Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
NELEUS
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: NAN-NEW
del.icio.us it!
|
NELEUS , in See also:Greek See also:legend, son of See also:Poseidon and Tyro, See also:brother of See also:Pelias. The two See also:children were exposed by their See also:mother, who afterwards married Cretheus, See also: He went to the West Indies with Captain Locker in the " See also:Lowestoft " frigate, was transferred to the See also:flagship by the See also:admiral commanding on the station, See also:Sir See also:Peter See also:Parker (1721-1810, and was then by him promoted in rapid See also:succession to the command of the " See also:Badger " brig, and the " Hinchinbrook " frigate. By this See also:appointment, which he received in 1779, he was placed in the rank of See also:post captain (from which promotion to See also:flag rank was by seniority), at the very See also:early See also:age of twenty. His connexion with Captain Suckling may, no doubt, have been of use to him, but in the See also:main he owed his rapid rise to his See also:power of winning the See also:affection of all those he met, whether as comrades or superiors. Sir Peter Parker and See also:Lady Parker remained his friends all through his life. In 178o he saw his first active service in an expedition to See also:San Juan de See also:Nicaragua, which was rendered deadly by the See also:climate. He was brought to See also:death's See also:door by See also:fever, and invalided home once more. In 1781 he was appointed to the "See also:Albemarle" frigate, and after some See also:convoy service in the North See also:Sea and the See also:Sound was sent to See also:Newfoundland and thence to the North See also:American station. " See also:Fair See also:Canada," as he has recorded in one of his letters, gave him the good See also:health he had so far never enjoyed. At See also:Quebec he formed one of those passionate attachments to See also:women which marked his career. He now made the See also:personal acquaintance of Sir See also:Samuel See also:Hood, See also:Lord Hood. In the autobiographical sketch already quoted he mentions the high See also:opinion formed of him by the admiral who presented him to See also:Prince See also: He appeared, says the Prince,
"to be the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld; and his See also:dress was worthy of See also:attention. He had on a full-laced See also:uniform; his lank unpowdered See also:hair was tied in a stiff See also:Hessian tail of an extra-See also:ordinary length; the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat added to the See also:general quaintness of his figure, and produced an See also:appearance which particularly attracted my See also:notice; for I had never seen anything like it before, nor could I imagine who he was or what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed when Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly pleasing in his address and conversation; and an See also:enthusiasm, when speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no See also:common being." The slight oddity of appearance,
In See also: He called the attention of the See also:government to the corruption prevailing in the dockyard of Antigua. His See also:line was in all cases correct, but it impressed the See also:admiralty as somewhat assuming, and his strong See also:measures against the interloping See also:trade brought on him many lawsuits, which, though he was defended at the expense of the government, caused him much trouble for years. In the West Indies on the 12th of March 1787 he married Frances Nisbet (1761-1831), the widow of a See also:doctor in See also:Nevis,whose favour he first gained by being found romping on all fours with her little boy under the See also:drawing-See also:room table. The See also:marriage was one of affection and prudence, rather than of love.
Though Nelson had as yet seen little active service, and that little had not been specially distinguished, he had already gained that reputation within his own service which commonly precedes public recognition. His See also:character had been fully See also:developed, and his capacity proved. His See also:horizon was narrow, being strictly confined to his profession. He had all the convictions of the typical See also: War having broken out, he was appointed captain of the "See also:Agamemnon" (64) on the 3oth of See also:November 1793; and joined his ship on the 7th of See also:February. From this date till See also:June 1800, rather more than seven years, he was engaged on continual active service, with the exception of a few months when he was invalided home. This See also:period is the most varied, the busiest, the most glorious and the most debated of a very full career. It subdivides naturally into three sections; (r) From the date o1 his appointment as captain of the "Agamemnon" till he was disabled by the loss of his See also:arm in the unsuccessful attack on See also:Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the 24th of See also:July 1797 he served as captain, or See also:commodore, under Hood, See also:Hotham and Jervis, successive commanders-in-See also:chief in the Mediterranean. (2) After an See also:interval of nine months spent at home in recovering from his See also:wound, and from the effects of a badly performed operation, he returned to the Mediterranean, and was at once sent in pursuit of the great French armament which sailed from See also:Toulon under the command of See also:Napoleon for the See also:conquest of See also:Egypt. His victory of the See also:Nile on the 1st of See also:August 1798 placed him at once in the foremost rank among the warriors of a warlike time, and made him a See also:national hero. With