Disobedience to Orders
“Pray God we may get alongside of them, the event I leave to
Providence”
NELSON.
Malta was in a pitiful, half-starved condition. Nelson urged Sir
James Erskine at Mahon, and Brigadier-General Graham at Messina,
to send troops to its relief. They were as adamant and refused. He
was therefore kept “in desperation about Malta” until General Fox
arrived at Minorca and released the garrison there for the more urgent
necessities of the unhappy island. The Russians upon whom the Admiral
had also depended were sent elsewhere in pursuance of the Czar’s plan
to withdraw from the enfeebled coalition.
The Portuguese having withdrawn their ships from the blockade, it
was eminently necessary to fill their place, especially as it was
understood that a French squadron was likely to be sent to the relief
of the beleaguered. Keith was back at his post in January 1800, and was
off Leghorn with Nelson on the 20th of that month. After proceeding to
Palermo they both went to Malta, where the exciting news was received
that the enemy had not only left port but had been seen off the west
end of Sicily.
The Commander-in-chief remained at Malta ready to give the Frenchmen a
warm welcome should they come his way; Nelson was dispatched to capture
the Republican squadron. This consisted of the famous _Généreux_,
the 74-gun ship, which had escaped after the battle of the Nile,
three corvettes, and an armed store-ship. The Admiral had three
sail-of-the-line at his service, when he came up with Rear-Admiral
Perrée on the 18th February 1800, but the chase had already been
started by the _Alexander_, which happened to be cruising near. The
French store-ship struck her tricoloured ensign after a few shots had
been fired, and was promptly secured. The _Généreux_ was then raked
with several broadsides by the _Success_ frigate, a compliment returned
by the Frenchman to the disadvantage of the British crew, of which
one man was killed and the Master and seven men wounded. When the
_Foudroyant_ and the _Northumberland_ approached, and began to fight in
real earnest, the enemy’s flagship fired her broadside and surrendered.
The corvettes made good their escape. Perrée died of his wounds on the
following day. His flag was sent by the Admiral to Leopold, Prince of
Salerno, through Sir John Acton, who described King Ferdinand’s son as
being “in raptures” at the present.
On the 24th, the blockade of Malta was entrusted to Nelson by Keith,
the Commander-in-chief sailing for Genoa to assist the Austrians in
the siege of that place, which eventually fell in the first week of
the following June. The position was an ignominious one from Nelson’s
point of view, as his letters testify. He told his superior that
“Without some rest, I am gone,” and that he was “absolutely exhausted.”
In referring to Keith in a note to Lord Minto he underlines “_my
Commander-in-chief_,” for a reason which is fairly obvious. “Ought I to
trust Dame Fortune any more?” he asks, “her daughter may wish to step
in and tear the mother from me. I have in truth serious thoughts of
giving up active service--Greenwich Hospital seems a fit retreat for me
after being _evidently_ thought unfit to command in the Mediterranean.”
“_We of the Nile_ are not equal to Lord Keith in his (Acton’s)
estimation, and ought to think it an honour to serve under such a
_clever_ man,” he tells Troubridge. “I can say little good of myself:
I am far from well”; “My state of health is very precarious. Two days
ago I dropped with a pain in my heart, and I am always in a fever”;
“my very ill state of health”; “I believe I am almost finished,” are
passages to be found in his correspondence at this period. He informed
Keith that his health was “so very indifferent,” that he was obliged
“in justice to myself, to retire to Palermo for a few weeks, and to
direct Troubridge to carry on the service during my necessary absence.
I shall quit this station when matters are all put in a right way.”
Troubridge heard of Nelson’s decision with unfeigned sorrow. “I beseech
you,” he says in a note of such sincere regard and affection that it
is worthy of place in any “Life of Nelson,” “hear the entreaties of a
sincere friend, and do not go to Sicily for the present.”
