part which such handsome conduct demanded of me." The admiral then
asked him if he would have any objection to remain on the station,
when promoted, as he soon must be. Nelson's longing to go home had
worn off with his disgust, occasioned by the impotent conclusions of
last year's work. Then he was experiencing the feeling voiced by the
great Frenchman, Suffren, some dozen years before: "It was clear that,
though we had the means to impose the law, all would be lost. I
heartily pray you may permit me to leave. War alone can make bearable
the weariness of certain things." Now his keen enjoyment of active
service revived as the hour of opening hostilities drew near. With
these dispositions, the graciousness of his reception easily turned
the scale, and before long he was not only willing to remain, but
fearful lest he should be disappointed, despite the application for
his retention which the admiral hastened to make.

"The credit I derive from all these compliments," he wrote to his
wife, "must be satisfactory to you; and, should I remain until peace,
which cannot be very long, you will, I sincerely hope, make your mind
easy." But more grateful than open flattery, to one so interested in,
and proud of, his military activities, was the respect paid by Jervis
to his views and suggestions relative to the approaching operations.
"He was so well satisfied with my opinion of what is likely to happen,
and the means of prevention to be taken, that he had no reserve with
me respecting his information and ideas of what is likely to be done;"
or, as he wrote a month later, "he seems at present to consider me
more as an associate than a subordinate officer; for I am acting
without any orders. This may have its difficulties at a future day;
but I make none, knowing the uprightness of my intentions. 'You must
have a larger ship,' continued the admiral, 'for we cannot spare you,
either as captain or admiral.'" Such were the opening relations
between these two distinguished officers, who were in the future to
exert great influence upon each other's career.

It is far from improbable that the ready coincidence of Jervis's views
with those of Nelson, as to future possibilities, arose, partly indeed
from professional bias and prepossession as to the potency of navies,
but still more from the false reports, of which Bonaparte was an apt
promoter, and which a commission of the allies in Genoa greedily
swallowed and transmitted. The deterre