Horatio Nelson and the naval supremacy of England . pired and governedhim, we should read his correspondence with LadyHamilton during those two years ; remember thefascination the beautiful woman had for him, howhis heart yearned to return to her, with what pas-sionate eagerness he desired a sight of his belovedlittle Horatia; and we must contrast what he knewawaited him at Merton with the dull and grindingroutine of the blockading life. His bad health, too,is to be remembered ; and the wound that had beendealt his pride and his affection for his shipmatesand companions, through Sir John Orde,
Horatio Nelson and the naval supremacy of England . pired and governedhim, we should read his correspondence with LadyHamilton during those two years ; remember thefascination the beautiful woman had for him, howhis heart yearned to return to her, with what pas-sionate eagerness he desired a sight of his belovedlittle Horatia; and we must contrast what he knewawaited him at Merton with the dull and grindingroutine of the blockading life. His bad health, too,is to be remembered ; and the wound that had beendealt his pride and his affection for his shipmatesand companions, through Sir John Orde, was a con-stant pain. Add the bitter anxieties of the periodof the Toulon blockade to the yet bitterer anxietieswhich followed upon the escape of the French fleet,and the prodigious weight of responsibility whichmust attend his determination to measure thebreadth of the Atlantic in pursuit of the recreantfoe. Noble as Nelson always was, never in theglorious hour of decisive victory does he show morenobly than during those two years of hard servi-. 1803-51 A Correct Explanation. 255 tude, of trials, disappointments, worries, injurioususage, and of absention from all the comforts, re-finements, and elegancies of the Hfe he might haveled ashore. An incident that has the character of a passage ina marine romance occurred during this great oceanchase. Much about the 3d of August, after havingpassed the Straits for Cape St. Vincent, the fleetfell in with an American merchant ship, the captainof which possessed a log-book that he had removedfrom an abandoned and fire-blackened hulk. Therewere also found a few seamens jackets in the inspected the things, and observed that thelast entry of the log-book contained these words: Two large vessels in the W. N. W., from whichhe inferred that the derelict had been a Liverpoolprivateer, cruising off the Western Islands. Whilstthe log-book was being handled, a scrap of dirty-paper covered with figures fell out of it. Theseare Frenc
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