On the 15th of October Nelson sailed from Naples for Malta in the “Vanguard,” with three ships-of-the-line which had lately joined him.  He still felt, with accurate instinct, that Egypt and the Ionian Islands, with Malta, constituted the more purely maritime interests, in dealing with which the fleet would most further the general cause, and he alludes frequently to his wish to attend to them; but he promised the King that he would be back in Naples in the first week of November, to support the projected movement against the French.  He remained off Malta, therefore, only one week, during which adequate arrangements were made for the blockade of the island, which had been formally proclaimed on the 12th of October, and was conducted for most of the following year by the Portuguese squadron; the senior British officer, Captain Ball, acting ashore with the insurgent Maltese.  These had risen against the French during the summer, and now held them shut up in La Valetta.  The adjacent island of Gozo surrendered to the British on the 28th.  Hood continued in charge off Alexandria with three ships-of-the-line; while the Ionian Islands were left to themselves, until a combined Russian and Turkish squadron entered the Mediterranean a few weeks later.

On the 5th of November Nelson returned to Naples.  “I am, I fear, drawn into a promise that Naples Bay shall never be left without an English man-of-war.  I never intended leaving the coast of Naples without one; but if I had, who could resist the request of such a queen?” He could ground much upon the Admiralty’s orders, given when he was first sent into the Mediterranean, to protect the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and he had understood that the Emperor also would give his aid, if Naples attacked.  This impression received strength from an Austrian general, Mack,—­then of high reputation, but afterwards better known by his surrender to Napoleon at Ulm, in 1805,—­being sent to command the Neapolitan army.  Sir William Hamilton, however, writing on the 26th of October, was more accurate in saying that the Emperor only advised the King “to act openly against the French at Malta, as he would certainly support him;” for, Naples having a feudal claim upon the island, action there could be represented as merely resistance to aggression.  In consequence of this misunderstanding, great confusion ensued in the royal councils when a courier from Vienna brought word, on the 13th of November, that that Court wished it left to the French to begin hostilities; otherwise, it would give no assurance of help.  Nelson was now formally one of the Council which deliberated upon military operations.  In virtue of this position he spoke out, roughly enough.  “I ventured to tell their Majesties that one of the following things must happen to the King, and he had his choice,—­’Either to advance, trusting to God for his blessing on a just cause, to die with l’epee a la main, or remain quiet and be kicked out of your Kingdoms.’” Thus rudely adjured, the King decided to be a hero after the pattern of Nelson.