his return to See also:Naples on the 22nd of See also:September the second period ends. (3) From now till he landed at See also:Leghorn on the 26th of July 1800, on his return home across See also:Europe, he was entangled at Naples in See also:political transactions and intrigues, which he was III prepared to See also:deal with either by nature or training, and was plunged into the absorbing See also:passion, II ' which did increase his popularity with the See also:mob, but cost him many friends. The first of these three passages in his life is full of events which must, however, be told briefly. In May he sailed for the Mediterranean with Hood, and was engaged under his orders in the occupation of Toulon by the allied See also:British and. See also:Spanish forces. In August 1793 he was despatched to Naples to convoy the troops which the Neapolitan government had undertaken to contribute towards the See also:garrison of Toulon. It was on this occasion that he made the acquaintance of Emma See also: In Sir John Jervis, who superseded Hotham, he found a See also:leader after his own See also:heart. When Spain, after first making peace with France at See also:Basel, declared war on England, and the fleet under Jervis withdrew from the Mediterranean, Nelson was despatched to See also:Elba on a hazardous See also:mission to bring off the small garrison and the naval stores. He sailed in the "Minerve" frigate, having another with him. After a See also:smart See also:action with two Spanish frigates which he took off Carthagena on the loth of See also:December, and a narrow See also:escape from a See also:squadron of Spanish line of See also:battle See also:ships, he fulfilled his mission, and rejoined the flag of Jervis on the See also:eve of the great battle off Cape St See also:Vincent on the 14th of February 1797 (see ST VINCENT, BATTLE oF). The See also:judgment, See also:independence and promptitude- he showed in this famous engagement, were rewarded by the conspicuous part he had in the victory, and revealed him to the nation as one of the heroes of the navy. Nelson receiving the swords of the Spanish officers on the See also:deck of the " San Josef " became at once a popular figure.
A few days after the victory he became See also:rear-admiral by seniority, but continued with Jervis, who was made a peer under the title of See also:Earl St Vincent. Nelson's own services were recognized by the See also: Nelson's well-established character for daring marked him out for a See also:duty which could only succeed by dash and surprise, if it was to succeed at all. But the Spaniards were on the alert, and the attack, made with the utmost daring on the See also:night of the 24th of July, was repulsed with heavy loss. Some of the boats missed the See also:mole in the dark and were See also:stove in by the surf, others which found the mole were shattered by the See also:fire of the Spaniards. Nelson's right See also:elbow was shot through, and he See also:fell back into the boat from which he was directing the attack. The amputation of his arm was badly performed in the See also:hurry and the dark. He was invalided home, and spent months of extreme See also:pain in London and at Bath. On the loth of April 1798 he came back to the fleet off Cadiz as rear-admiral, with his flag in the " See also:Van-guard " (74). He was now one of the most distinguished officers in the navy. Within the next six months he was to raise himself far above the heads of all his contemporaries. It was notorious that a great armament was preparing at Toulon for some unknown destination. To discover its purpose, and to defeat it, the British government resolved to send their naval forces again into the Mediterranean, and Nelson was chosen for the command by Jervis, with whom the immediate decision See also:lay, but also by ministers. Having joined the flag of Lord St Vincent outside of the straits of See also:Gibraltar on the 3oth of April, Nelson was detached on the 2nd of May into the Mediterranean, with three line-ofbattle ships and five frigates, to discover the aim of the Toulon armament. Napoleon had, however, enforced rigid secrecy, and the British admiral had to confess that the French were better than the British at concealing their plans. Beyond the fact that a powerful combined force was collected in the French See also:port he could learn nothing. On the loth of May the " Vanguard " was dismasted in a See also:gale. Nelson See also:bore the check in a highly characteristic manner. "I ought not," he wrote, "to See also:call what has happened by the See also:cold name of See also:accident; but I believe firmly that it was the Almighty's goodness to check my consummate vanity." The " Vanguard " was saved from going on shore by the See also:seaman-like skill of Captain See also:Ball of the "See also: At no time in his life were the See also:noble qualities of his nature displayed more entirely See also:free from all alloy. He was an embodied See also:flame of See also:resolution, and as yet he showed no sign of the vulgar bluster which was to appear later. In the midst of his anxieties his kindness of heart shone forth without a trace of the tendency of sentimental gush so irritatingly obvious in after days. Unlike most admirals of his time, he did not live apart from his captains, but saw much of them, and freely discussed his plans with them. He had his See also:reward in their devotion and perfect comprehension of what he wished them to do. At the same time he acquired an See also:absolute confidence in the efficiency of his squadron, the magnificent force which had been formed by years of successful war, and by the careful training of his predecessors. The captains were the See also:band of See also:brothers he himself had made them. The