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had proceeded, he added: "At this mo"ment of sorrow I still feel that I have "acted right." In the same spirit he said to Sir Alexander Ball: When I call to "remembrance all the circumstances, I "approve, if nobody else does, of my own "conduct."

Baffled thus, he bore up for Malta, and met intelligence from Naples, that the French, having been dispersed in a gale, had put back to Toulon. From the same quarter he learnt, that a great number of saddles and muskets had been embarked; and this confirmed him in his opinion that Egypt was their destination. That they should have put back in consequence of storms, which he had weathered, gave him `a consoling sense of British superiority. "These gentlemen," said he, "are “accustomed to a Gulf of Lyons' gale: "we have buffetted them for one and twenty "months, and not carried away a spar." He, however, who had so often braved these gales, was now, though not mastered by them, vexatiously thwarted and impeded;

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and, on February 27, he was compelled to anchor in Pulla Bay, in the Gulf of Cagliari. From the 21st of January the fleet had remained ready for battle, without a bulk head up, night or day. He anchored here, that he might not be driven to leeward. As soon as the weather moderated he put to sea again; and, after again beating about against contrary winds, another gale drove him to anchor in the Gulf of Palma, on the eighth of March. This he made his rendezvous; he knew that the French troops still remained embarked, and wishing to lead them into a belief that he was stationed upon the Spanish coast, he made his appearance off Barcelona with that intent. About the end of the month he began to fear that the plan of the expedition was abandoned; and sailing once more towards his old station off Toulon, on the 4th of April he met the Phoebe, with news that Villeneuve had put to sea on the last of March with eleven ships of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs. When last seen, they were steering toward the coast of Africa.

Nelson first covered the channel between Sardinia and Barbary so as to satisfy himself that Villeneuve was not taking the same route for Egypt which Gantheaume had taken before him, when he attempted to earry reinforcements there. Certain of this he bore up on the 7th for Palermo, lest the French should have passed to the north of Corsica, and he despatched cruisers in all directions. On the eleventh he felt assured that they were not gone down the Mediterranean; and sending off frigates to Gibraltar, to Lisbon, and to Admiral Cornwallis, who commanded the squadron off Brest, he endeavoured to get to the westward, beating against westerly winds. After five days, a neutral gave intelligence that the French had been seen off Cape de Gatte on the 7th. It was soon afterwards ascertained that they had passed the Straits of Gibraltar on the day following ;-and Nelson, knowing that they might already be half way to Ireland or to Jamaica, exclaimed, that he was miserable. One gleam of comfort only came across him in the reflexion, that his vigi

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lance had rendered it impossible for them to undertake any expedition in the Mediterranean.

Eight days after this certain intelligence had been obtained, he described his state of mind thus forcibly, in writing to the governor of Malta: "My good fortune, my "dear Ball, seems flown away. I cannot "get a fair wind, or even a side wind.“Dead foul!—Dead foul!-But my mind ❝is fully made up what to do when I leave "the Straits, supposing there is no certain "account of the enemy's destination.-I

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believe this ill luck will go near to kill “me; but, as these are times for exertion, "I must not be cast down, whatever I may "feel." In spite of every exertion which could be made by all the zeal and all the skill of British seamen, he did not get in sight of Gibraltar till the thirteenth of April ; and the wind was then so adverse, that it was impossible to pass the Gut. He anchored in Mazari Bay, on the Barbary shore; obtained supplies from Tetuan; and when, on the fifth, a breeze from the eastward

sprang up at last, sailed once more, hoping to hear of the enemy from Sir John Orde, who commanded off Cadiz, or from Lisbon. "If nothing is heard of them," said he to the admiralty, "I shall probably think "the rumours which have been spread are "true, that their object is the West Indies; “and, in that case, I think it my duty to "follow them, or to the Antipodes, should "I believe that to be their destination." -At the time when this resolution was taken, the physician of the fleet had ordered him to return to England before the hot months.

Nelson had formed his judgment of their destination, and made up his mind accordingly, when Donald Campbell, at that time an admiral in the Portugueze service, the same person who had given important tidings to Earl St. Vincent of the movements of that fleet from which he won his title, a second time gave timely and momentous intelligence to the flag of his country. He went on board the Victory, and communicated to Nelson his certain knowledge that the

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