utenant could then count,
apart from his own merits and the friends obtained by them. There was
in those days an immense difference in prospects between the nephew of
the Comptroller of the Navy and a man unknown at headquarters. By what
leading principles, if any, Sir Peter Parker was guided in the
distribution of his favors, can scarcely now be ascertained; but that
he brought rapidly forward two men of such great yet widely differing
merit as Nelson and Collingwood, is a proof that his judgment was
sound and the station one where vacancies were frequent. Collingwood,
who was then a lieutenant on board a sloop-of-war, went to the
"Lowestoffe" in Nelson's place. When the latter, in December, 1778,
was made commander into the brig "Badger," the other was transferred
to the vacant room in the "Bristol;" and when Nelson, on the 11th of
June, 1779, became post-captain in the "Hinchinbrook" frigate,
Collingwood again followed him as commander of the "Badger." Finally,
when through a death vacancy a better frigate offered for Nelson,
Collingwood also was posted into the "Hinchinbrook;" this ship thus
having the singular distinction of conferring the highest rank
obtainable by selection, and so fixing the final position of the two
life-long friends who led the columns at Trafalgar, the crowning
achievement of the British Navy as well as of their own illustrious
careers. The coincidence at the earlier date may have been partly
factitious, due to a fad of the commander-in-chief; but it assumes a
different and very impressive aspect viewed in the light of their
later close association, especially when it is recalled that
Collingwood also succeeded, upon Nelson's death, to the Mediterranean
command, and was there worn out, as his predecessor fell, in the
discharge of his duty upon that important station, which thus proved
fatal to them both. Few historic parallels are so complete. Sir Peter
Parker, living until 1811, survived both his illustrious juniors, and
at the age of eighty-two followed Nelson's coffin, as chief mourner at
the imposing obsequies, where the nation, from the highest to the
lowest, mingled the exultation of triumph with weeping for the loss of
its best-beloved.

Of Nelson's exterior at this time, his early biographers have secured
an account which, besides its value as a portrait, possesses the
further interest of mentioning explicitly that charm of manner which
was one of his best birth-gifts, reflecting, as