Letters left for Bickerton and Collingwood placed them in possession of his ideas, including the revocation of the Admiralty’s order; and, in an official letter, he earnestly recommended the latter officer to adhere to his arrangements.  Word was also sent forward to Cornwallis, and to the commander-in-chief at Cork, as well as to the Admiralty, to notify them of his approach.  To the northward of Cape St. Vincent he met the northerly winds that prevail on the Portuguese coast.  Delayed by these, he was three full weeks making the passage from Gibraltar to the Channel Fleet, which he joined at 3 P.M. of August 15th, twenty-five miles west of Ushant.  To this point his movements were finally determined by a frigate, which was spoken on the 12th of August, and informed him that up to three days before no intelligence had been received of the enemy’s arrival in the Bay of Biscay, or on the Irish coast.  Cornwallis excused him from the customary personal visit, and authorized him to proceed at once to Portsmouth with the “Victory,” in pursuance of the Admiralty’s leave which he so long had had in his hands.  On the morning of August 18th, the long and fruitless chase of the allied fleet was brought to an end by the dropping of the “Victory’s” anchor at Spithead.  To Davison Nelson summed up his disappointment in the exasperated expression, “—­n General Brereton."[109]

From newspapers received off Ushant he first learned of Calder’s battle, and the public dissatisfaction with the results.  He had undergone too much frustration and anxiety himself not to feel for an officer who had made a mistake, although it may safely be said that Calder’s mistake was not only one Nelson could not have made, but was the exact opposite of the course which Nelson by anticipation had said he would adopt.  He expressed himself in words of generous sympathy.  “I was bewildered by the account of Sir Robert Calder’s victory, and the joy of the event; together with the hearing that John Bull was not content, which I am sorry for.  Who can, my dear Freemantle, command all the success which our Country may wish?  We have fought together, and therefore well know what it is.  I have had the best disposed fleet of friends, but who can say what will be the event of a battle? and it most sincerely grieves me, that in any of the papers it should be insinuated, that Lord Nelson could have done better.  I should have fought the enemy, so did my friend Calder; but who can say that he will be more successful than another?  I only wish to stand upon my own merits, and not by comparison, one way or the other, upon the conduct of a brother officer.  You will forgive this dissertation, but I feel upon the occasion.”  These words, which spoke the whole of his honest heart, were the more generous, because he believed Calder to be one of the few professional enemies that he had.