sons for inducing General Villettes
to keep the Neapolitan troops in Malta, was to prevent what has
happened; but, in a month after my back was turned, Villettes obeyed
his orders, and now the Governor of Messina says, 'We can defend it,
and want no assistance.' His whole conduct, I am bold to say, is
either that of a traitor or a fool."[59]

Upon his own subordinates Nelson laid a distinct charge, that he
should expect them to use their judgment and act upon it with
independence, sure of his generous construction and support of their
action. "We must all in our several stations," he tells one of them,
"exert ourselves to the utmost, and not be nonsensical in saying, 'I
have an order for this, that, and the other,' if the King's service
clearly marks what ought to be done. I am well convinced of your
zeal." In accordance with this, he was emphatic in his expressions of
commendation for action rightly taken; a bare, cold approval was not
adequate reward for deeds which he expected to reproduce his own
spirit and temper, vivifying the whole of his command, and making his
presence virtually co-extensive with its utmost limits. No severer
condemnation, perhaps, was ever implied by him, than when he wrote to
Sidney Smith, unqualifiedly, "I strictly charge and command you never
to give any French ship or man leave to quit Egypt." To deny an
officer discretion was as scathing an expression of dissatisfaction as
Nelson could utter; and as he sowed, so he reaped, in a devotion and
vigor of service few have elicited equally.

In Malta Nelson remained but thirty-six hours. Arriving at 4 P.M. on
the evening of June 15th, he sailed again at 4 A.M. of the 17th. He
had expected partly to find the fleet there; but by an odd
coincidence, on the same day that he hoisted his flag in Portsmouth,
it had sailed, although in ignorance of the war, to cruise between
Sicily and Naples; whence, on the day he left Gibraltar, the
commanding officer, Sir Richard Bickerton, had started for
Toulon,--"very judiciously," said Nelson,--the instant he heard of the
renewal of hostilities.

The "Amphion" passed through the Straits of Messina, and within sight
of Naples, carrying Nelson once more over well-known seas, and in
sight of fondly remembered places. "I am looking at _dear_ Naples, if
it is what it was," he wrote to Elliot from off Capri. "Close to
Capri," he tells Lady Hamilton, "the view of Vesuvius calls so many
circumstances to my mind, that