non" and two frigates,--the action
lasting for nearly two hours. While it was at its height, the heads of
the British columns, coming from San Fiorenzo, only twelve miles
distant by land, were seen upon the heights overlooking Bastia from
the rear. "What a noble sight it must have been" to them! wrote Nelson
enthusiastically, in the ardor of his now opening career,--for it
must be remembered that this hero of a hundred fights was even then
but beginning to taste that rapture of the strife, in which he always
breathed most freely, as though in his native element.

Bastia, as he saw it and reported to Lord Hood, was a walled town with
central citadel, of some ten thousand inhabitants, on the east coast
of Corsica, and twenty miles south of Cape Corso, the northern
extremity of the island. The main fortifications were along the
sea-front; but there was, besides, a series of detached works on
either flank and to the rear. The latter not only guarded the
approaches from the interior, but also, being situated on the hills,
much above the town, were capable of commanding it, in case of an
enemy gaining possession. Nelson, while modestly disclaiming any
presumptuous dependence upon his own judgment, expressed a decided
opinion, based upon the engagement of the 23d, that the "Agamemnon"
and the frigates could silence the fire of the sea-front, batter down
the walls, and that then five hundred troops could carry the place by
assault. "That the works on the hills would annoy the town afterwards
is certain, but the enemy being cut off from all supplies--the
provisions in the town being of course in our possession--would think
of nothing but making the best terms they could for themselves." To
his dismay, however, and to the extreme annoyance of the admiral,
General Dundas, commanding the army, refused to move against Bastia,
condemning the attempt as visionary and rash. Meantime the French,
unmolested except by the desultory efforts of the insurgent Corsicans,
were each day strengthening their works, and converting the
possibilities Nelson saw into the impossibilities of the cautious
general.

Hood on the 25th of February came round from San Fiorenzo to Bastia;
but he purposely brought with him no captain senior to Nelson, in
order that the latter might remain in charge of the operations he had
begun so well. When Dundas retreated again to San Fiorenzo, Hood on
the 3d of March followed him there with the flagship, to urge his
co