Nelson paid no heed to the warning, and proceeded to Palermo. While
returning to Malta the _Foudroyant_ was able to render assistance
to the _Penelope_ (36) frigate, which was following the _Guillaume
Tell_ (86) in much the same way as a sturdy little terrier sometimes
follows a much larger dog. After some hours the _Lion_ (64) came up,
followed by the _Foudroyant_. The _Guillaume Tell_--the sole remaining
sail-of-the-line which had escaped at the Nile--was endeavouring to
break the blockade of Valetta, but the time had come for her last fight
with the undaunted foe. She surrendered after a splendid resistance
on Sunday morning, the 30th March, and was towed in a very crippled
and dismasted state to Syracuse. In due course she was refitted and
rendered good service in the British navy as the _Malta_. Rear-Admiral
Decrès was wounded and taken prisoner, and some 200 of the 1220 men on
his flagship were either killed or rendered _hors de combat_.
Sir Edward Berry, who commanded the _Foudroyant_, wrote a hasty letter
giving Nelson a few particulars. “I had but one wish this morning--it
was for you,” is the opening sentence, “How we prayed for you, God
knows, and your sincere and faithful friend,” are the concluding
words. Could better evidence be produced of the love which animated
Nelson and his “band of brothers”? “My task is done, my health is
lost, and the orders of the great Earl of St Vincent are completely
fulfilled--thanks, ten thousand thanks, to my brave friends!” Thus he
wrote to Berry on the 5th April 1800, and on the following day he made
similar remarks to Lord Minto: “Our dear great Earl of St Vincent’s
orders to me were to follow the French Mediterranean fleet, and to
annihilate them: it has been done, thanks to the zeal and bravery of
my gallant friends! My task is done, my health lost, and I have wrote
to Lord Keith for my retreat. May all orders be as punctually obeyed,
but never again an Officer at the close, of what I must, without
being thought vain, (for such I am represented by my enemies,) call a
glorious career, be so treated! I go with our dear friends Sir William
and Lady Hamilton; but whether by water or land depends on the will
of Lord Keith.” Again and again Nelson refers to the prowess of his
comrades in arms. “The happy capture of the _William Tell_,” he writes
to the Capitan Pacha, “is the finish to the whole French fleet, which
my Royal Master desired me to destroy. Having, by the bravery of the
Officers and Men under my command, accomplished my task, I am going to
England for the benefit of my health; but I can assure you, and beg of
your Excellency to assure the Grand Signior of the same, that should
the Enemy again send a Naval force to attack his Dominions, I shall
hold myself ready to come forth again for their destruction.” To the
Caimakan Pacha he says, “It was my orders, in May 1798, to destroy the
French Mediterranean fleet. By the happy capture of the _Généreux_ and
_William Tell_, (the last on the 30th March,) thanks to the Almighty,
and the bravery of the Officers and Men under my command, _all_, _all_,
are taken, burnt, or sunk. Of the thirteen Sail of the Line, not one
remains; and I trust that very soon the same may be told of their Army,
who dared to land on the Territory of the Sublime Porte. Perish all the
enemies of his Imperial Majesty the Grand Signior! Having completely
obeyed my orders, with great injury to my health, I am going to England
for the benefit of it.” He adds that he will not fail his ally, should
another French fleet menace the Turkish dominions. “I shall hold
myself ready, if I am thought fit for such a service, to come forth,
and be the instrument of God’s vengeance on such miscreant infernal
scoundrels.” He writes to Earl Spencer, enclosing Berry’s account
of the capture of the French battleship, and assures himself that
his Lordship “will not be sparing of promotion to the deserving. My
friends wished me to be present. I have no such wish; for a something
might have been given me, which now cannot. Not for all the world
would I rob any man of a sprig of laurel--much less my children of the
_Foudroyant_! I love her as a fond father, a darling child, and glory
in her deeds. I am vain enough to feel the effects of my school. Lord
Keith sending me nothing, I have not, of course, a free communication.
I have wrote to him for permission to return to England, when you
will see a broken-hearted man.... My complaint, which is principally
a swelling of the heart, is at times alarming to my friends....”
