[64] Phillimore’s Last of Nelson’s Captains, p. 122.  A portion of this incident has before been quoted, in another connection (vol. i. p. 355, note).  It is repeated, because again applicable, to illustrate a different trait of Nelson’s character.

[65] The letter of this gentleman, Dr. Gillespie, from which a quotation has already been made, was published in the London “Times” of October 6, 1894.

[66] This incidental remark may be noted, as bearing upon the statement, now rejected, that his orders were put on especially for battle.

[67] There is here no mention of smoking; nor has any allusion to it, or to tobacco, caught the author’s eye in Nelson’s letters.

[68] Dr. Beatty’s Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson.  Nicolas, vol. vii. p. 259.

[69] Sir William Hotham.

[70] Many of these details are taken with little alteration from the “Life of Rev. A.J.  Scott.”

[71] Memoir of Sir Thomas Hardy, in Clarke and M’Arthur’s Life of Nelson vol. iii. p. 234.

[72] Hillyar was then engaged to a lady in Malta.

[73] As Lady Nelson’s first marriage was in 1779, Josiah Nisbet could not have been eighteen when made a commander, in 1797.

[74] Phillimore’s “The Last of Nelson’s Captains,” p. 146.

[75] Flag-officers had a share in all prizes taken by vessels of their squadrons.

[76] Davison.

[77] Ante, p. 192.

[78] Pettigrew, vol. ii. p. 444.

[79] Nicolas, vol. vi. p. 288.

[80] Late British minister to Spain.

[81] Author’s italics.

[82] The whole of this account is taken from the Life of Sir William Parker.  Phillimore’s Last of Nelson’s Captains, pp. 125-129.

CHAPTER XX.

THE ESCAPE AND PURSUIT OF THE TOULON FLEET.—­NELSON’S RETURN TO
ENGLAND.

JANUARY-AUGUST, 1805.  AGE, 46.

To understand rightly the movements of Nelson during the first months of 1805, up to his return to England in August, and to appreciate fully the influence of this closing period of his career upon the plans and fortunes of Napoleon, it is necessary to state briefly the projects of the latter, as formulated in his correspondence.

The great object of the Emperor was to invade England, crossing the Channel with the army, 150,000 strong, which for two years past he had been assembling and drilling in the neighborhood of Boulogne.  To this end all his plans were subsidiary—­to it all movements at this moment were intended to conduce.  He had no illusions as to the difficulties of the enterprise; he recognized fully that the odds were against success, but he had too often achieved the apparently impossible to permit the word to stop him in an attempt, which, if accomplished, would cause all other obstacles to disappear from his path of conquest.  There were chances in his favor.