d the captains of ships cruising in the Straits of Gibraltar
to consult on all occasions with the Commissioner of the Navy resident
in Gibraltar, as well as to receive his advice, if proffered,--adding
that the commissioner's opinion of their conduct would have great
weight with himself; but he did not put them under his orders.[8]

Reasoning from Nelson's position, as the pendant was flying without
proper authority on board a ship under his immediate command, he
should, as senior captain afloat, have gone further and hauled it
down. Of his authority to do so he felt no doubt, as is evident from
his letter to the Admiralty; but his motive for refraining was
characteristic. He was unwilling to wound Moutray; just as, before
Trafalgar, in direct disregard of the Admiralty's orders, he allowed
an admiral going home under charges to take with him his flagship, a
vessel of the first force and likely to be sorely needed in the
approaching battle, because he was reluctant to add to the distress
the officer was undergoing already. "I did not choose to order the
Commissioner's pendant to be struck, as Mr. Moutray is an old officer
of high military character; and it might hurt his feelings to be
supposed wrong by so young an officer." The question solved itself
shortly by the Commissioner's returning to England; but the
controversy seems to have made no change in the friendly and even
affectionate relations existing between him and his wife and Nelson.
For Mrs. Moutray the latter had formed one of those strong idealizing
attachments which sprang up from time to time along his path. "You may
be certain," he writes to his brother at the very period the
discussion was pending, "I never passed English Harbour without a
call, but alas! I am not to have much comfort. My dear, sweet friend
is going home. I am really an April day; happy on her account, but
truly grieved were I only to consider myself. Her equal I never saw in
any country or in any situation. If my dear Kate [his sister] goes to
Bath next winter she will be known to her, for my dear friend promised
to make herself known. What an acquisition to any female to be
acquainted with, what an example to take pattern from." "My sweet,
amiable friend sails the 20th for England. I took my leave of her
three days ago with a heavy heart. What a treasure of a woman."
Returning to Antigua a few weeks later, he writes again in a
sentimental vein very rare in him: "This country appears no