“My mind is fixed for retreat at this moment,” he informs “fighting
Berry.” “Assure all the Foudroyants of my sincere regard and affection
for them. _They may depend upon me._” “I glory in them, my darling
children, served in my school, and all of us caught our professional
zeal and fire from the great and good Earl of St Vincent”--thus he
writes to Keith. None of his hundreds of letters more fully reveals the
charming nature of the man, than those quoted above. While Nelson was
fond enough of glory for himself, he was too large-hearted to deprive
others of it.
We have now to return to his unhappy and miscalculated transactions
with the people whom he served not wisely but too well, to show him
again “a vehement partisan of the Court of Naples,” as Judge O’Connor
Morris expresses it. “I purpose going in the _Foudroyant_,” he tells
Keith, on the 12th May, “in a few days, to Palermo, as I am under
an old promise to her Sicilian Majesty, that whenever she returned
to the Continent, I would escort her over. Her Majesty has now made
application to me for that purpose; and, as it may be necessary to
take another Ship for the escort, I purpose taking the _Alexander_
with me.” It is clear that Nelson had no right to enter into any such
arrangement, especially as there were too few rather than too many
ships for the blockade of Malta. Before Keith’s despatch was received
forbidding Nelson to use the vessels, the Admiral had left Malta for
Palermo, which he reached on the 31st May. But he _did_ get a despatch
ordering him to take the ships then at Leghorn to Spezia, which Nelson
only partly obeyed, and stationed himself at the former port to await
the convenience of the Queen and family. There he was met on the 24th
June by his Commander-in-chief, whose feelings may be gauged by his
letter to the Hon. A. Paget, Sir William Hamilton’s successor as Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of the Two
Sicilies. It was written at Leghorn on the 16th July, two days after
the disastrous defeat of the Austrians by Napoleon at Marengo.
He says: “I was so displeased by the withdrawing of the Ships from
before Malta, and with other proceedings that Her Majesty did not
take any notice of me latterally which had no effect on my attention
to Her Rank, what a Clamour to letting in the Ships to Malta will
occasion I assure you nothing has given me more real concern it was
so near exhausted.”[46] “The Paget Papers” make it quite clear that
Queen Caroline did not go out of her way to impress Keith, but rather
exhibited a fondness for snubbing him. He writes to Paget on another
occasion to the effect that “the Queen expected the Whole Squadron to
attend on Her Court which was impossible a Riot happened in the Square
the Queen desired I would go to the people, I declined having no
Authority to do so and disapproving of all tumults on every pretence
in short Her Majesty took leave of Every one in Public but me....”
An extremely important letter[47] will also be found in the same
collection of documents which sheds much light on the personalities
of the Royal folk with whom Nelson had so much to do in this phase of
his career. Paget is writing to Lord Grenville, Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs:
“The King, whose real character has from circumstances shown itself
during and since the revolution more than at any former period, is
timid and bigoted and, as is often the case in the same disposition,
cruel and revengeful. He has no natural turn for, nor do his habits
allow him to attend to business. He has no guide for his Conduct but
that of private consideration, and to take the present Instance,
whatever plea he may set forth for delaying his return to Naples, I am
in my own mind convinced, and I should not utter these opinions but
upon the surest grounds, that His Sicilian Majesty labours under the
strongest apprehensions for his own personal safety.
“The Queen’s character generally is too well known to Your Lordship to
require any comment upon it from me. I have every reason to suppose
that not from principles but from pique, Her Sicilian Majesty has
been very violent in opposing the King’s return since my arrival. She
had been taught to believe that I was sent here to Dictate and to use
haughty language upon the Subject, at which idea I know from _undoubted
authority_ she was most violently irritated.... But I have reason to
think that She has entirely lost her Influence, though she meddles as
much as ever in business. She assists at every Council that is held....
