Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell, Esther (surface ebook reader txt) 📕

" try Buonaparte on a wind/' and missed the opportunity— which would have changed the destinies of Europe—by a sail's length, as it were. Rewrote to his Commander-in-Chief from Alexandria, explaining his failure, and submitting with courageous dignity to the possibility of censure and recall:—

" I am before your Lordship's judgment, which in the present case I feel is the tribunal of my country, and if, under all circumstances, it is decided that I am wrong, I ought, for the sake of our country, to be superseded; for at this moment, when I know the French are not in Alexandria, I hold the same opinion as off Cape Passaro— viz. that under all circumstances I was right in steering for Alexandria, and by that opinion I must stand or fall. However erroneous my judgment may be, I feel conscious of my honest intentions, which I hope will bear me up under the greatest misfortune that could happen to me as an officer—that of your Lordship's thinking me wrong."

Disappointed, puzzled, driven by his eager and anxious mind, for once failing to take into account the possibility that his own fleet might have outsailed Buonaparte's unwieldy armada, Nelson turned from Alexandria and stretched over to the coast of Caramania, and then, in distress for the safety of the Two Sicilies, returned

to Syracuse, having, in his own words, "gone a round of six hundred leagues with an expedition incredible," and yet come back "as ignorant of the situation of the enemy as I was twenty-seven days ago!"

What he suffered during the anxieties and uncertainties of the chase, under the burden of his tremendous responsibilities, is shown by his saying, " On the i8th" [the day before he anchored at Syracuse] " I had near died, with the swelling of some of the vessels of the heart. More people, perhaps, die of broken hearts than we are aware of." Many years later he told Troubridge, " Do not fret at anything, I wish I never had, but my return to Syracuse in 1798, broke my heart, which on any extraordinary anxiety now shows itself, be that feeling pain or pleasure."

At Syracuse the Governor at first made difficulties about admitting more than four English ships; but eventually, under the influence of some talisman from the Queen, the difficulties melted away, and the whole of Nelson's fleet was refreshed. He wrote gratefully to Sir William and Lady Hamilton—

" MY DEAR FRIENDS, —Thanks to your exertions, we have victualled and watered: and surely watering at the Fountain of Arethusa we must have victory. We shall sail with the first

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breeze, and be assuredIwill return either crowned with laurel, or covered with cypress."

And so Nelson and his " band of brothers " once more set their faces towards Egypt.

CHAPTER IX

AFTER THE NILE

THE long pursuit was ended. It was no longer quest but conquest when on the late afternoon of the ist of August, 1798, Nelson sighted the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay. It was near sunset; he had no pilots, the coast was strewn with shoals; but to his inspired determination these were small things ; the long-sought enemy was before him. The French flattered themselves that for the night, at least, they were safe. They did not know the English admiral. Like a thunderbolt of war, Nelson fell upon them, irresistible and terrible. All through the hours of dark the battle raged close by the Egyptian shore—lit for a time by the flaming torch of the burning Orient, the great French flagship, the thunder of whose explosion was followed by a stunning silence, an awestruck pause, as the seamen stood at their guns with the linstocks burning unheeded in their hands, gazing at the appalling spectacle. When morning broke the French fleet was annihilated—taken, burnt,

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or sunk. In its suddenness, one of the most dramatic battles of history; in its completeness, one of the most momentous—the Nile stands out as Nelson's most dazzling achievement. In Mahan's words, " The blow had struck home and resounded through the four quarters of the world."

Nelson might well call it not a victory but a conquest, for its effects were far-reaching. Napoleon's plans were completely undone ; his Army of the Pyramids was untouched, but it was no longer a danger. " The French army is in a scrape," wrote Nelson, with his usual strategic insight. " They are up the Nile without supplies. The inhabitants will allow nothing to pass by land, nor H. N. by water."

The joy at Naples, when the news of the overwhelming victory arrived, can only be measured by some knowledge of the previous dejection of the Neapolitan court and the constant menace under which it had been dwelling ever since the outbreak of the French Revolution. From the mouth of the Nile on the 8th of August, with the awe of his great triumph still upon him, Nelson wrote very simply to Sir William Hamilton: " Almighty God has made me the happy instrument in destroying the enemy's fleet; which, I hope, will be a blessing to Europe."

Captain Capel and Lieutenant Hoste brought the splendid news to Naples in the Mutine, and

"ARIADNE"

GEORGE RO.MNEY

were received with acclaim. Maria Carolina's raptures far outstepped the usual bounds of royal decorum; she wept and laughed and walked up and down in a passion of relief. Emma, as might be expected, did not hide her light under a bushel. It was the most glorious occasion that ever a woman had lived to take part in. Nelson was her countryman, the friend of her husband and herself,