bore a share in his career. She was present
at Copenhagen and at Trafalgar, being in this final scene under the
command of an officer who had served in her as his first lieutenant,
and was afterwards his flag-captain at the Nile. In 1809 she was
totally lost in the river La Plata, having run aground, and then
settled on one of her anchors, which, upon the sudden shoaling of the
water, had been let go to bring her up.[37] It is said that there were
then on board several seamen who had been with her during Nelson's
command.

On the 13th of June the "Captain" sailed from San Fiorenzo Bay, and on
the 17th joined the fleet off Cape Sicie, near Toulon, where Jervis,
six weeks before, had established the first of those continuous close
blockades which afterwards, off Brest, became associated with his
name, and proved so potent a factor in the embarrassments that drove
Napoleon to his ruin. There were then twelve British ships off the
port, while inside the enemy had eleven ready for sea, and four or
five more fitting. The following day Nelson again left the fleet, and
on the 21st of June arrived at Genoa, where very serious news was to
be received.

The triumphant and hitherto unchecked advance of Bonaparte had greatly
encouraged the French party in Corsica, which had been increased by a
number of malcontents, dissatisfied with their foreign rulers. Owing
to the disturbed condition of the interior, the British troops had
been drawn down to the sea-coast. Bonaparte, from the beginning of his
successes, had kept in view the deliverance of his native island,
which he expected to effect by the exertions of her own people,
stimulated and supported by the arrival upon the spot of Corsican
officers and soldiers from the French armies. These refugees,
proceeding in parties of from ten to twenty each, in small boats,
movable by sail or oars, and under cover of night, could seldom be
stopped, or even detected, by the British cruisers, while making the
short trip, of little more than a hundred miles, from Genoa, Nice, and
Leghorn. The latter port, from its nearness, was particularly
favorable to these enterprises; but, although neutral, and freely
permitting the ingress and egress of vessels belonging to both
belligerents, its facilities for supporting a Corsican uprising were
not so great as they would be if the place were held for the French.
For this reason, partly, Bonaparte had decided to seize it; and he was
still more moved to