“The King and Queen of Naples are, as I have already mentioned,
upon the worst terms.... His Sicilian Majesty considers the former
intrigues of the Queen as the principal cause of the misfortunes that
have befallen Him. He has made a solemn vow not to return with Her
to Naples, on which account he is anxious that she should take this
Journey to Vienna.” He adds that he has been led to suppose that Queen
Caroline’s visit to Vienna “is to endeavour to produce a change in the
disposition of that Court which is thought to be extremely unfriendly,”
and that her Majesty’s uneasiness was due to a suspicion that the
Emperor might be led to take advantage of the defenceless state of the
Sicilian dominions. In a “Private and Confidential” note to Grenville
of the same date dealing with the intrigues of Lady Hamilton who,
according to Paget, had represented him as a Jacobin and coxcomb, he
mentions Nelson’s health as “I fear sadly impaired, & I am assured
that his fortune is fallen into the same state in consequence of great
losses which both His Lordship & Lady Hamilton have sustained at Faro &
other Games of Hazard. They are expected back from Malta every day, &
are then I understand to proceed by Sea to England.”
The Earl of Dundonald affords us an intimate glimpse of Nelson at this
time in his “Autobiography.” He was then serving under Keith, and had
several conversations with the great sailor during the visit of the
Commander-in-chief to Palermo. “From one of his frequent injunctions,
‘Never mind manœuvres, always go at them,’ I subsequently had reason,”
he says, “to consider myself indebted for successful attacks under
apparently difficult circumstances.
“The impression left on my mind during these opportunities of
association with Nelson was that of his being an embodiment of dashing
courage, which would not take much trouble to circumvent an enemy, but
being confronted with one would regard victory so much a matter of
course as hardly to deem the chance of defeat worth consideration.”
Permission for Nelson’s return home, either by land or sea, was
duly granted by the Admiralty. Earl Spencer took occasion to mildly
rebuke the Admiral in a private letter, stating that in his opinion
it appears “more advisable for you to come home at once, than to be
obliged to remain inactive at Palermo, while active service was going
on in other parts of the station. I should still much prefer your
remaining to complete the reduction of Malta, which I flatter myself
cannot be very far distant.” At the time of writing, news of the
capture of the _Guillaume Tell_ had not been received. After hoping
that she might strike to Nelson’s flag, Spencer adds: “I am quite
clear, and I believe I am joined in opinion by all our friends here,
that you will be more likely to recover your health and strength in
England than in an inactive situation at a Foreign Court, however
pleasing the respect and gratitude shown to you for your services may
be, and no testimonies of respect and gratitude from that Court to you
can be, I am convinced, too great for the very essential services you
have rendered it.”
[Illustration: Lady Hamilton
Romney
=Photo W. A. Mansell & Co.=]
Nelson struck his flag on the 11th July, and proceeded to England by
way of Florence, Ancona, Trieste, and Vienna. The journey was made by
land so far as Ancona, where the Queen, Nelson, Lord and Lady Hamilton,
and Miss Knight were taken on board a Russian vessel and landed at
Trieste on the 2nd August. The last-mentioned lady, to whom we have
been introduced on a previous page, was intimately acquainted with her
more eminent companions. The journey was of a very adventurous nature,
as the following extracts from her letters to “fighting Berry,” printed
by Nicolas, will prove:--
“July 16th.-- ... Lord Nelson is going on an expedition he disapproves,
and against his own convictions, because he has promised the Queen, and
that others advise her. I pity the Queen. Prince Belmonte directs the
march; and Lady Hamilton, though she does not like him, seconds his
proposals, because she hates the sea, and wishes to visit the different
Courts of Germany. Sir William says _he_ shall die by the way, and he
looks so ill, that I should not be surprised if he did. I am astonished
that the Queen, who is a sensible woman,[48] should consent to
run so great a risk; but I can assure you, that neither she nor the
Princesses forget their great obligations to you....
