"he has gone to the Devil, or,
which is much the same thing, among the Turks and Tartars where he and
his army may be destroyed." After Nelson succeeded in his attack on the
French fleet at the Battle of the Nile Nairne rejoices that his country
is supreme on the sea, "By ruling the waves she will rule the wealth of
the world not by plunder and conquest but by wisdom and commerce and
increasing riches everywhere to the happiness of mankind." On March
20th, 1801, when Austria had just made with France the Peace of
Luneville, Ker writes again to Nairne:

We live in the age of wonders, sudden changes and Revolutions. The
French have now completely turned the tables on us. They have
forced Austria to a disastrous peace and Russia, Prussia, Denmark
and Sweden from being our friends and Allies are now uniting with
our bitter foes for our destruction, so that from having almost all
Europe on our side against France we have now the contest to
support _alone_ against her _and almost all Europe_ and nothing
prevents the ambitious French Republic from being conquerors of the
world but our little Islands and our invincible fleets.
Notwithstanding all this we do not seem afraid of invasion and a
large fleet under Sir Hide Parker and Lord Nelson is preparing to
sail for the Baltic to bring the northern powers to a sense of
their duty, and to break in pieces the unnatural coalition with our
inveterate foes, the foes of Religion, Property, true Liberty,
which but for our strenuous efforts would soon nowhere exist on
this Globe.

In spite of what Ker says as to no fear of invasion, such a fear grew
really very strong in 1801, and, for a brief period, it seemed as if
Murray Bay might become a refuge for Nairne's kindred in the distressed
mother land. One of his sisters writes in an undated letter:

We are much obliged to you for the kind of reception you say we
should have met with at Mal Bay had we fled there from the French
and I do assure you ... it was for some time a very great comfort
and relief to think we had resources to trust to. I for one, I am
sure, was almost frightened out of my wits, for a visit from these
monsters, even the attempt, tho' they had been subdued after
landing, was fearsome. I suspect you might have had more of your
friends than your own family to have provided for. The Hepburns I
k