Not one French cockade is suffered.  In a word, there only wants Frenchmen, in order to celebrate again Sicilian vespers.  The day before yesterday”—­(this letter is dated the 20th of September)—­“two English vessels arrived; and Nelson himself is expected to-morrow, in a third.  To give you some idea of the favour in which the enemies of our country are held here, you must know that, with my own eyes, I saw the King of Naples go more than two leagues to sea, to meet the English, to applaud and congratulate them.  The two vessels which are arrived have brought two French officers with them, one of them is Vice-Admiral Blanquet.”  Lachavardiere also gives an account of the battle; which, however, contains nothing of peculiar importance.  One circumstance, indeed, is sufficiently singular—­“Admiral Brueys,” he says, “was wounded in the head and the hand:  but continued to command, till a cannon-ball cut him in two; and,” adds this Frenchman, “he lived a quarter of an hour afterwards!”

The integrity of our heroic Nelson seems to have revolted at the characteristic falsehood and deceit so generally experienced in the French.  He could not be prevailed on, by his friends at Naples, to visit Admiral Blanquet, who had his nose shot off, and was otherwise dreadfully wounded in the face.  On this occasion, he seems to have adopted all the rough bluntness of a British tar.  He had beaten him, he said, and would not insult him.  “Seeing me,” added the hero, “will only put him in mind of his misfortune.  I have an antipathy to Frenchmen; which is so powerful, that I must, I think, have received it from my mother, at my birth.”

He was, himself, at this period, though in excellent spirits, so corporeally weak and reduced, that he was obliged to be kept chiefly on ass’s milk for some time after his arrival.  Indeed, though excess of joy, at the first meeting of such friends as Admiral Nelson, and Sir William and Lady Hamilton, absorbed every other consideration, a most essential personal difference was manifest in the hero from that which had appeared on his former visit to Naples.  It is to be recollected, that neither Sir William nor his lady had ever beheld him, prior to this period, except for a very few days, while the Neapolitan subsidiary troops were embarking for Toulon, when he was without any wound or disfigurement whatever, though always of a plain but pleasingly expressive countenance:  he was now returned, in the short space of about four years, having atchieved victories which might have graced an age of absence; but, at what a price were they purchased!  The vision of an eye had been completely extinguished, at Calvi; an arm totally lost, at Teneriffe; and a hideous wound, leaving it’s indelible scar on his manly forehead, had recently been inflicted on their heroic friend, at the battle of the Nile.  To say nothing of various slighter casualties; of the effect of climate; and of those incessant excessive cares, anxieties, and disappointments,