The French, in evacuating Naples, in their retreat to Caserta and Capua, robbed all the shops as they passed along:  the Neapolitan republic, however, continued organizing their troops, as yet disinclined to give in; and the royalists remained inactive, probably waiting for the departure of the French out of the kingdom before they ventured to commence their operations.  The band of brothers, in the mean time, who had so nobly fought off the Nile, were fast gathering fresh laurels on the Neapolitan coast; and inspiring, by their example, other naval heroes of merited celebrity.  To these brave men, Lord Nelson paid the just and honoured tribute of applause which their conduct merited, in the following very flattering epistle to Captain Troubridge.

     Vanguard, Palermo,
     8th May 1799.

     “MY DEAR TROUBRIDGE,

I desire you will express, to Captain Hood, the true sense I have of his conduct, not only at Salerno, but on all other occasions; and, that I never expect any but the most useful services, where he commands:  and I beg you will say the same for me, to Captains Louis, Hallowell, Foote, and Oswald; not forgetting Captain Harward, and Commodore Mitchell, as far as they have been concerned.  As to yourself, your conduct is so all of a piece, that I can only say, what is true, that the last services seem to eclipse the former ones.  You have an arduous task in your present command; and no officer in his majesty’s service could, I am convinced, perform it with more judgment and advantage for his majesty’s service, than yourself:  and I beg that you will ever believe me, your faithful, affectionate, and obliged friend,

     “Nelson.”

This day, the Neapolitan ship Lion, Captain Dixon, arrived from Egypt; and brought information that three or four French frigates, and as many corvettes, had escaped from Alexandria.  Sir Sidney Smith left that place on the 7th of March, and these ships got away between the 5th and 18th of April.  Captain Dixon finding these ships gone, came away; without hearing more of Sir Sidney, than that he had arrived at St. Jean D’Acre.

At this momentous period, when the king’s restoration to his Neapolitan dominions was daily to be expected; when the fall of Malta was judged scarcely possible to be long delayed; and Lord Nelson was anxiously looking forward to a temporary cessation of his toils, and a speedy return to his native country; intelligence suddenly arrived, that the French fleet from Brest, having escaped Lord Keith’s vigilance, had been seen off Oporto, and was expected to effect a junction with that of Spain at Cadiz.  On the 12th of May, at six o’clock in the evening, this information was brought to Palermo, by L’Espoir brig; which, at midnight, such was his lordship’s dispatch, sailed for Procida, Minorca, and Gibraltar, with letters for Captain Troubridge, Captain Ball, Admiral Duckworth, and the Earl of St. Vincent.  To Captain Troubridge