Ottoman empire by sea; for, I should hope, that Sir Sidney Smith
will not take any ship from under my command, without my orders;
although Sir Sidney, rather hastily, in my opinion, writes Sir
William Hamilton, that Captain Hood naturally falls under his
orders. I am, probably, considered as having a great force; but I
always desire it to be understood, that I count the Portuguese as
nothing but trouble. Ever believe, my dear lord, your most obliged
"Nelson."
"January 2d. General Acton has just wrote me, that the French are
within thirty miles of Naples, on the 30th. Marquis De Niza is
prepared to burn the ships when the French get a little nearer.
Mack is at Capua, with a strong force, numbers not mentioned.
Dreadful weather! The great queen very ill: I fear for her.
"N."
Two causes, in a short time, particularly contributed, as it should
seem, to tranquillize the mind of our hero, with regard to what he could
not but consider as Sir Sidney Smith's too great assumption of
authority: one of these was, the hope that his friend Captain Troubridge
might effect the destruction of the transports at Alexandria before Sir
Sidney's arrival; and the other, immediate information from the Earl of
St. Vincent, that he was as little satisfied as Lord Nelson himself,
with the business which had so deeply affected his feelings, and had
therefore exerted his own power to prevent any such future occurrence.
"Sir Sidney Smith," says his lordship, writing this month to Captain
Ball, "from a letter he wrote the Earl of St. Vincent off Malta, has
given great offence; having said, that he presumed, all the ships in the
Levant being junior to him, he had a right to take them under his
command. His lordship has, in consequence, given him a broad hint, and
taken him handsomely down; and, to prevent any thing of the kind
happening in future, he has ordered Sir Sidney to put himself
_immediately_ under my command." These great men, however, though they
|