unwell that I have not the power of writing so much as I could wish;” and the next day, to the Admiralty, he makes the same excuse, adding, “I am writing in a fever, and barely possible to keep out of bed.”  “My dear friend,” he tells Locker, “I am so ill that I can scarcely sit up; yet I will not let the courier go off without assuring you that all your kindnesses to me are fresh in my memory....  May God Almighty grant you, my revered friend, that health and happiness which has never yet been attained by your affectionate, grateful friend, Nelson.”  It cannot but be surmised that he did not feel that profound conviction of right, which had sustained him on previous occasions.  The disquiet indicated resembles rather that attending the uncertainties of the Nile campaign.  As Colonel Stewart noticed, two years later, “With him mind and health invariably sympathized.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[81] That is, in person.

[82] The commandant of St. Elmo signed on the 3d Messidor, June 21.  Ruffo, with the Russian and Turkish representatives, had already signed.  The paper was then sent to Foote, who signed and returned to Ruffo on the 23d of June.  The “Foudroyant” came in sight on the afternoon of the 24th.

[83] All italics in the quotations from this despatch are the author’s.

[84] Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 511.  Author’s italics.

[85] Nicolas, vol. iii p. 406.

[86] Mr. Pryse Lockhart Gordon, who was in Palermo in January, 1799, tells the following anecdote of Lady Hamilton.  He had been dining at the ambassador’s, and after dinner a Turkish officer was introduced.  In the course of the evening he boasted that he had put to death with his own sword a number of French prisoners. “’Look, there is their blood remaining on it!’ The speech being translated, her Ladyship’s eye beamed with delight, and she said, ’Oh, let me see the sword that did the glorious deed!’ It was presented to her; she took it into her fair hands, covered with rings, and, looking at the encrusted Jacobin blood, kissed it, and handed it to the hero of the Nile.  Had I not been an eye-witness to this disgraceful act, I would not have ventured to relate it.” (Gordon’s Memoirs, vol. i. p, 210.) The author, also, would not have ventured to adduce it, without first satisfying himself, by inquiry, as to the probable credibility of Mr. Gordon, and likewise testing his narrative.  It bears marks of the inaccuracy in details to which memory is subject, but the indications of general correctness are satisfactory.

[87] Nelson to Acton, November 18, 1799. (Nicolas.)

[88] Much confusion has been introduced into the times, when Keith’s several orders were received by Nelson, by the fact that the original of this private letter to Earl Spencer is dated the 19th (Nicolas, vol. vii. p. clxxxv); while the secretary, copying it into the letter-book, wrote July 13th. (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 408.) Nicolas considered the former correct, probably because it came last into his hands.  The author considers the 13th correct, because the official letter to Keith bears that date, and reads, “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship’s letter of June 27.” (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 408.)