During the short stay of seven months in England, which ended with the sailing of the “Vanguard,” the record of his correspondence is necessarily very imperfect, both from the loss of his arm, and from the fact of his being with his family.  Such indications as there are point to unbroken relations of tenderness with his wife.  “I found my domestic happiness perfect,” he wrote to Lord St. Vincent, shortly after his arrival home; and some months later, in a letter from Bath to a friend, he says jestingly:  “Tell—­that I possess his place in Mr. Palmer’s box; but he did not tell me all its charms, that generally some of the handsomest ladies in Bath are partakers in the box, and was I a bachelor I would not answer for being tempted; but as I am possessed of everything which is valuable in a wife, I have no occasion to think beyond a pretty face.”  Lady Nelson attended personally to the dressing of his arm; she accompanied him in his journeys between Bath and London, and they separated only when he left town to hoist his flag at Portsmouth.  The letters of Lady Saumarez, the wife of one of his brother captains then serving with Lord St. Vincent, mention frequent meetings with the two together in the streets of Bath; and upon the 1st of May, the day before leaving the fleet off Cadiz for the Mediterranean, on the expedition which was to result in the Nile, and all the consequences so fatal to the happiness of both, he concludes his letter, “with every kind wish that a fond heart can frame, believe me, as ever, your most affectionate husband.”

On the 2d of May the “Vanguard” quitted the fleet for Gibraltar, where she arrived on the 4th.  On the 7th Nelson issued orders to Sir James Saumarez, commanding the “Orion,” and to Captain Alexander Ball, commanding the “Alexander,” both seventy-fours, to place themselves under his command; and the following day the “Vanguard” sailed, in company with these ships and five smaller vessels, to begin the memorable campaign, of which the Battle of the Nile was the most conspicuous incident.

FOOTNOTES: 

[59] The British admiral in command of the fleet which fought at Camperdown.

CHAPTER X.

THE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF THE NILE.

MAY-SEPTEMBER, 1798.  AGE, 39.

Between the time that Nelson was wounded at Teneriffe, July 24, 1797, and his return to active service in April, 1798, important and ominous changes had been occurring in the political conditions of Europe.  These must be taken briefly into account, because the greatness of the issues thence arising, as understood by the British Government, measures the importance in its eyes of the enterprise which it was about to intrust, by deliberate selection, to one of the youngest flag-officers upon the list.  The fact of the choice shows the estimation to which Nelson had already attained in the eyes of the Admiralty.