“ANCONA, _24th July_, 1800.--As I find delays succeed each other, and
England still recedes from us, I will not omit, at least, informing you
of our adventures. We left Leghorn the day after I wrote to you, ...
and owing more to good fortune than to prudence, arrived in twenty-six
hours at Florence, after passing within _two miles_ of the French
advanced posts. After a short stay, we proceeded on our way to this
place. At Castel San Giovanni, the coach, in which were Lord Nelson,
and Sir William and Lady Hamilton, was overturned; Sir William and Lady
Hamilton were hurt, but not dangerously. The wheel was repaired, but
broke again at Arezzo--the Queen two days’ journey before them, and
news of the French Army advancing rapidly, it was therefore decided
that they should proceed, and Mrs Cadogan[49] and I remain with the
broken carriage, as it was of less consequence we should be left
behind, or taken, than they.... Just as we were going to set off, we
received accounts of the French being very near the road where we had
to pass, and of its being also infested with Neapolitan deserters;
but at the same moment arrived a party of Austrians, and the Officers
gave us two soldiers as a guard. We travelled night and day; the roads
are almost destroyed, and the misery of the inhabitants is beyond
description. At length, however, we arrived at Ancona, and found that
the Queen had given up the idea of going in the _Bellona_, an Austrian
Frigate, fitted up with silk hangings, carpets, and eighty beds for
her reception, and now meant to go with a Russian Squadron of three
Frigates and a Brig. I believe she judged rightly; for there had been a
mutiny on board the _Bellona_, and, for the sake of accommodation, she
had reduced her guns to twenty-four, while the French, in possession
of the Coast, arm Trabaccoli, and other light Vessels, that could
easily surround and take her. This Russian Squadron is commanded by
Count Voinovitsch, a Dalmatian, who having seen his people ill-treated,
and their colours destroyed by the Germans last year at the Siege of
Ancona, made a vow never to come ashore, and keeps it religiously,
for he has not returned the Queen’s visit.... Lord Nelson talks often
of the _Foudroyant_, whatever is done to turn off the conversation;
and last night he was talking with Captain Messer of the manœuvres he
intended to make in case he accepted of another command. In short,
I perceive that his thoughts turn towards England, and I hope, and
believe he will be happy there.... Lord Nelson has been received with
acclamations in all the towns of the Pope’s States....
“TRIESTE, _9th of August_, 1800.--... I told you we were become humble
enough to rejoice at a Russian Squadron conveying us across the
Adriatic; but had we sailed, as was first intended, in the Imperial
Frigate, we should have been taken by eight Trabaccoli, which the
French armed on purpose at Pisaro. Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and
Lord Nelson, give a miserable account of their sufferings on board
the Commodore’s Ship, (Count Voinovitsch).[50] He was ill in his cot;
but his First Lieutenant, a Neapolitan, named Capaci, was, it seems,
the most insolent and ignorant of beings. Think what Lord Nelson must
have felt! He says a gale of wind would have sunk the Ship.... Poor
Sir William Hamilton has been so ill, that the physicians had almost
given him up: he is now better, and I hope we shall be able to set off
to-morrow night for Vienna. The Queen and thirty-four of her suite have
had fevers: you can form no idea of the _helplessness_ of the party.
How we shall proceed on our long journey, is to me a problem; but we
shall certainly get on as fast as we can; for the very precarious state
of Sir William’s health has convinced everybody that it is necessary he
should arrange his affairs.... Poor Lord Nelson, whose only comfort
was in talking of ships and harbours with Captain Messer, has had a bad
cold; but is almost well, and, I think, anxious to be in England. He is
followed by thousands when he goes out, and for the illumination that
is to take place this evening, there are many _Viva Nelsons_, prepared.
He seems affected whenever he speaks of _you_, and often sighs out,
‘Where is the _Foudroyant_?’”
