The Noting of the Distress of a French
Maid by Sir John Acton Had a
Strange Result.
The good points of pins have been generally appreciated, but never did a
pin point to a greater result than the one that made possible Nelson's
great victory of the Nile on August 1 and 2, 1798.
It was at this fight that Nelson, with his usual intrepidity, forced a
passage with half of his fleet of fifteen vessels between a small island,
near Aboukir in Egypt, and the French line of battle, while the other half
attacked the enemy in front, completely defeating the French fleet and
capturing or sinking thirteen of its seventeen ships.
The part that the pin played in the story came about in this way:
Sir John Acton, then commander-in-chief of the land and sea
forces of Naples, happened to be in his wife's dressing-room
at the moment she was preparing for dinner.
Lady Acton's French maid was also in the room, and was so
startled at receiving a letter from her brother, a sailor
in the French navy, whom she had believed to be dead, that
she ran a pin into her mistress's flesh.
Apologizing for her carelessness, the maid stated the cause
of her surprise. With carefully suppressed eagerness Sir
John Acton offered to read the letter while the maid
continued her duties. The maid gladly consented.
Having read the letter, the commander-in-chief left the
house in search of Lord Nelson, who had in vain been seeking
the French fleet. He found him and imparted to him the
contents of the letter. It gave all the information the
admiral had so long endeavored to obtain.
Setting sail immediately, Nelson came up with the French,
and the victory of the Nile was the result.