Occurring in an official despatch, from a minister of Nelson’s sovereign, his own warm personal friend and admirer, closely associated with him throughout the proceedings, and his colleague and adviser in much that was done, the words quoted, if they could stand accepted as an accurate statement of occurrences, would establish that Nelson had secured the persons of men who had surrendered on the faith of a treaty, and had held them, subject to the tender mercies of the King of the Two Sicilies.  They were in his power (accepting Hamilton’s statement), only because the King’s Vicar-General, his representative so far as they knew, had guaranteed their safety if they came out of the castles.  The least they were entitled to, in such case, was to be restored to the castles—­not yet evacuated—­to be placed as they were before surrendering.  It is true that, as the terms of the treaty made embarkation and evacuation coincident, and as the latter had certainly not taken place, it may be argued that they had no claim to immunity when they had precipitated their action, and left the castle of their own motion before the formal evacuation and embarkation; but one would prefer not to rest on such a technical plea the justification of a character generally so upright in his public acts as Lord Nelson.

Fortunately for his fame, there is adequate reason to believe—­to be assured—­that Hamilton’s despatch is very inaccurate in details, and specifically in this one, so damaging as it stands.  The incident of arming the boats and bringing out the vessels took place, according to the log of the “Foudroyant,” not when the fleet moored, on the morning of June 25th, or even shortly afterwards, but on the morning of the 28th; two days after the castles, as shown by the logs of both the “Foudroyant” and “Seahorse,” surrendered and were taken possession of.  Miss Helen Maria Williams, whose account of the affair was strongly tinged with sympathy for the revolutionists, says:  “While the two garrisons, to the number of fifteen hundred, were waiting for the preparing and, provisioning of the vessels which were to convey them to France, Lord Nelson arrived with his whole fleet in the Bay of Naples [June 24-25].  On the evening of the twenty-sixth of June, the patriots evacuated their forts, and embarked on board the transports prepared for their conveyance to France. The next day [June 27], the transports were moored alongside the English fleet, each under the cannon of an English vessel."[84] These several witnesses may be confidently accepted, and prove that the embarkation and removal of the garrisons took place after Nelson’s declaration to them, dated June 25th, in which he said “he would not permit them to embark or quit those places.  They must surrender themselves to His Majesty’s Royal mercy.”  Captain Foote, who had signed the capitulation that Nelson condemned, affords evidence which, though not conclusive, is corroborative of the above.  Writing to Nelson at 7 A.M. of the