them two field-guns, until then kept ashore to repel a possible attack at the last moment.  The French, who “were in one end of Bastia before we quitted the other,” had occupied the citadel since one in the morning, and the Spanish fleet, of over twenty sail-of-the-line, which had already arrived, was even then off Cape Corso, about sixty miles distant; but the little British squadron, sailing promptly with a fair wind, in a few hours reached Elba, where every vessel was safely at anchor before night.  On the 24th Nelson joined the commander-in-chief in Martello Bay, the outer anchorage of San Fiorenzo.  Everything was then afloat, and ready for a start as soon as the transports, still at Elba, should arrive.  The evacuation of Corsica was complete, though the ships remained another week in its waters.

The Spanish fleet continued cruising to the northward of the island, and was every day sighted by the British lookout frigates.  Jervis held grimly on, expecting the appearance of the seven ships of Admiral Man, who had been ordered to rejoin him.  That officer, however, acting on his own responsibility, weakly buttressed by the opinion of a council of his captains, had returned to England contrary to his instructions.  The commander-in-chief, ignorant of this step, was left in the sorely perplexing situation of having his fleet divided into two parts, each distinctly inferior to the Spanish force alone, of twenty-six ships, not to speak of the French in Toulon.  Under the conditions, the only thing that could be done was to await his subordinate, in the appointed spot, until the last moment.  By the 2d of November further delay had become impossible, from the approaching failure of provisions.  On that day, therefore, the fleet weighed, and after a tedious passage anchored on the first of December at Gibraltar.  There Nelson remained until the 10th of the month, when he temporarily quitted the “Captain,” hoisted his broad pendant on board the frigate “Minerve,” and, taking with him one frigate besides, returned into the Mediterranean upon a detached mission of importance.

Nelson’s last services in Corsica were associated with the momentary general collapse of the British operations and influence in the Mediterranean; and his final duty, by a curious coincidence, was to abandon the position which he more than any other man had been instrumental in securing.  Yet, amid these discouraging circumstances, his renown had been steadily growing throughout the year 1796, which may justly be looked upon as closing the first stage in the history of British Sea Power during the wars of the French Revolution, and as clearing the way for his own great career, which in the repossession of the Mediterranean reached its highest plane, and there continued in unabated glory till the hour of his death.  It was not merely the exceptional brilliancy of his deeds at Cape St. Vincent, now soon to follow, great and distinguished as those were, which designated him to men in power