great victory of the 1st of August 1798 (see NILE, BATTLE OF) brought Nelson yet another wound. He was struck on the forehead by a langridge shot, and had for a time to go below. It is perhaps to be lamented in the interest of his fame that the wound was not severe enough to compel him to return home. After providing for the blockade of what remained of the French fleet in Alexandria, he sailed for Naples, and arrived there on the 22nd of September. There was no rear-admiral of any See also:standing in the navy who could not have done what remained to be done in the Mediterranean, under the supervision of St Vincent, as well as he. For him Naples was a pitfall. There awaited him there precisely the influences to folly which he was least able to resist. He loved being loved, and was the man to think the See also:gift a See also:debt. He had an insatiable appetite for praise. With those weaknesses of character which caused Lord See also:Minto, who yet never ceased to regard him with sincere friendship, to say that he was in some respects a " baby," he was disarmed in the presence of the two women who now made a determined attempt to capture him. Emma Hamilton, who could not help endeavouring to conquer every man she met, was naturally eager to dominate one who had filled Europe with his fame. Behind Emma was the See also:queen of Naples, Maria Carolina, a woman who had a See also:share of the ability of her mother Maria See also:Theresa without any of her See also:fine moral qualities. Maria Carolina was all her life trying to fight the power of revolutionary France, with no better resources than were afforded her by the insignificant See also:kingdom of Naples, and a See also:husband who was the embodiment of all the faults of the See also:Italian Bourbons. She had made use of the See also:English minister's wife as an instrument of political intrigue, and now she employed her to See also:manage Nelson. We have the repeated assertions of Nelson himself in all his ample See also:correspondence from September 1798 to July of r800, and indeed later, to prove that he was, in his own tell-See also:tale phrase, persuaded to "Sicilyfy" his See also:conscience—in other words to turn his squadron into an instrument for the ambition, the revenge and the fears of Maria Carolina, the " Dear Queen " of his letters to Emma Hamilton. It is highly probable that he was secretly influenced by annoyance at the pedantry of the British government, which only gave him a See also:barony for the splendid victory of the Nile, en the ridiculous ground that no higher title could be given to an officer who was not a See also:commander-in-chief. All doubt as to the character of his relations with Lady Hamilton has been laid at See also:rest by the See also:Morrison papers. None ought ever to have existed, for, if Nelson did not love this woman in the fullest possible sense of the word, his conduct would be inexplicable on any other See also:hypothesis than that he was an See also:imbecile. He allowed her to See also:waste his See also:money, to See also:lead him about " like a See also:bear," and to See also:drag him into gambling, which he naturally hated. For her See also:sake he offended old friends, and quarrelled with his wife in circumstances of vulgar brutality. That he believed she had See also:borne him a See also:child can no longer be disputed, and he carried on with her a correspondence under the name of See also:Thompson which was apparently meant to deceive her husband, but is varied by See also:grotesque explosions which destroy the illusion, such as it was. In the hands of these two women, and in the See also:intoxication produced on him by flattery, which could not be too copious or See also:gross for his See also:taste, Nelson speedily became a Neapolitan royalist of far greater sincerity than was to be found among the king's subjects except in the ranks of the Lazzaroni. He gratified the headlong queen by egging her torpid husband into an exceedingly foolish attack on the French garrisons thenoccupying the so-called See also:Roman See also:republic. The collapse of the Neapolitan forces was instant and ignominious. The court fled to See also:Palermo in December, under the See also:protection of the British squadron. At Palermo Nelson remained directing the operations of the ships engaged in blockading See also:Malta, then held by the garrison placed in it by Napoleon when he took it on his way to Egypt, and sinking continually deeper into his See also:slavery to Lady Hamilton, till the See also:spring of the following See also:year. He was then aroused by a See also:double call. A royalist See also:army led by the king's See also:vicar-general, Fabrizio See also:Ruffo (q.v.), had succeeded in recovering the greater part of the kingdom of Naples from the government set up by the French, and called, in the pedantic See also:style of the revolutionary See also:epoch, the Parthenopean republic. A French fleet commanded by Admiral Bruix entered the Mediterranean. See also:News of the appearance of Bruix reached Nelson just as he was about to sail for Naples with the See also:heir apparent to co-operate with Ruffo and his " See also:Christian Army." He immediately took steps to concentrate his ships, which had been reinforced by a small Portuguese squadron, at Marittimo on the western coast of Sicily, where he would be conveniently placed to meet the French, if they came, or to unite with the ships of Lord St Vincent. He was, however, half distraught between his sense of what was required by his duty to his own service and the obligations he had assumed towards the sovereigns of Naples. In the end he resolved to sail for Naples, this time without the See also:crown prince, in order to carry out a mission entrusted to him by the king.
