to carry out an act of common humanity.  All very well for him to groan over what he had to endure, and to complain that the burden of it had broken his spirit!  Troubridge diagnosed the malady when he implored Nelson to relinquish the infatuation which was leading him into trouble.  Why, instead of spending his time with Lady Hamilton and fawning over the King and Queen, did he leave the right thing to be done by Captain Ball (who took the bull by the horns)?  All very well for him to pour out his wrath to the Duke of Clarence, that his “constant thought was down, down with the damned French villains”! and that his “blood boiled at the name of a Frenchman”!  But except that we were at war with the French, were they in any degree such “damned villains” as the Neapolitans and the whole crew of Court knaves, with whom he was so blindly enamoured, who were, in reality, ready to sell their own country and his to the French whenever they saw it was to their material advantage to do so?

Captain Ball did not waste time in the use of adjectives about the French and the daily “anxieties” that bore so heavily on himself and others, “breaking his heart.”  He gave peremptory orders to his first lieutenant to proceed off Messina and seize the ships that were lying there loaded with corn, and bring them to Malta.  He defied the abominable Court of Sicily and their edicts prohibiting exportation, and his instructions were carried out.  He awaited the consequences to himself with a manly consciousness that humanity must take precedence of orders dictated by a sentimental fear lest the feelings of a set of cowardly despots should be hurt.  This single act of real courage and decision saved the lives of thousands of starving people, and prevented the siege from being removed.  The Court of Naples dared not utter a word of condemnation against Captain Ball, but the Governor of Malta became the object of their nervous enmity, which they dare not put into practice.

Lord Minto, many years after the events of which I am writing, said of Nelson, for whom he had an affectionate regard, that “he was in many points a really great man, but in others he was a baby.”  No one who has studied his career will ever doubt his greatness, but his peevish childishness, even when he was responsible for the carrying out of great deeds that did not come so quickly as his eager spirit craved, ofttimes tried the patience of those who set high value on his matchless talents and his otherwise lovable disposition.  He was never known to take credit to himself that was due to others, but, like most great men, he took for granted that all those above or below him in rank and station should be subordinate to his whims and actions.  He could only accommodate himself to being subordinate to his King, the King and Queen of Naples, and to the exhilarating influence of Lady Hamilton.  Almost immediately after the seizure of the grain-laden ships, Nelson sailed for Malta, and had the good fortune to sight a French squadron, the Genereux, three frigates, and a corvette; after an exciting and hard chase, he came up to them, knocked their masts over the side, and captured the Genereux and a frigate.