While Captain Nelson was at St. Omer’s, he received a most polite letter from the principal personage among those whom he had detained off Porto Cavallo, when he went to look into the harbour of the Havannah.  This gentleman’s rank he did not at all know till he got to France.  His assumed name was that of the Count de Deux Ponts:  but he was, in fact, a Prince of the German Empire, a General of the French Army, Knight of the Grand Order of St. Louis, and second in command at the capture of York Town.  His brother was heir-apparent of the Electorate of Bavaria, and of the Palatinate.  So that Captain Nelson had the honour of taking prisoner a man who was not unlikely to become a sovereign prince of Europe, and capable of carrying into the field an army of a hundred thousand men.  This letter, which had been dispatched the first moment it was known by the grateful writer that Captain Nelson had arrived in France, was truly expressive of the attention that had been paid him when on board the English ship, and contained a very kind and pressing invitation to Paris; of which it was the captain’s full intention to have availed himself, had he remained as long in the country as was originally intended.

Though he visited only a few English families, lest he should never speak French, he made but slow progress in learning the language; and, early in the year 1784, was recalled from it’s pursuit by the prospect of an appointment.

About the 20th of March, accordingly, he was commissioned for the Boreas frigate of twenty-eight guns, then at Long Reach, under the command of Captain Wells:  and, unfortunately, was attacked the very same day, by the ague and fever; which continued, every other day, for above a fortnight, and pulled him down most astonishingly.  This, however, was not his sole misfortune.  On his recovery, he sailed at daylight, just after high water; but the pilot run the ship aground, where it lay with so little water that the people could walk round, till next flood.  That night, and part of the following day, the ship lay behind the Nore, with a hard gale of wind and snow.  “On Tuesday,” says he, in a true sailor’s letter to Captain Locker, dated at Portsmouth, April 21, 1784, “I got into the Downs:  Wednesday, I got into a quarrel with a Dutch Indiaman, who had Englishmen on board; which we settled, though with some difficulty.  The Dutchman made a complaint against me; but the Admiralty, fortunately, have approved my conduct in the business; a thing they are not very guilty of, where there is a likelihood of a scrape.  And yesterday, to complete me, I was riding a blackguard horse, that ran away with me at Common; carried me round all the works, into Portsmouth, by the London gates; through the town; out at the gate that leads to Common, where there was a waggon in the road, which is so very narrow that a horse could barely pass.  To save my legs, and perhaps my life, I was obliged to throw myself from the horse; which I did, with great agility:  but, unluckily, upon hard stones; which has hurt my back, and my legs, but done no other mischief.  It was a thousand to one, that I had not been killed.  To crown all, a young girl was with me:  her horse ran away, as well as mine; but, most fortunately, a gallant young man seized the horse’s bridle a moment before I dismounted, and saved her from the destruction she could not have avoided.”