it's guns, and the place filling with
troops.

What the brave admiral felt, at being thus disappointed, it would be
less difficult to conceive than to describe: certain it is, that the
anxiety which he suffered in consequence of this so long baffled
pursuit, brought on such violent spasms in the regions of his heroic
heart as continued occasionally to afflict him during the remainder of
his days.

In a letter which he wrote to his commander in chief, the Earl of St.
Vincent, immediately on discovering that the French were not at
Alexandria, after relating the particulars of his unfortunate progress,
he pours forth the effusions of his honourable bosom, in a strain so
affecting, that his biographer has been incapable of transcribing the
passage without tears.

"To do nothing," says this incomparable man, was, I felt,
disgraceful; therefore, I made use of my understanding: and, by it,
I ought to stand or fall. I am before your lordship's
judgment--which, in the present case, I feel, is the tribunal of my
country--and if, under all circumstances, it is decided I am wrong,
I ought, for the sake of our country, to be superseded: for, at
this moment, when I know the French are not in Alexandria, I hold
the same opinion as off Cape Passaro; viz. that, under all
circumstances, I was right in steering for Alexandria; and, by that
opinion, I must stand or fall. However erroneous my judgment may
be, I feel conscious of my honest intentions; which, I hope, will
bear me up under the greatest misfortune that could happen to me as
an officer, that of your lordship's thinking me wrong."

It was now the object of his incessant contemplation, to ascertain the
possible course of the enemy, and what could be their ultimate design.
He feared, indeed, that Sicily, in his absence, had fallen under the
French yoke. With a mind too perturbed for repose, he was wholly
incapable of remaining inactive. He shaped his course, therefore, to the
northward, for the coast of Caramania; that he might, as expeditiously
as possible, arrive at some quarter where information was likely to be
obtained. On the 4th of July, he made that coast; and, steering along
the south side of Candia, and carrying a press of sail, both night and
day, with a contrary wind, being also in want of water, the fleet came,
on the 18th, in sight of the island of Sicily, and he determined to
enter the port of Syra