His conclusion upon the whole matter, therefore, though erroneous as to the fact, may be accepted as entirely justified by all the indications; and it must be added that, with the dispositions he took, nothing could have saved the French fleet but its prompt retreat to Toulon.  “Had they not been crippled,” he wrote Davison, “nothing could have hindered our meeting them on January 21st, off the south end of Sardinia.”  “I have not the smallest doubt,” he concluded his letter to the Admiralty, “but that the destination of the French armament which left the coast of France on the 18th of January, was Alexandria; and, under all the circumstances which I have stated, I trust their Lordships will approve my having gone to Egypt in search of the French fleet.”  There was, however, no occasion for him to be forward in suggesting the sacrifice of himself, as he did to Melville.  “At this moment of sorrow I still feel that I have acted right.  The result of my inquiries at Coron and Alexandria confirm me in my former opinion; and therefore, my Lord, if my obstinacy or ignorance is so gross, I should be the first to recommend your superseding me.”  It may be noted here that Nelson never realized—­he did not live long enough to realize—­how thoroughly Bonaparte had learned from Egypt his lesson as to the control of the sea by sea-power, and what it meant to a maritime expedition which left it out of the account.  To the end of his reign, and in the height of his sway, he made no serious attempt to occupy Sardinia or even Sicily, narrow as was the water separating the latter from Naples, become practically a French state, over which his brother and brother-in-law reigned for six years.  Nelson to the last made light of the difficulties of which Bonaparte had had bitter experience.  “France,” he wrote to the Secretary for War, “will have both Sardinia and Sicily very soon, if we do not prevent it, and Egypt besides.”  “We know,” he said in a letter to Ball, “there would be no difficulty for single polaccas to sail from the shores of Italy with 300 or 400 men in each, (single ships;) and that, in the northerly winds, they would have a fair chance of not being seen, and even if seen, not to be overtaken by the Russian ships.  Thus, 20,000 men would be fixed again in Egypt, with the whole people in their favour.  Who would turn them out?”

Nelson left the Gulf of Palmas as soon as the wind served, which was on the 9th of March.  It was necessary to revictual; but, as the time of the storeships’ arrival was uncertain, he thought best to make a round off Toulon and Barcelona, to renew the impression of the French that his fleet was to the westward.  This intention he carried out, “showing myself,” to use his own words, “off Barcelona and the coast of Spain, and the islands of Majorca and Minorca, until the 21st of March.”  “I shall, if possible,” he wrote to a captain on detached service, “make my appearance off Barcelona, in order to induce the enemy to believe that I am fixed