re which called for the highest abilities of a general officer.
The moment was too critical to permit mere favoritism to sway two such
men against their judgment. As it was, however, Nelson felt he could not
part with so efficient a ship; and he therefore contented himself with
giving Troubridge and Saumarez each a subdivision of four vessels,
keeping six under his own immediate direction.

As all know, the French, when found, were at anchor. Thus surprised, the
British fleet was hurled at them in a single mass; nor was there any
subordinate command exercised, by Saumarez or any other, except that of
each captain over his particular ship. Nelson's first expectation was to
overtake the unwieldy numbers of the enemy, amounting to over four
hundred sail, at sea, and there to destroy both convoy and escort. In
such an encounter there would be inestimable tactical advantage in those
compact subdivisions, which could be thrown as units, under a single
head, in a required direction. For such a charge Saumarez possessed most
eminent capacity.

The warm family affection that was among the many winning traits of
Saumarez's symmetrical and attractive character impelled him to copious
letter-writing. Hence we have a record of this pursuit of the French
fleet, with almost daily entries; an inside picture, reflecting the
hopes, fears, and perplexities of the squadron. Bonaparte's enterprise
has been freely condemned in later days as chimerical; but it did not so
appear at the time to the gallant seamen who frustrated it. The
preparations had been so shrouded in mystery that neither Nelson nor his
government had any certainty as to its destination,--an ignorance
shared by most of the prominent French officials. When, after many
surmises, the truth gradually transpired, the British officers realized
that much time must yet elapse before the English ministry could know
it. Two months, for instance, passed before news of the Battle of the
Nile reached London. Then, if India were the ultimate object, to which
Egypt was but the stepping-stone, four months more, at least, would be
needed to get a naval reinforcement to the threatened point. What if,
meanwhile, the ally of France in the peninsula, Tippoo Saib, had been
assembling transports with the secrecy observed at Toulon and the other
ports whence the divisions had sailed? "I dined with Sir Horatio
to-day," writes Saumarez on June 15th, nearly four weeks after
Bonaparte's starting, "an