gleams of which from time to time, but fitfully and erratically, illumine his earlier correspondence.  The material was there from the first, but inchoate, ill-ordered, confused, and therefore not readily available to correct passing impressions, wild rumors, or even to prevent the radically false conceptions of an enemy’s possible movements, such as we have had before us.  Bonaparte, furthermore, whose career began amid the troubled scenes of a revolution which had shattered all the fetters of established custom,—­so strong in England to impede a man’s natural progress,—­had enjoyed already for some time the singular advantage of being military adviser to the Directory, a duty which compelled him to take a broad view of all current conditions, to consider them in their mutual relations, and not narrowly to look to one sphere of operations, without due reference to its effects upon others.

As to the invasion of Corsica after the manner he had imagined, Nelson was soon undeceived.  Bonaparte himself, after a hurried visit to Leghorn, again departed to press the siege of Mantua, having assured himself that for a measurable time he had nothing to apprehend from movements on his flank and rear.  Orders were received from Jervis on the 2d of July to institute a commercial blockade of Leghorn, permitting no vessels to enter or depart.  The conduct of this business, as well as the protection of British trade in that district, and the support of the Viceroy in securing Corsica against the attempts of French partisans, were especially intrusted to Nelson, whose movements during the following months, until the first of October, were consequently confined to the waters between Corsica and Tuscany, while the Riviera west of Genoa saw him no more.  Leghorn became the chief centre of his activities.  These redoubled with the demands made upon him; his energy rose equal to every call.  A few weeks before, he had made a conditional application to the admiral, though with evident reluctance, for a short leave of absence on account of his health.  “I don’t much like what I have written,” he confessed at the end of his diffident request, and some days later he again alludes to the subject.  “My complaint is as if a girth was buckled taut over my breast, and my endeavours, in the night, is to get it loose.  To say the truth, when I am actively employed, I am not so bad.  If the Service will admit of it, perhaps I shall at a future day take your leave.”  The service now scarcely admitted it, and the active duty apparently restored his health; at all events we now hear no more of it.  Everything yielded to the requirements of the war.  “The Captain has wants, but I intend she shall last till the autumn:  for I know, when once we begin, our wants are innumerable.”