The See also:story of Nelson's visit to Naples in the June of 1799 will probably remain a subject for perpetual discussion. His reputation for humanity and probity is considered to depend on the view we take of his actions there and at this period. It is true that the relative importance of these episodes has been much diminished by the publication of the Morrison Papers, and that it has at all times been exaggerated. From the Morrison Papers we know that, when his passions were concerned, he was not incapable of stratagems to deceive his old friend Sir William Hamilton. It is the less incredible that he should have been willing to use deceit against persons whom he hated so fiercely as he did the Neapolitan See also:Jacobins, in his double quality of English Tory and Neapolitan Royalist. But apart from his laxity in the course of a double See also:adultery, his letters, written to many different See also:people during his stay on the coasts of Naples, contain more than sufficient See also:evidence to show that he was utterly unhinged by excitement, and was unable to estimate the real character of many of his own words and deeds. He considered himself as owing an equal See also:allegiance to See also: A man who allowed his thoughts to dwell in an See also:atmosphere of hysterical ferocity, and was above all a man of action, was well on the way to interpret his words into deeds. It was while he was in this heated See also:state that he was sent to preside over the fall of the Parthenopean republic at the end of June 1799. King Ferdinand had not been unwilling to offer terms to those of his subjects who had joined with the French to establish the republic, so long as he was under the See also:influence of fear. But when the French had been defeated in See also:northern See also:Italy and had left the Republicans to their own resources, he became more anxious to make an example. In the early parts of June he heard that Ruffo was inclined to clemency, and See also:grew very eager to prevent any such mistake. No more effectual way of enforcing rigour could be imagined than to put the See also:control of events entirely in the hands of Nelson, whose sentiments were well known, who was notoriously under the influence of Emma Hamilton, that is to say, of the queen, and who, as a stranger, would have no See also:family or social attachments with the republicans, no changes of fortune nor future revenges to fear. That he asked Nelson to go to Naples, giving him large See also:powers, may be considered certain. A commission in the full sense he could not give without the consent of the king of Great See also:Britain, and that was not even asked for. But Nelson had general instructions from home to support the Neapolitan government, and though this only meant, and could only mean, as an ally and against the common enemy, he understood it in a much wider sense, while he considered himself as being See also:bound to Ferdinand in the relation of subject to sovereign by the grant of the duchy of See also:Bronte in Sicily, which he had just received. He therefore sailed to Naples resolved to See also:act in the double capacity of English and Neapolitan admiral, of English opponent of the Jacobins, and of Neapolitan royalist. The general cause of Europe and the particular revenge of the king and queen were of equal importance to him. When he entered the See also:Bay of Naples on the 24th of June he found that a See also:capitulation had been agreed upon some See also:thirty-six See also:hours earlier, between Ruffo, acting as vicar-general, with the consent of Captain See also:Foote (1767-1833) of the " Seahorse," the See also:senior British naval officer present, on the one See also:side, and the Neapolitan republicans on the other. The republicans had been reduced to the See also:possession of the castles of Uovo and Nuovo, and had been glad to secure terms which allowed them to go into See also:exile in France. Nelson denounced an arrangement which would have precluded all cutting off of heads as "infamous." He ordered the See also: The republicans in the forts did claim that they were covered by the capitulation, and that it had been violated. It is difficult to see in what way the service of King See also:George was forwarded by Nelson's zeal for King Ferdinand. Such discredit as fell on him would have been avoided if he had kept to his duty as British admiral, and had not thought it See also:incumbent on him to prove himself a good Neapolitan royalist. On the 29th of June See also:Francesco See also:Caracciolo (q.v.), a Neapolitan naval officer who had joined the republicans, was brought to Nelson as a prisoner. Out of his See also:desire to make an example of a proper head, and in the full knowledge that Caracciolo'sdeath would be pleasing to the queen, Nelson, in virtue, seemingly, of his supposed commission as Neapolitan admiral (which he did not possess), ordered a court See also:martial of Italian officers to sit, on an English ship, to try the prisoner. The court could only find him guilty, and Caracciolo was hanged. The See also:sentence was just, but the See also:procedure was indecent, and Nelson's intervention cannot be justified. At this period of his life