Thus, while Captain Nelson was only considered, at home, as making one among the many brave officers employed in this service, his distinguished merits were so attractive in the eyes of foreigners, on the spot, that they ascribed nearly the whole success to his transcendent abilities.

Nothing can be more certain, than that his services were supereminently beneficial; and, that the period was not yet arrived for their being duly acknowledged.

Though not a word appears, in the official returns of the wounded at the siege of Calvi, to intimate the fact; though not a single syllable of regret is expressed, in the dispatches of either commander in chief; it was at this very siege, that the hero had the misfortune to be entirely deprived of the sight of his right eye.  The calamitous accident was occasioned by a shot from one of the enemy’s batteries striking the ground near the battery which he commanded; and driving, with prodigious violence, some minute particles of sand, or small gravel, into that tender organ.

Even this shocking event, with all it’s attendant anguish, was incapable of forcing him from his post.  With a ribbon tied over his inflamed eye, he persisted in directing the batteries, till the last fortress of Corsica had submitted to his sovereign’s arms.

Surely, if the total loss of sight in one eye, which himself is said never to have considered as a wound, did not entitle his name to be placed in the list of wounded officers, which seems somewhat doubtful, the gallantry of remaining at his post would never have escaped Lord Hood, as it seems to have done the Honourable Lieutenant General Stuart, had he been present on the occasion.

On the 8th of August, two days before the capitulation was signed, Lord Hood, who had received the thanks of both houses of parliament, for his very gallant conduct in the expedition against Corsica, voted on Friday, the 20th of June 1794; when, also, the like thanks were voted to all the officers, sailors, and soldiers, engaged in that expedition; sent a letter to Captain Nelson, dated on board the Victory, off Calvi, in which he inclosed the above resolutions:  observing that, having received his majesty’s commands, to communicate to the respective officers, seamen, marines, and soldiers, who had been employed in the different operations which had been successfully carried on against the enemy in Corsica, a resolution of the two houses of parliament; he desires that he will make known, to all in the Agamemnon, and such other officers and seamen as are with him, and were employed at Bastia, the sense that is entertained of their spirited and meritorious conduct.

This, too, which is merely an official letter, has been magnified, by those who clearly know nothing about the matter, into an additional honour conferred on Captain Nelson, and said to have been highly flattering to his feelings.

How his feelings were in reality affected at this period, the reader will presently have an opportunity of knowing from much better authority.