then under his hands, that he might instantly attend the admiral. "No!' said Nelson, I will take my turn with my brave fellows.' Nor would he suffer his own wound to be examined till every man, who had been previously wounded, was properly attended to."

It gives us great pleasure to repeat this trait of magnanimity, which must irresistibly have won the hearts of the poor fellows who were bleeding near him; and have almost made them forget their own individual sufferings in their admiration of his generous sympathy. When Nelson's wound was examined, and he was declared out of danger, there was an unfeigned expression of joy amongst the whole crew. As Nelson remarked,

"victory was hardly a name strong enough for the result of this memorable engagement with the French fleet. It amounted almost to a total capture or destruction of the force of the enemy; for of thirteen sale of the line, nine were taken and two burnt: of the four frigates, one burnt, another sunk."

"Had Nelson," says his present biographer, "been provided with small craft, nothing could have prevented the destruction of the storeships and transports in the port of Alexandria;-four bomb vessels would, at that time, have burnt the whole in a few hours. Were I to die this moment,' said he in his despatches to the admiralty, want of frigates would be found stamped on my heart! No words of mine can express what I have suffered, and am suffering, for want of them.""

After this signal triumph over the French, a profusion of presents and honours, from different courts and governments, christian and mahometan, catholic and protestant, was showered on the hero by whom it was achieved. The Grand Seignior was amongst the foremost in testifying his gratitude for this victory over the "swinish infidels" who had invaded his Egyptian provinces. He presented the British admiral with

"a pelisse of sable, with broad sleeves, valued at five thousand dol lars; and a diamond aigrette valued at eighteen thousand; the most Honourable badge among the Turks; and, in this instance, more especially honourable, because it was taken from one of the royal turbans. If it were worth a million,' said Nelson to his wife, my pleasure would be to see it in your possession.' The sultan also sent, in a spirit worthy of imitation, a purse of two thousand sequins, to be distributed among the wounded. The mother of the sultan sent him a box, set with diamonds, valued at one thousand pounds."

By his own government Nelson was rewarded with the title of "Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe," and "with a pension of 2,000l. for his own life and those of his two immediate successors." "Gold medals were distributed to the captains, and

the first lieutenants of all the ships were promoted, as had been done after Lord Howe's victory." Nelson exerted himself to the utmost that the captain and first lieutenant of the Culloden, which ship had unfortunately run aground and could take no part in the action, should not be passed by because they had not been actually engaged. The zeal and friendship which he manifested on this occasion, place his character in a very amiable light. He represented to the admiralty, in the strongest terms, that Captain Trowbridge's conduct was as justly entitled to distinction, as that of any officer in the fleet.

"It was Trowbridge," said he," who equipped the squadron so soon at Syracuse it was Trowbridge who exerted himself for me after the action: it was Trowbridge who saved the Culloden, when none that I know in the service would have attempted it."

The gold medal, therefore, by the king's express desire, was given to Captain Trowbridge, "for his services both before and since, and for the great and wonderful exertions which he made at the time of action, in saving and getting off his ship." The private letter from the admiralty to Nelson, informed him that the first lieutenants of all the ships engaged, were to be promoted. Nelson instantly wrote to the first lord of the admiralty.

"I sincerely hope," said he, "this is not intended to exclude the first lieutenant of the Culloden.-For heaven's sake-for my sake-if it be so, get it altered. Our dear friend Trowbridge has endured enough. His sufferings were, in every respect, more than any of us.”

After the battle of the Nile, Nelson proceeded to Naples, where his victory had occasioned the most frantic joy; and where he was welcomed, on his arrival, with every demonstration of gratitude which the court could show. It was on this occasion that his transient acquaintance with Lady Hamilton, whom he had seen only for a few days about four years before, was quickly converted, either by the arts of the lady or the destiny of the hero, into a passion, the ardour of which, at least on his part, has hardly any parallel even in romance. After having subdued the French at Aboukir, Nelson was himself as completely subdued by one of the daughters of Eve in the bay of Naples. Nelson had too much of the frank, openhearted character of the British sailor, to guard against the Sirens on that treacherous coast. He forgot the story of Ulysses; and he approached the shore without having his ears sealed with wax or his body lashed to the mast. He went, he saw, he heard the Siren in the form of a British fair, and he was spell-bound forever! When the Vanguard, Nelson's ship, ap

proached the bay of Naples, Lady Hamilton, in her barge, coming alongside, "at the sight of Nelson sprang up at the ship's side, and exclaiming, O God! is it possible! fell into his arms-more, he says, like one dead than alive." Nelson described the meeting as "terribly affecting." The lady seems to have acted her part well, both in this instance and in the sequel. From this period we may regard Nelson as caught in the toils of feminine fascination. Henceforth Lady Hamilton became the constant object of his tender solicitude and his ardent admiration. Her witcheries, at times, wrought his mind up to the highest pitch of amorous devotion; and no knight-errant, even under the meridian of chivalry, was ever more subservient to the will or the caprice of the mistress he adored.

Nelson, even after he had begun to be entangled in the web of artifice which Lady H. was sedulously contriving in order to hold him in durance soft, but vile, seems, at this period, to have had a very contemptible idea of the people and government of Naples, though he afterwards, under the influence of the above-mentioned lady, became an auxiliary in the perfidious cruelty of the court.

"What precious moments," said he, "the courts of Naples and Vienna are losing! Three months would liberate Italy; but this court is so enervated, that the happy moment will be lost. I am very unwell, and their miserable conduct is not likely to cool my irritable temper. It is a country of fiddlers and poets, whores and scoun drels."

