ion," he continues, "requires great
foresight; for, if once landed, our fleet is of no use."

The importance of Vado Bay, so discreditably lost the year before,
strikes him from this point of view, as it did also Bonaparte from his
more closely coherent plan of operations. Nelson reasoned that, if
Vado were possessed by the allies, the French, in their attempt to
reach the Tuscan coast, would be compelled to put to sea, where they
would be exposed to the British fleet, while such an anchorage would
enable the latter, when necessary, to keep the coast close aboard, or
would provide a refuge to a small squadron, if threatened by the
sudden appearance of a superior force. Bonaparte thought Vado
important, because, on the one hand, essential to uninterrupted
coasting-trade with Genoa, and on the other as advancing his water
line of communications--that by land being impassable for heavy
articles, such as siege-guns and carriages--to Savona, from which
point the mountains could be crossed at their lowest elevation, and by
their most practicable passes.

Nelson's analysis of the conditions, in other respects than the one
mentioned, was not unworthy of his great natural aptitudes. There are
three things to be guarded against, he says. One is that pet scheme of
his imagination, the transport of a corps by sea to Tuscany; the other
two are an invasion of Piedmont, and the entrance into Italy by the
pass of the Bocchetta, behind Genoa. "If three are to be attended to,
depend upon it one will fall, and the Emperor, very possibly, may be
more attentive to the Milanese than to Piedmont." Upon this divergence
of interests in a coalition Bonaparte also explicitly counted; and
his plan, in its first inception, as laid before the Directory in the
summer of 1795, looked primarily to the subjugation of Piedmont, by
separating it from the support of the Austrian Army. The bearing of
Vado Bay upon this project is not definitely recognized by Nelson. He
sees in the possession of it only the frustration of both the enemy's
supposed alternatives,--invasion of Italy by the Bocchetta, and of
Tuscany by sea.

With these views Nelson arrived, at San Fiorenzo, on the 19th of
January, and had his first interview with Jervis. His reception by the
latter, whom he never before had met, was not only cordial but
flattering. He was at once offered the choice of two larger ships,
which were declined, "but with that respect and sense of obligation on
my