lienation, not from his wife only, but from
his best and earliest friends.

During the short stay of seven months in England, which ended with the
sailing of the "Vanguard," the record of his correspondence is
necessarily very imperfect, both from the loss of his arm, and from
the fact of his being with his family. Such indications as there are
point to unbroken relations of tenderness with his wife. "I found my
domestic happiness perfect," he wrote to Lord St. Vincent, shortly
after his arrival home; and some months later, in a letter from Bath
to a friend, he says jestingly: "Tell--that I possess his place in Mr.
Palmer's box; but he did not tell me all its charms, that generally
some of the handsomest ladies in Bath are partakers in the box, and
was I a bachelor I would not answer for being tempted; but as I am
possessed of everything which is valuable in a wife, I have no
occasion to think beyond a pretty face." Lady Nelson attended
personally to the dressing of his arm; she accompanied him in his
journeys between Bath and London, and they separated only when he left
town to hoist his flag at Portsmouth. The letters of Lady Saumarez,
the wife of one of his brother captains then serving with Lord St.
Vincent, mention frequent meetings with the two together in the
streets of Bath; and upon the 1st of May, the day before leaving the
fleet off Cadiz for the Mediterranean, on the expedition which was to
result in the Nile, and all the consequences so fatal to the happiness
of both, he concludes his letter, "with every kind wish that a fond
heart can frame, believe me, as ever, your most affectionate husband."

On the 2d of May the "Vanguard" quitted the fleet for Gibraltar, where
she arrived on the 4th. On the 7th Nelson issued orders to Sir James
Saumarez, commanding the "Orion," and to Captain Alexander Ball,
commanding the "Alexander," both seventy-fours, to place themselves
under his command; and the following day the "Vanguard" sailed, in
company with these ships and five smaller vessels, to begin the
memorable campaign, of which the Battle of the Nile was the most
conspicuous incident.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] The British admiral in command of the fleet which fought at
Camperdown.

CHAPTER X.

THE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF THE NILE.

MAY-SEPTEMBER, 1798. AGE, 39.

Between the time that Nelson was wounded at Teneriffe, July 24, 1797,
and his return to active service in April, 1798, important and ominous
ch