It is hardly possible to doubt that Nelson felt keenly mortified at losing the opportunity of personally taking the Guillaume Tell; but whether he did or not, he managed to subdue all appearance of envy and paid a high, sportsmanlike tribute to those who had earned the honour He could not help flavouring it, however, with some words of Nelsonian self-approbation.  He said, “He gloried in them, for they were his children, they served in his school, and all of them, including himself, caught their professional zeal and fire from the great and good Earl St. Vincent.”  Then he goes on to say that it is a great happiness to have the Nile fleet all taken under his orders and regulations.  He slyly claimed the glory of training and inspiring, though he had deprived himself of added fame by nourishing a morose feeling of jealousy against Lord Keith, who had been sent out after a few months’ leave to take up his position as commander-in-chief.  Owing to his absence, Nelson had acted in that capacity, and he could not bear the thought of being superseded by his old chief.  In fact, Nelson could not tolerate being placed in a secondary position by any one.  As I have already stated, he put Keith’s authority at defiance and took responsibilities upon himself, boasting that had they failed he would have been “shot or broke.”

After the capture of the Genereux he struck, and wrote to Keith that his health would not permit of his remaining at his post, that without “rest he was done for,” and that he could “no more stay fourteen days longer on the station than fourteen years.”  At the same time, Captain Ball wrote to Lady Hamilton that “he had dined with him, and that he was in good health,” that he did not think a short stay would do his health harm, and that “he would not urge it, were it not that he and Troubridge wished him to have the honour of the French ships and the French garrison surrender to him.”  Nelson’s vision and good judgment at this time must have been totally at fault, and his general attitude emphasizes the splendid forbearance of his amiable commander-in-chief and distinguished subordinates who were the very cream of the Navy.  I wonder what would have happened to any of the other brilliant commanders in the Royal Navy if any of them had, like Nelson, refused to obey the orders of the commander-in-chief and left his post off Malta, which was being closely besieged and the garrison daily expected to capitulate!  Supposing Nelson had been the commander-in-chief and his second in command had acted as he did towards Lord Keith, there would have been wigs on the green!  The insubordinate officer would have been promptly court-martialled and hung at the yardarm like the Neapolitan Admiral, Francesco Caracciolo, or treated like the Hon. Admiral John Byng, who was tried for neglect of duty in an engagement off Minorca in 1756, and condemned for committing an error of judgment and shot aboard the Monarch at Spithead in