under Buonaparte 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 necessary," 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 honour of Earl St. Vincent that
he had already made the same choice. This appointment to a service in

which so much honour might be acquired, gave great offence to the senior
admirals of the fleet. Sir William Parker, who was a very excellent

naval 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

honour, 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 service 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 consul 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 formidablearmament. 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-gallant masts and yards
aloft. 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 mizen-

topmast soon afterward. 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 fore-mast went in 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 spritsail. This was hardly to have been expected. The VANGUARD was
at that time twenty-five leagues south of the island of Hieres; 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 harbour 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 commanders, replied,
he was confident he could save the VANGUARD, and, by God's help, he

would do it. There had been a previouscoolness 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 consummatevanity. 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 harbour; 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 the greatness of his character, especially recommended to
Earl St. Vincent the carpenter of the ALEXANDER, under whose directions

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, 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 harbour 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 of wind, sustained some trifling
damages, I anchored a small part of his Majesty's fleet under my orders

off this island, and was surprised to hear, by an officer sent by the
governor, that admittance was to be refused to the flag of his Britannic

Majesty into this port. When I reflect, that my most gracious sovereign
is the oldest, I believe, and certainly the most faithful ally which the

King of Sardinia ever had, I could feel the sorrow which it must have
been to his majesty to have given such an order; and also for your

excellency, who had to direct its execution. I cannot but look at the
African shore, where the followers of Mahomet are performing the part of

the good Samaritan, which I look for in vain at St. Peter's, where it is
said the Christian religion is professed."

The delay which was thus occasioned was useful to him in many
respects; it enabled him to complete his supply of water, and to receive

a reinforcement which Earl St. Vincent, being himself reinforced from
England, was enabled to send him. It consisted of the best ships of his

fleet; the CULLODEN, seventy-four, Captain T.Troubridge; GOLIATH,
seventy-four, Captain T.Foley; MINOTAUR, seventy-four, Captain T. Louis;

DEFENCE, seventy-four, Captain John Peyton; BELLEROPHON, seventy-four,
Captain H.D.E.Darby; MAJESTIC, seventy-four, Captain G. B. Westcott;

ZEALOUS, seventy-four, Captain S. Hood; SWIFTSURE, seventy-four, Captain
B. Hallowell; THESEUS, seventy-four, Captain R. W. Miller; AUDACIOUS,

seventy-four, Captain Davidge Gould. The LEANDER, fifty, Captain T. E.
Thompson, was afterwards added. These ships were made ready for the

service as soon as Earl St. Vincent received advice from England that
he was to be reinforced. As soon as the reinforcement was seen from the

mast-head of the admiral's ship, off Cadiz Bay, signal was immediately
made to Captain Troubridge to put to sea; and he was out of sight before

the ships from home cast anchor in the British station. Troubridge took
with him no instructions to Nelson as to the course he was to steer,

nor any certain account of the enemy's destination; everything was left
to his own judgment. Unfortunately, the frigates had been separated from