ses, confiding that with her he
need have no reserves, even in a natural self-praise. "This I can say,
that all I have obtained I owe to myself, and to no one else, and _to
you_ I may add, that my character stands high with almost all Europe.
Even the Austrians knew my name perfectly." While silent on the
subject of illness, he admits now that his eye had grown worse, and
was in almost total darkness, besides being very painful at times;
"but never mind," he adds cheeringly, "I can see very well with the
other."

It is instructive to note, in view of some modern debated questions,
that, despite the recent success, Nelson was by no means sure that the
British fleet could defend Corsica. "I am not even now certain Corsica
is safe," he wrote on the 25th of March, "if they undertake the
expedition with proper spirit." The threat, never absent while the
French fleet remained, was emphasized by the arrival of six
ships-of-the-line from Brest, which reached Toulon on the 4th of
April, materially altering the complexion of affairs in the
Mediterranean, and furnishing an instructive instance of the probable
punishment for opportunity imperfectly utilized, as on the 14th of
March. Great discontent was felt at the apparent failure of the
Admiralty to provide against this chance. "Hotham is very much
displeased with them," wrote Nelson, "and certainly with reason;" and
doubtless it is satisfactory to believe, rightly or wrongly, that our
disadvantages are due to the neglect of others, and not to our own
shortcomings.

Although the nominal force of the French was thus raised to twenty of
the line, the want of seamen, and the absence of discipline, prevented
their seizing the opportunity offered by the temporary inferiority of
the British, reduced to thirteen besides two Neapolitans, in whose
efficiency, whether justly or not, Nelson placed little confidence. At
this critical moment, with a large British military convoy expected,
and the fleet, to use his impatient expression, "skulking in port," a
Jacobin outbreak occurred in Toulon, and the seamen assumed the
_opera-bouffe_ role of going ashore to assist in deliberations upon
the measures necessary to save the country. Before they were again
ready to go to sea, the convoy had arrived. On the 7th of June,
however, the French again sailed from Toulon, seventeen
ships-of-the-line; and the following day Nelson, writing to his
brother, thus gave vent to the bitterness of his feelings