it is indeed difficult to represent Nelson's actions in a favourable light. In July he disobeyed the order of Lord See also:Keith to send some of his ships to See also:Minorca, on the ground that they were needed for the See also:defence of Naples. The influence of the queen, exercised through Emma Hamilton was partly responsible for his wilfulness, but a great deal must be put down to his annoyance at finding that Keith, and not he himself, was to succeed St Vincent as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. After the victory of the Nile he became, in fact, incapable of acting as a subordinate. Until he left for home in June 1800, except during the short interval when he acted as commander-in-chief in the See also:absence of Keith, he was captious, querulous and avoided leaving Palermo as much as he could, and far more than he ought. When forced out he made his health an excuse for going back. He began a See also:quarrel with Troubridge which ripened into See also:complete estrangement. He wearied out his friends at the Admiralty, and finally extorted leave to return. As Keith would not allow him to take a line of battleship for his See also:journey home with the Hamiltons, and indeed said plainly that Lady Hamilton had commanded the Mediterranean station long enough, he returned across Europe with his friends. Accounts of the figure they cut, and the sensation they created at See also:Vienna and at See also:Dresden, can be found in the Minto correspondence, and in the reminiscences of Mrs St George, afterwards Mrs See also:Trench (1768-1827). He reached home in November. In England he was received with the utmost popular enthusiasm, but with coldness by the king, the Admiralty, and by the great official and social See also:world. His erratic and self-willed conduct towards Lord Keith sufficiently explains the distrust shown by My Lords of the Admiralty. Their uneasiness was not diminished by their knowledge that his renown made it quite impossible to lay him aside at a crisis. The king, a man of strict domestic habits and strong religious convictions, was undoubtedly offended by the scandals of Nelson's life at Naples, and he cannot but have been displeased by the admiral's openly avowed readiness to devote himself to King Ferdinand. English society as represented by the First Lord, Lord See also:Spencer, and his wife, may not have shared the moral indignation of the pious king; but their taste was offended, and so was their self-respect, when Nelson insisted on forcing Lady Hamilton on them, and would go nowhere where she was not received. When it was discovered that he insisted on making his wife live in the same See also:house as his See also:mistress, he was considered to have infringed the accepted See also:standard of good See also:manners. After enduring insult at once cruel and cowardly, to the See also:verge of poorness of spirit, Lady Nelson rebelled. A complete separation took See also:place, and husband and wife never met again.
On the 1st of See also:January 18or Nelson became See also:vice-admiral by seniority. The See also:alliance of the Northern powers of which the See also:Tsar See also:Paul was the inspiring spirit, made it necessary for the British government to take vigorous measures in its own defence. A fleet had to be sent on a very difficult and dangerous mission to the Baltic. The Admiralty would have been unpardonable, and would not have been excused by public opinion if, when it had at its disposal such an admirable weapon as the conqueror of the Nile, it had failed to employ him. Nelson was chosen to go as a matter of course, but unfortunately, it was thought proper to put him under the command of Sir See also:Hyde Parker (q.v.) an officer of no experience, and, as the Admiralty ought to haw known, of See also:commonplace, not to say indolent, character. Nelson bore the subordination with many See also:bitter complaints, but on the whole with See also:patience and tact. Sir Hyde Parker began by keeping his formidable second in command at arm's length, but Nelson handled him with considerable See also:diplomacy. Knowing
his superior to be fond of good living he caused a turbot to be caught for him on the Dogger See also:Bank, and sent it to him with a complimentary See also:message. Sir Hyde was not insensible to the attention, and thawed notably. We have the good fortune to possess the notes taken during the See also:campaign by See also:Colonel See also: Colonel Stewart has put on See also:record many stories of Nelson which have a high See also:biographical value. He saw the hero when his character was displayed in all its strength and its weakness. Nelson was at once burning for See also:honour, ardently desirous to serve his country at a great crisis, and yet longing for rest and for the See also:company of Emma Hamilton. His passion had, if possible, been increased by the See also:birth of the child Horatia, whom he believed to be his own, and his See also:jealousy was excited by fears that Emma would become an See also:object of attention to the prince of See also:Wales (afterwards George IV.). His health, as Colonel Stewart justly observed, was always affected by anxiety, and during the Baltic campaign