The party arrived at Vienna in the third week of August 1800. Nelson
became the hero of the hour. He was entertained in the most sumptuous
way. The composer Haydn played to him while the Admiral--played
at cards! Nelson was surfeited by attentions for a month, before
proceeding to Prague and Dresden. The beautiful and clever Mrs St
George, who afterwards changed her name a second time and became Mrs
Trench, and the mother of a celebrated Archbishop of Dublin, happened
to be at the latter Court during the visit, and she confides to her
Diary many interesting little happenings connected with Nelson and Lady
Hamilton. The picture she paints of Sir William’s wife is by no means
so prepossessing as others, but at a certain dinner she was _vis-a-vis_
“with only the Nelson party,” which gives her a right to speak.
“It is plain,” she writes, “that Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but
Lady Hamilton, who is totally occupied by the same object. She is
bold, forward, coarse, assuming, and vain. Her figure is colossal,
but, excepting her feet, which are hideous, well-shaped. Her bones are
large, and she is exceedingly _embonpoint_. She resembles the bust of
Ariadne; the shape of all her features is fine, as is the form of her
head, and particularly her ears; her teeth are a little irregular, but
tolerably white; her eyes light blue, with a brown spot in one, which,
though a defect, takes nothing away from her beauty or expression.
Her eyebrows and her hair are dark, and her complexion coarse. Her
expression is strongly marked, variable, and interesting; her movements
in common life ungraceful; her voice loud, yet not disagreeable. Lord
Nelson is a little man, without any dignity, who, I suppose, must
resemble what Suwarrow was in his youth, as he is like all the pictures
I have seen of that General. Lady Hamilton takes possession of him, and
he is a willing captive, the most submissive and devoted I have seen.
Sir William is old, infirm, and all admiration of his wife, and never
spoke to-day but to applaud her. Miss Cornelia Knight seems the decided
flatterer of the two, and never opens her mouth but to show forth their
praise; and Mrs Cadogan, Lady Hamilton’s mother, is--what one might
expect. After dinner we had several songs in honour of Nelson, written
by Miss Knight, and sung by Lady Hamilton. She puffs the incense full
in his face, but he receives it with pleasure, and snuffs it up very
cordially.”
In another passage Mrs Trench refers to Lady Hamilton’s representations
of statues and paintings which Romney painted so delightfully. “She
assumes their attitude, expression, and drapery with great facility,
swiftness, and accuracy.” When she sang she was frequently out of tune,
and her voice had “no sweetness.” Mrs Trench sums up the character of
her subject as “bold, daring, vain even to folly, and stamped with the
manners of her first situation[51] much more strongly than one would
suppose, after having represented Majesty, and lived in good company
fifteen years. Her ruling passions seem to me vanity, avarice, and
love for the pleasures of the table. She showed a great avidity for
presents, and has actually obtained some at Dresden by the common
artifice of admiring and longing.”
[Illustration: Nelson landing at Yarmouth
Stephen Reid]
It is not a pleasant picture, and is perhaps a little overdrawn, but
even allowing a certain amount of latitude for the severity of a woman
criticising a member of her sex with whom she has little in common, it
must be confessed that contemporary opinion is very largely on the
side of the young and beautiful widow who thus confided her opinion so
emphatically in the pages of her private journal.
Hamburg was reached on the 21st of October. Here Nelson met Dumouriez,
the veteran hero of the battle of Jemappes, and according to Miss
Cornelia Knight, “the two distinguished men took a great fancy to one
another.... Dumouriez at that time maintained himself by his writings,
and Lord Nelson forced him to accept a hundred pounds, telling him he
had used his sword too well to live only by his pen.” Ten days after
the arrival of the party at Hamburg they embarked for England. When
Nelson stepped on shore at Yarmouth on the 6th November 1800, the
crowd which had assembled greeted him with all the enthusiasm of such
gatherings when a great and popular man is in their midst. Some of the
more boisterous spirits unharnessed the horses of the carriage awaiting
the Admiral and his friends and drew them to their destination, a
certain well-known hostelry in the town.
Thus England welcomed back the hero of the Nile and a pillar of the
Sicilian Kingdom after an absence of nearly three years, every day of
which had been lived to the full.