it was nearly dark and they might have had every excuse for
not doing it, yet they all in the course of two hours found a hole to
poke in at. If,' he added, 'I had taken a fleet of the same force from
Spithead, I would sooner have thought of flying than attacking the
French in their position, but I knew my captains, nor could I say
which distinguished himself most.'" Yet to Lady Minto he revealed the
spirit he was of. "I told him I wished he had the command of the
Emperor's army. He said, 'I'll tell you what. If I had, I would only
use one word--_advance_, and never say _retreat_.'"

After a month's stop at Vienna, during which Sir William Hamilton's
health continued to cause anxiety, the party started north for Prague,
Dresden, and Hamburg, following the course of the Elbe. On the 28th
of September, Prague was reached, and there Nelson was met by
arrangement by the Archduke Charles, the first in ability of the
Austrian generals, approved as no unworthy antagonist by Bonaparte
himself, but rarely employed, except in moments of emergency, because
of his pronounced opposition to the Court policy. The next day,
September 29th, was Nelson's birthday, and the Archduke gave a grand
entertainment in his honor. Continuing thence, the travellers on
October 2d reached Dresden, to which Court the British minister was
Hugh Elliot, the brother of Lord Minto. It was here that they came
under the eye of Mrs. St. George, a young Irish widow, who by a second
marriage, some years later, became Mrs. Trench, and the mother of the
late Archbishop of Dublin. Her description and comments have been
considered severe, and even prejudiced; but they do not differ
essentially from those of the Mintos and Fitzharris, except in saying
that on one occasion, after dinner, Nelson took too much champagne,
and showed the effects. Such a thing has happened on isolated
occasions to many a good man and true, and, however much to be
deplored, is not so impossible an occurrence, even in a man of
Nelson's well-established habitual abstemiousness, which indeed his
health necessitated, as to invalidate the testimony of an eye-witness.

Mrs. St. George's journal was not written for publication, and did not
see the light till thirty-odd years after her death. "October 3d.
Dined at Mr. Elliot's with only the Nelson party. It is plain that
Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but Lady Hamilton,[11] who is totally
occupied by the same object. Lord Nelson is a little man, w