Captain Hillyar, who commanded one of the frigates that were ever coming and going, writes in his journal:  “If extreme kindness and attention could render me happy, I have this day experienced both from our revered and good commander-in-chief.  How can I repay his kindness?  By obeying his injunctions ’not to be in a hurry to get married,’[72] or by a continued perseverance in discharging those duties with alacrity and honour, which he is more immediately concerned in?” “Lord Nelson talked a great deal against matrimony yesterday, and I feel will not trust me at Malta, while we are capable of remaining at sea.  It was all, however, in a good natured way.  He is going to charge me with two of his boys [midshipmen], I am pleased that an opportunity is offered for showing my gratitude in a small degree for his almost fatherly kindness.  I wish you knew him; if he has failings, reflections on his virtues cause them to be forgotten, and the mind dwells with pleasure on a character where bravery, generosity, and good nature, are joined to a heart that can feel for the woes of others, and delights in endeavouring to alleviate them.”  Hillyar was experiencing what Radstock had remarked:  “Gain his esteem, and there is nothing he will not dash through to put you forward.”  “Gain his esteem, and you will have nothing to fear, for I know not a more honourable man existing, or one who would more readily do you justice in all respects.”  “I am well aware,” wrote another young captain to Nelson himself, “of the good construction which your Lordship has ever been in the habit of putting on circumstances, although wearing the most unfavourable appearances....  Your Lordship’s good opinion constitutes the summit of my ambition, and the most effective spur to my endeavours.”

Nelson loved to bestow promotion, when deserved, on the spot, to give a man his spurs, if it might be, on the field of battle; but vacancies would not always offer at the happy moment.  A brother of Hillyar’s was a midshipman in one of two boats, sent to visit a suspicious vessel.  A sudden and staggering fire killed the lieutenant in command, besides disabling a number of the boats’ crews.  The men hesitated; but the lad, left in charge, cheered them on and carried the vessel by boarding.  Although he was but a couple of months over fifteen, Nelson gave him at once his commission into the vacancy made by the lieutenant.  One very dark night, the “Victory” being under way, a midshipman, at the imminent risk of his life, leaped into the sea to save a seaman who had fallen overboard, and otherwise would have been drowned.  Nelson gave him, too, his commission the following morning; but, seeing the jubilation among the young man’s messmates, and thinking the act might be a dangerous precedent, he leaned over the poop and said, smiling good-naturedly, “Stop, young gentlemen!  Mr. Flin has done a gallant thing today, and he has done many gallant things before, for which he has now got his reward.  But mind, I’ll have no more making lieutenants for men falling overboard.”