me in San Fiorenzo Bay, having abandoned the hope of attacking the
French fleet in Golfe Jouan. On the 27th he arrived off Calvi, and
thenceforth Nelson was in daily communication with him till the place
fell.

As the army in moderate, though not wholly adequate, force conducted
the siege of Calvi, under a general officer of vigorous character, the
part taken by Nelson and his seamen, though extremely important, and
indeed essential to the ultimate success, was necessarily subordinate.
It is well to notice that his journal, and correspondence with Lord
Hood, clearly recognize this, his true relation to the siege of Calvi;
for it makes it probable that, in attributing to himself a much more
important part at Bastia, and in saying that Hood's report had put him
unfairly in the background, he was not exaggerating his actual though
ill-defined position there. That Nelson loved to dwell in thought upon
his own achievements, that distinction in the eyes of his fellows was
dear to him, that he craved recognition, and was at times perhaps too
insistent in requiring it, is true enough; but there is no indication
that he ever coveted the laurels of others, or materially misconceived
his own share in particular events. Glory, sweet as it was to him,
lost its value, if unaccompanied by the consciousness of desert which
stamps it as honor. It is, therefore, not so much for personal
achievement as for revelation of character that this siege has
interest in his life.

Besides the defences of the town proper, Calvi was protected by a
series of outworks extending across the neck of land upon which it
lay. Of these the outermost was on the left, looking from the place.
It flanked the approaches to the others, and commanded the
communications with the interior. It was, by Nelson's estimate, about
twenty-two hundred yards from the town, and had first to be reduced.
By the 3d of July thirteen long guns, besides a number of mortars and
howitzers, had been dragged from the beach to the spot by the seamen,
who also assisted in placing them in position, and for the most part
worked them in battle, an artillerist from the army pointing. Nelson,
with Captain Hallowell, already an officer of mark and afterwards one
of distinction, took alternate day's duty at the batteries, a third
captain, Serocold, having fallen early in the siege. Fearing news
might reach his wife that a naval captain had been killed, without the
name being mentioned, he wrot