Sicily either knew

not, or chose to keep me in ignorance. Was I to wait patiently until I



heard certain accounts? If Egypt were their object, before I could hear

of them they would have been in India. To do nothing was disgraceful;



therefore I made use of my understanding. I am before your lordships'

judgment; and if, under all circumstances, it is decided that I am



wrong, I ought, for the sake of our country, to be superseded; for at

this moment, when I know the French are not in Alexandria, I hold the



same opinion as off Cape Passaro--that, under all circumstances, I was

right in steering for Alexandria; and by that opinion I must stand or



fall." Captain Ball, to whom he showed this paper, told him he should

recommend a friend never to begin a defence of his conduct before he was



accused of error: he might give the fullest reasons for what he had

done, expressed in such terms as would evince that he had acted from the



strongest conviction of being right; and of course he must expect that

the public would view it in the same light. Captain Ball judged rightly



of the public, whose first impulses, though, from want of sufficient

information, they must frequently be erroneous, are generally founded



upon just feelings. But the public are easily misled, and there are

always persons ready to mislead them. Nelson had not yet attained that



fame which compels envy to be silent; and when it was known in England

that he had returned after an unsuccessfulpursuit, it was said that he



deserved impeachment; and Earl St. Vincent was severely censured for




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