Two of 120, and two of 80 are building, and may launch by March or April; so that I think we shall have twenty to fight, without any from Genoa, Naples, or Venice; and I trust a glorious day we shall have.  Keats is a host of strength to me; and we are all well together, eager for the day, which I trust will help to put an end to the miseries of war, and the irksome eighteen years’ confinement between wooden walls we have all experienced.

“God be with you ever,
“My dear Sam,
“Your truly affectionate brother,
“E.  PELLEW.”

The hopes of the fleet were disappointed:  for the enemy came out only when the wind was fair to return; and thus, though they often allowed the advanced ships to approach nearly within gunshot, nothing was, or could be done, on those occasions.

In the following week, prompted perhaps by the recollections of the new year, he again writes:—­

“I never expect to live the war through, and am not at all anxious about it.  If I can only have the happiness of doing service to the country, I would give a great deal to be ten years younger; but as that cannot be, I must content myself with the reflection that my children are good, and provided for; and that I leave them attached to their mother, and to each other.  We have all reason to be thankful, and to praise God for his great and manifold mercies.  We are ready to start at a moment’s notice, and have a strict look-out.  The enemy are also ready, sixteen sail, a three-decker of 140 guns launched Christmas Day.

     “God bless you, and yours; and may He enable me to do honour to my
     country and my family—­for myself, I care not.”

The number of points which required to be constantly watched (for more than two thousand miles of coast, from the Ionian Islands to Gibraltar, was in the hands of the enemy), made a considerable force necessary; and the Mediterranean fleet was at this time one of the largest ever entrusted to an Admiral.  The commander-in-chief, with a principal part of the line-of-battle ships, blockaded the French fleet in Toulon, cruising off that port from the beginning of March to the end of November, and sheltering in Mahon through the three winter months.  A Rear-Admiral was kept at Malta, with a sufficient force under his direction to guard the different points of the station at the upper part of the Mediterranean.  Another Rear-Admiral was stationed on the south coast of Spain, to watch the movements of the enemy, and to assist the Spaniards whenever they could assemble in numbers to make a stand.  A third remained at Gibraltar; and a Commodore, with a ship of the line, and frigates, watched the Gulf of Genoa, and the western coast of Italy.  Frigates and small vessels were detached wherever their services became necessary.