d at one time exist is beyond doubt, and that
they should have been fostered by this means is perfectly in keeping
with common experience. Such intrigues, however, work in the dark and
by indirection; it is not often easy to trace their course. The
independence and single-mindedness with which Nelson followed his
convictions, and the outspoken frankness with which he expressed his
views and feelings, not improbably gave a handle to malicious
misrepresentation. His known intimacy with Prince William Henry, upon
whose favor he to some extent relied, was also more likely to do him
harm than good; and he entertained for the royal captain
prepossessions not far removed from partisanship, at a time when the
prince avowed himself not a friend to the present minister. "Amidst
that variety of business which demanded his attention on his return to
England," say his biographers, "he failed not, by every means in his
power, to fulfil the promise which he had made to his Royal Highness
Prince William of counteracting whatever had been opposed to the
merited reputation of his illustrious pupil, and to the friendship
they had invariably preserved for each other." It was a difficult
task. Opinionated and headstrong as the King, his father, the young
man was an uneasy subordinate to the Admiralty, and made those above
him realize that he was full as conscious of his personal rank as of
his official position as a captain in the Navy. It was, indeed, this
self-assertive temperament that afterwards frustrated his natural
ambition to be the active head of the service. Having such an ally,
there is something ominous for Nelson's own prospects to find him
writing in evident sympathy: "The great folks above now see he will
not be a cypher, therefore many of the rising people must submit to
act subordinate to him, which is not so palatable; and I think a Lord
of the Admiralty is hurt to see him so able, after what he has said
about him. He has certainly not taken a leaf out of his book, for he
is steady in his command and not violent." Upon this follows, "He has
wrote Lord Hood what I cannot but approve,"--a sentence unquestionably
vague, but which sounds combative. Nelson had already felt it
necessary to caution the prince to be careful in the choice of those
to whom he told his mind.

In fact, at the time when the letter just quoted was written, the
conduct of the prince had been such as necessarily, and not wholly
unjustly, to prejudice an