he complained incessantly of his sufferings. See also:Nervous irritation provoked him into See also:odd explosions of excitement, as when, for instance, he suddenly interfered with the working of his flagship while the officer of the See also:watch was tacking her on the See also:south coast of England, and so threw her into disorder. When he saw the consequences of his untimely intrusion he sharply appealed to the officer to tell him what was to be done next, and when the embarrassed lieutenant hesitated to reply, burst out with, " If you do not know, I am sure I See also:don't," and then went into his See also:cabin. His subordinates learnt to take these manifestations as matters of course, knowing that they were wholly without malignity. To them he was always See also:kind, even when they were at fault, taking, as his own phrase has it, a penknife where Lord St Vincent would have taken a See also:hatchet. Colonel Stewart tells how he was wont to invite the midshipmen of the middle watch to breakfast, and romp with them as if 'he had been the youngest of the party. The playfulness of his nature came out, in See also:combination with his heroism, when he adorned his refusal to obey Sir Hyde's weak See also:signal of recall in the middle of the battle, which would have been disastrous if it had been acted on, by putting his See also:telescope to his See also:blind eye and declaring that he could not see the order to retire. At such moments all could see his agitation; but, as the surgeon of the " See also:Elephant," which bore his flag at See also:Copenhagen, says, they could also see that " it was not the agitation of indecision, but of ardent animated patriotism panting for See also:glory." When Sir Hyde Parker was recalled in May, Nelson assumed the command in the Baltic; but the See also:dissolution of the Northern See also:Confederation left him little to do. His health really suffered in the cold See also:air of high latitudes, and in June he obtained leave to come home. His services were grudgingly recognized by the title of See also:viscount. During the brief interval before the peace he was put in command of a flotilla to combat Napoleon's futile See also:threat of invasion. In the hope of quieting public anxiety rather than in any serious expectation of success, an attack was made on a French flotilla strongly protected by its position, at See also:Boulogne, which was disastrously repulsed. Nelson was not in command on the spot, and if he had been would in all See also:probability have renewed his experience at Santa Cruz. He could not do the impossible more than other men. He was only more ready to try. While the brief peace made at See also:Amiens lasted, he remained on shore. His home was with the Hamiltons in the See also:strange house-hold in which Sir William showed that his 18th-See also:century training had taught him to accept a domestic See also:division with a good See also:grace, and had not left him too squeamish to profit by the pecuniary advantages which may attend the relation of complacent husband. His death on the 6th of April 1803 made no See also:change in the life of the admiral. He lived almost wholly at Merton, where he had See also:purchased a small house, which Emma filled with memorials of his glory and of her now passing beauty. She fed him profusely with the flattery which he, in Lord Minto's words, swallowed as a child does pap; and she was in turn adored by him, and treated with profound deference by his family, with the exception of his See also:father. When the ambition of Napoleon made it impossible to keepup the fiction of peace, Nelson was at once called from retirement, and this time there could be no question of putting him under the authority of any other admiral. He was appointed to the Mediterranean command, and hoisted his flag in May 1803. Between this date and his death in the hour of full triumph on the 21st of October 18os, he was in the centre and was one of the controlling See also:spirits of the vast military and naval See also:drama which after filling for more than two years the immense See also:stage bounded by Europe and the West Indies, found its closing See also:scene in See also:Trafalgar Bay (see TRAFALGAR). In spite of the anxieties of an arduous command Nelson was serene and at his best in this last period of his life. Once only did the See also:ill-advised boasting of See also:Latouche Treville provoke him into a scolding See also:mood. The French officer spoke of him as having fled before his French ships, and the vaunt, which had no better See also:foundation than that Nelson had retired before superior See also:numbers when reconnoitring, exasperated him into threatening to make the Frenchman eat his letter if ever they met. Nelson could boast, but his loudest words are not ridiculously out of proportion to his deeds. The last hours at Trafalgar will never be forgotten by English-men. There is no figure in English See also:history at once so magnificent in battle, and so penetrating in its See also:appeal to the emotions, as was Nelson on that last day when under his leadership the fleet annihilated the last lingering fear that Napoleon would ever carry his desolating arms into the