to perish in Egypt,
and give an awful lesson to the world of the justice of the Almighty."
If Nelson had not thoroughly understood the character of the enemy
against whom he was engaged, their conduct in Egypt would have disclosed
it. After the battle of the Nile he had landed all his prisoners, upon a
solemn engagement made between Troubridge on one side and Captain Barre
on the other, that none of them should serve until regularly exchanged.
They were no sooner on shore than part of them were drafted into the
different regiments, and the remainder formed into a corps, called the
Nautic Legion. This occasioned Captain Hallowell to say that the French
had forfeited all claim to respect from us. "The army of Buonaparte,"
said he, "are entirely destitute of every principle of honour: they have
always acted like licentious thieves." Buonaparte's escape was the more
regretted by Nelson, because, if he had had sufficient force, he thought
it would certainly have been prevented. He wished to keep ships upon
the watch to intercept anything coming from Egypt; but the Admiralty
calculated upon the assistance of the Russian fleet, which failed when
it was most wanted. The ships which should have been thus employed were
then required for more pressing services; and the bloody Corsican was
thus enabled to reach Europe in safety; there to become the guilty
instrument of a wider-spreading destruction than any with which the
world had ever before been visited.

Nelson had other causes of chagrin. Earl St. Vincent, for whom he felt
such high respect, and whom Sir John Orde had challenged for having
nominated Nelson instead of himself to the command of the Nile squadron,
laid claim to prize money, as commander-in-chief, after he had quitted
the station. The point was contested, and decided against him. Nelson,
perhaps, felt this the more, because his own feelings, with regard to
money, were so different. An opinion had been given by Dr. Lawrence,
which would have excluded the junior flag-officers from prize-money.
When this was made known to him, his reply was in these words:
"Notwithstanding Dr. Lawrence's opinion, I do not believe I have any
right to exclude the junior flag-officers; and if I have, I desire that
no such claim may be made: no, not if it were sixty times the sum--and,
poor as I am, I were never to see prize-money."

A ship could not be spared to convey him to England; he therefore
travelled through Germany to Hamburgh