my words being repeated, therefore I shall not lose a moment, after I have communicated with Admiral Collingwood, in getting to the northward to either Ferrol, Ireland, or Ushant; as information or circumstances may point out to be proper.”  In his haste to proceed, and wishing to summon the “Amazon” frigate to rejoin him, he sent the “Termagant” at once to Gibraltar, without understanding that she was just from there and had on board his clothes left for washing; in consequence of which precipitancy she “carried all my things, even to my last shirt, back again.”  “As I fancied he came from Lisbon,” he explained, “I would not allow him to stop.”  “My dear Parker,” he wrote the frigate-captain, “make haste and join me.  If all places fail you will find me at Spithead.”  Parker, who was a favorite of the admiral’s, followed out the careful detailed instructions which accompanied this note, but could not overtake the fleet, and from incidents of the service never met Nelson again.

With a fresh easterly gale the squadron pressed again into the Atlantic.  As it went on for Cape St. Vincent, Collingwood’s division was seen some distance to leeward, but, as not infrequently happens in and near the Mediterranean, the wind with it came from the opposite quarter to that which Nelson had.  The latter, therefore, would not stop, nor lose a mile of the ground over which his fair breeze was carrying him.  “My dear Collingwood,” he wrote, “We are in a fresh Levanter.  You have a westerly wind, therefore I must forego the pleasure of taking you by the hand until October next, when, if I am well enough, I shall (if the Admiralty please) resume the command.  I am very far from well; but I am anxious that not a moment of the services of this fleet should be lost.”  Matters therefore were left standing much as they were when he passed in a week before.  He had taken upon himself, however, with a discretion he could now assume freely, to change the Admiralty’s orders, issued during his absence, withdrawing most of the small cruisers from about Malta, to reinforce Collingwood’s division.  When he first learned of this step, he said it was a mistake, for double the number he had left there were needed; “but the orders of the Admiralty must be obeyed.  I only hope officers will not be blamed for the events which it is not difficult to foresee will happen.”  With the crowd of enemy’s privateers in those waters, Malta, he was assured, would be cut off from all communication.  He soon made up his mind that he would use his own discretion and modify the dispositions taken.  “Malta cannot more than exist, and our troops would be placed in a position of great distress,” he told the Admiralty.  “I transmit a statement of the force I think necessary to the eastward of Carthagena for performing the services intrusted to my care, and when I get the lists I shall apportion them as far as their number will allow, and my judgment will admit.”  “I hope the Board will consider this as not wishing to alter any arrangement of theirs, but as a measure absolutely necessary.”  Within his own field Nelson was now, by proved professional genius, above the restraint of Boards; and when he reached England the new First Lord had the wisdom to admit it, in this supreme crisis, by giving him full control, within the resources of the country, over the constitution of the fleet with which he fought Trafalgar.