The French after this got possession of Naples, owing to the imbecility and corruption of the government, and the cowardice, or treachery, or both combined, of General Mack. Nelson had early the sagacity to discover the total insufficiency of this man for the high post in which he was placed. "When Mack," says Mr. Southey,

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"was introduced by the king and queen (of Naples) to the British admiral, the queen said to him, Be to us by land, general, what my hero Nelson has been by sea.' Mack, on his part, did not fail to praise the force which he was appointed to command: It was,' he said, 'the finest army in Europe." Nelson agreed with him that there could not be finer men; but when the general, at a review, so directed the operations of a mock. fight, that, by an unhappy blunder, his own troops were surrounded instead of those of the enemy, he turned to his friends and exclaimed, with bitterness, that the fellow did not understand his business. Another circumstance, not less characteristic, confirmed Nelson in this judgment. General Mack,' said he, in one of his letters, cannot move without five carriages! I have formed my opinion. I heartily pray I may be mistaken." "

The royal family of Naples were, soon after this, obliged to fly their kingdom and seek refuge in Palermo, whither they were con ducted by Lord Nelson. Mack, though at the head of what he had but lately called the "finest army in Europe," deserted to the French general Championet, "under pretext of taking shelter from the fury," or rather the incensed patriotism, of the lazzaroni, who alone proved true to their country in this crisis of her fate. When the royal family of Naples were afterwards enabled to return to their capital, that event was preceded by circumstances which reflect great disgrace upon Lord Nelson; and which Mr. Southey has very faithfully recorded, and very properly condemned. In the transaction to which we allude, the malignant influence of Lady Hamilton on the mind of the British admiral is but too apparent; and it grieves us to think that the blandishments of beauty should, for a moment, have rendered him insensible te the dictates of justice and humanity.

Whilst Lord Nelson was absent on another service,

"Captain Foote,' in the Seahorse, with the Neapolitan frigates and some small vessels under his command, was left to act with a land force, consisting of a few regular troops, of four different nations, and with the armed rabble which Cardinal Ruffo called the christian army. His directions were, to coöperate to the utmost of his power with the royalists, at whose head Ruffo had been placed; and had no other instructions whatever."

The castles of Uovo and Nuovo, which commanded the anchorage in the bay of Naples, and of which it was, at the time, a point of great importance to obtain possession, had agreed to capitulate on terms which were proposed to the garrison by Cardinal Ruffo. This capitulation was accepted, and "signed by the cardinal, and the Russian and Turkish commanders; and lastly, by Captain Foote as commander of the British force." When Nelson shortly afterwards arrived in the bay, he annulled the treaty which had been thus solemnly concluded. The cardinal, like a man of honour, earnestly remonstrated against the infraction of this agreement; but he was compelled to yield to the authority of Nelson, whose arguments were seconded by those of Sir W. and Lady Hamilton.

Captain Foote was sent out of the bay; and the garrisons, taken out of the castles, under pretence of carrying the treaty into effect. were delivered over as rebels to the vengeance of the Sicilian court. A deplorable transaction! A stain upon the memory of Nelson, and the honour of England! To palliate it would be in vain; to justify it would be wicked; there is no alternative for one who will not make himself a participator in guilt, but to record the disgraceful story with

sorrow and with shame."

But the conduct of Nelson in the trial and execution of Prince Caraccioli, an aged Neapolitan nobleman of high character and great worth, deserves no less severity of condemnation than in the transaction which we have just mentioned. Prince Caraccioli, who was at the head of the marine, had been constrained to serve under the revolutionary government which had been established by the French, had been seized and carried on board Lord Nel son's ship, where Sir W. and Lady Hamilton then were. Nel

son

"issued an order to the Neapolitan commodore, Count Thurn, to assemble a courtmartial of Neapolitan officers, on board the British flag-ship, proceed immediately to try the prisoner, and report to him, if the charges were proved, what punishment he ought to suffer. These proceedings were as rapid as possible; Caraccioli was brought on board at nine in the forenoon, and the trial began at ten. It lasted two hours; he averred in his defence that he had acted under compul sion, having been compelled to serve as a common soldier till he consented to take command of the fleet. This, the apologists of Lord Nelson say, he failed in proving. They forget that the possibility of proving it was not allowed him; for he was brought to trial within an hour after he was legally in arrest; and how, in that time, was he to collect his witnesses? He was found guilty, and sentenced to death; and Nelson gave orders that the sentence should be carried into effect that evening, at five o'clock, on board the Sicilian frigate La Minerva, by hanging him at the forey ard-arm till sunset; when the body was to be cut down and thrown into the sea. Caraccioli requested Lieutenant Parkiuson, under whose custody he was placed, to intercede with Lord Nelson for a second trial-for this, among other reasons, that Count Thurn, who presided at the courtmartial, was notoriously his personal enemy. Nelson made answer that the prisoner had been fairly tried by the officers of his own country, and he could not interfere; forgetting that, if he felt himself justified in ordering the trial and the execution, no human being could ever have questioned the propriety of his interfering on the side of mercy. Caraccioli then entreated that he might be shot. I am an old man, sir,' said he: I leave no family to lament me, and therefore cannot be supposed to be very anxious about prolonging my life; but the disgrace of being hanged is dreadful to me.' When this was repeated to Nelson, he only told the lieutenant, with much agitation, to go and attend his duty. As a last hope, Carac cioli asked the lieutenant if he thought an application to Lady Hamilton would be beneficial? Parkinson went to seck her; she was not to be seen on this occasion-but she was present at the execution. She had the most devoted attachment to the Neapolitan court; and the hatred which she felt against those whom she regarded as its enemies, made her, at this time, forget what was due to the character of her sex, as well as of her country. Here, also, a faithful historian is called upon to pronounce a severe and unqualified condemnation of Nelson's conduct. Had he the authority of his Sicilian majesty for proceed