there they are, Jack, if we don’t beat them, they will beat us.’  He says, ’I knew what stuff I had under me, so I went into the attack with only a few ships, perfectly sure the others would follow me, although it was nearly dark and they might have had every excuse for not doing it, yet they all in the course of two hours found a hole to poke in at.  If,’ he added, ’I had taken a fleet of the same force from Spithead, I would sooner have thought of flying than attacking the French in their position, but I knew my captains, nor could I say which distinguished himself most.’” Yet to Lady Minto he revealed the spirit he was of.  “I told him I wished he had the command of the Emperor’s army.  He said, ’I’ll tell you what.  If I had, I would only use one word—­advance, and never say retreat.’”

After a month’s stop at Vienna, during which Sir William Hamilton’s health continued to cause anxiety, the party started north for Prague, Dresden, and Hamburg, following the course of the Elbe.  On the 28th of September, Prague was reached, and there Nelson was met by arrangement by the Archduke Charles, the first in ability of the Austrian generals, approved as no unworthy antagonist by Bonaparte himself, but rarely employed, except in moments of emergency, because of his pronounced opposition to the Court policy.  The next day, September 29th, was Nelson’s birthday, and the Archduke gave a grand entertainment in his honor.  Continuing thence, the travellers on October 2d reached Dresden, to which Court the British minister was Hugh Elliot, the brother of Lord Minto.  It was here that they came under the eye of Mrs. St. George, a young Irish widow, who by a second marriage, some years later, became Mrs. Trench, and the mother of the late Archbishop of Dublin.  Her description and comments have been considered severe, and even prejudiced; but they do not differ essentially from those of the Mintos and Fitzharris, except in saying that on one occasion, after dinner, Nelson took too much champagne, and showed the effects.  Such a thing has happened on isolated occasions to many a good man and true, and, however much to be deplored, is not so impossible an occurrence, even in a man of Nelson’s well-established habitual abstemiousness, which indeed his health necessitated, as to invalidate the testimony of an eye-witness.

Mrs. St. George’s journal was not written for publication, and did not see the light till thirty-odd years after her death.  “October 3d.  Dined at Mr. Elliot’s with only the Nelson party.  It is plain that Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but Lady Hamilton,[11] who is totally occupied by the same object.  Lord Nelson is a little man, without any dignity; who, I suppose, must resemble what Suwarrow was in his youth, as he is like all the pictures I have seen of that General.  Lady Hamilton takes possession of him, and he is a willing captive, the most submissive and devoted I have ever seen.  Sir William is old, infirm, all admiration of his