British Islands. It matters little that the woman of whom he thought to the last was utterly unworthy of him, had perhaps never rendered the services he supposed her to have done for their country, and was about to dishonour his memory by See also:mercenary immorality. He must be worse than censorious who can think unmoved of Nelson kneeling in See also:prayer by his cabin table as the " Victory " rolled slowly down on the enemy on the 21st of October, appealing to See also:God for help, and See also:writing the See also:codicil in which he left his mistress and his child to the gratitude of his country. It is said that his famous signal was to have been worded " Nelson confides that every man will do his duty," and that his own name was replaced by that of England on the See also:suggestion of one of his officers. The use of his name as an See also:inspiration and an appeal would have been perfectly consistent with his See also:tone at all times, but he agreed to the alteration with the indifference of a man to whom self and country were one at that hour. " Expects " replaced " confides that " because the signal lieutenant Pascoe pointed out to him that the verb originally chosen must be spelt out letter by letter in a long See also:string of flags. He parted with Captain See also:Blackwood of the " Euryalus " with a prophecy of his approaching See also:fate. The sight of Coiling-See also:wood, the friend of his youth, leading the See also: When Captain Hardy came down to See also:report the progress of the battle, his inherent love for full triumph drew from him the See also:declaration that less than twenty prizes would not satisfy him. He clung to his authority to the end. The suggestion that See also:Collingwood would have to decide on the course to be taken was answered with the eager claim, " Not while I live. " But the last recorded words were of affection and of duty. He begged Hardy for a See also:kiss, and he ended with the proud and yet humble claim, " I have done my duty, thank God for that." His See also:body was brought home in his flagship and laid to rest in St Paul's. He is commemorated in London by the See also:monument in Trafalgar Square, completed in 1849 with a See also:colossal statue by E. H. See also:Baily, and surrounded by See also:Landseer's See also:bronze lions, added in 1867. In estimating the character of Nelson, and his achievements, there are some elements which must be allowed for more fully than has always been the See also:case. He was, to begin with, the least English of great Englishmen. He had the excitability, the vanity, the desire for approbation without much delicacy as to the quarter from which it came, which the See also:average Englishman of Nelson's time, his judgment obscured by the effects of centuries of racial rivalry culminating in the See also:Napoleonic See also:wars, was wont to attribute to Frenchmen. Where there is vanity there is the capacity for spite and envy. Nor was Nelson altogether free from these unpleasant faults. But in the main his der ire to be liked combined with a natural kindness of disposition to make him appeal frankly to the See also:goodwill of those about him. He won to a very great extent the affection he valued, and that from men so widely different in character as Lord Minto and the See also:simple-hearted See also:seamen among whom he passed the best part of his life. He could be cruel when his emotions were aroused by evil influences, with the downright See also:cruelty he displayed at Naples, or the more subtle See also:form of hardness in his conduct to his wife, when his duty to her stood in the way of his love for Emma Hamilton. But they were few to whom the evil side of his nature was shown, while the captains and seamen for whom he did much to make a hard duty more tolerable were to be counted by the thousand. As a commander he belonged to the See also:race of See also:Pyrrhus and the prince of See also:Conde—the fighters of battles. His victories were won at the head of a force which had been brought to a high level of efficiency by three generations of predecessors, against enemies who had been, as in the case of the French, disorganized by a social revolution which had ruined their discipline, who were inexperienced as the Danes were, or who, as in the case of the Spaniards, were sunk in a moral and intellectual decadence. But he estimated the vices of his opponents with full insight. Wielding a fine instrument, and confronted by inferior enemies, he was entitled to dare much, and it is a See also:proof of his sagacity that he saw how far he could dare, caring but little for the bulk of the force in front of him, and looking to the spirit. Above all, he had the power to inspire the enthusiasm he See also:felt, and to make men act above themselves because he was there, and because they found a joy in pleasing him. Among all the warriors of his generation Napoleon alone was a greater See also:master of the souls of men, and See also:Blucher alone came near him. Nelson had no children by his wife. His daughter Horatia, by Lady Hamilton, became the wife of the Rev. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] NEJEF, or MESHED |
[next] NELLIDAE, TEREBRATULIDAE |