ere addressed to him by the first lord of the Admiralty, and
by his steady friend the Duke of Clarence, to congratulate him on his
return, covered as he was with glory. He assured the Duke, in his reply,
that not a scrap of that ardour with which he had hitherto served his
king had been shot away. The freedom of the cities of Bristol and London
were transmitted to him; he was invested with the Order of the Bath, and
received a pension of L1000 a-year. The memorial which, as a matter
of form, he was called upon to present on this occasion, exhibited an
extraordinary catalogue of services performed during the war. It stated
that he had been in four actions with the fleets of the enemy, and
in three actions with boats employed in cutting out of harbour, in
destroying vessels, and in taking three towns. He had served on shore
with the army four months, and commanded the batteries at the sieges
of Basti and Calvi: he had assisted at the capture of seven sail of the
line, six frigates, four corvettes, and eleven privateers: taken and
destroyed near fifty sail of merchant vessels, and actually been engaged
against the enemy upwards of a hundred and twenty times, in which
service he had lost his right eye and right arm, and been severely
wounded and bruised in his body.
His sufferings from the lost limb were long and painful. A nerve had
been taken up in one of the ligatures at the time of the operation; and
the ligature, according to the practice of the French surgeons, was of
silk instead of waxed thread; this produced a constant irritation and
discharge; and the ends of the ligature being pulled every day, in
hopes of bringing it away, occasioned fresh agony. He had scarcely any
intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to
England. Lady Nelson, at his earnest request, attended the dressing of
his arm, till she had acquired sufficient resolution and skill to dress
it herself. One night, during this state of suffering, after a day of
constant pain, Nelson retired early to bed, in hope of enloying some
respite by means of laudanum. He was at that time lodging in Bond
Street, and the family were soon disturbed by a mob knocking loudly
and violently at the door. The news of Duncan's victory had been made
public, and the house was not illuminated. But when the mob were told
that Admiral Nelson lay there in bed, badly wounded, the foremost of
them made answer: "You shall hear no more from us to-night:" a
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