the exchange, and the latter thought the matter settled; but to his surprise he found the captain did not wish to leave the station unless the ship went also.  This did away with the vacancy he looked to fill; and, as the “Agamemnon,” from her condition, must be the first of the fleet to go home, it seemed for the moment likely that he would have to go in her with a convoy then expected in the bay.  “I remained in a state of uncertainty for a week,” he wrote to his wife; “and had the corn ships, which were momentarily expected from Naples, arrived, I should have sailed for England.”  The dilemma caused him great anxiety; for the longing for home, which he had felt in the early part of the winter, had given away entirely before the pride and confidence he felt in the new admiral, and the keen delight in active service he was now enjoying.  “I feel full of gratitude for your good wishes towards me,” he wrote to Jervis in the first moment of disappointment, “and highly flattered by your desire to have me continue to serve under your command, which I own would afford me infinite satisfaction.”  The following day he is still more restless.  “I am not less anxious than yesterday for having slept since my last letter.  Indeed, Sir, I cannot bear the thoughts of leaving your command.”  He then proposed several ways out of the difficulty, which reduced themselves, in short, to a readiness to hoist his pendant in anything, if only he could remain.

No violent solution was needed, as several applicants came forward when Nelson’s wish was known.  On the 11th of June, 1796, he shifted his broad pendant to the “Captain,” of seventy-four guns, taking with him most of his officers.  Soon afterwards the “Agamemnon” sailed for England.  Up to the last day of his stay on board, Nelson, although a commodore, was also her captain; it was not until two months after joining his new ship that another captain was appointed to her, leaving to himself the duties of commodore only.  In later years the “Agamemnon” more than once bore a share in his career.  She was present at Copenhagen and at Trafalgar, being in this final scene under the command of an officer who had served in her as his first lieutenant, and was afterwards his flag-captain at the Nile.  In 1809 she was totally lost in the river La Plata, having run aground, and then settled on one of her anchors, which, upon the sudden shoaling of the water, had been let go to bring her up.[37] It is said that there were then on board several seamen who had been with her during Nelson’s command.

On the 13th of June the “Captain” sailed from San Fiorenzo Bay, and on the 17th joined the fleet off Cape Sicie, near Toulon, where Jervis, six weeks before, had established the first of those continuous close blockades which afterwards, off Brest, became associated with his name, and proved so potent a factor in the embarrassments that drove Napoleon to his ruin.  There were then twelve British ships off the port, while inside the enemy had eleven ready for sea, and four or five more fitting.  The following day Nelson again left the fleet, and on the 21st of June arrived at Genoa, where very serious news was to be received.