towards one another. We quote a passage from a letter, written on this occasion to his wife, which strikingly exhibits one strange peculiarity of his mind, the most towering ambition, subjected to a very humbling sense of weakness under divine superiority.

"I ought not to call what has happened to the Vanguard by the cold name of accident; I believe firmly it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummate vanity. I hope it has made me a better officer, as I feel confident it has made me a better man. Figure to yourself, on Sunday evening, at sunset, a vain man walking in his cabin, with a squadron around him, who looked up to their chief to lead them to glory, and in whom their chief placed the firmest reliance that the proudest ships of equal numbers belonging to France would have lowered their flags;-figure to yourself, on Monday morning when the sun rose, this proud man, his ship dismasted, his fleet dispersed, and himself in such distress, that the meanest frigate out of France would have been an unwelcome guest.' " Vol. i. p. 206.

While he was refitting at Sardinia, he was reinforced by eleven ships of the line, and then, for the first time in his life, he found himself at the head of a magnificent armament, well appointed, worthy of its commander, and prepared for any service, however dreadful, to which he might lead it. Unfortunately his frigates had been separated in the storm, and could not afterwards rejoin the fleet. This was the loss of his eyes to him, and his subse quent pursuit of the French to Egypt, back to Naples, and thence to Egypt again, was a chase in the dark, for want of these light and swift vessels to look out perpetually, and on every hand, for the enemy. That enemy, at length, he found in the port of Alexandria. The battle of the Nile followed, and raised him to the highest honour of his profession, and to the lowest of the peerage.

'The victory,' says Mr. Southey, was complete; but Nelson could not pursue it as he would have done, for want of means. Had he 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 dispatches 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." Vol. i. p. 239.

This is part of the price which the hero must pay for glory acquired by inflicting misery and death on his fellow-creatures: comparatively small disappointments inflicted anguish on his mind, which no words can express. But at what a cost of suffering to thousands and tens of thousands of mortals, alive to all the woes that flesh is heir to, and liable to all the perils to which spirits, fallen, yet immortal, are exposed throdgh eternity, is the

glory of one Nelson purchased! But Nelson had achieved a great deliverance; not only Europe, but even India felt relieved from a burthen of fear too horrible to be endured. The Grand Seignior, and the King of Naples, were the first monarchs to reward him with honours and endowments. At home he was created Baron Nelson, of the Nile, and a pension of 2000l. a-year, for three lives, was conferred upon him. Meanwhile, at Naples, he tarnished the lustre of his victory in Egypt. He fell into the toils of Lady Hamilton; and equally intoxicated with passion and pride, acted unworthily, and even cruelly, as the executioner of Neapolitan vengeance on those subjects of the King, who had been compelled or seduced, by French violence or craft, to violate their allegiance. His biographer thus speaks of Lady Hamilton.

Emma Lady Hamilton, who from this time so greatly influenced his future life, was a woman whose personal accomplishments have seldom been equalled, and whose powers of mind were not less fascinating than her person. She was passionately attached to the queen; and by her influence the British fleet had obtained those supplies at Syracuse, without which, Nelson always asserted, the battle of Aboukir could not have been fought. During the long interval which passed before any tidings were received, her anxiety had been hardly less than that of Nelson himself, while pursuing an enemy of whom he could obtain no information; and when the tidings were brought her by a joyful bearer open-mouthed, its effect was such, that she fell like one who had been shot. She and Sir William had literally been made ill by their hopes and fears, and joy at a catastrophe so far exceeding all that they had dared to hope for. Their admiration for the hero necessarily produced a degree of proportionate gratitude and affection; and when their barge came alongside the Vanguard, at the sight of Nelson Lady Hamilton sprang up the ship's side, and exclaiming, O God! is it possible! fell into his arms,-more, he says, like one dead than alive. He described the scene as "terribly affecting." Vol. ii. pp. 7-9.

But amidst all the delirium of glory and adulation that bewildered his senses, till he lost himself, Nelson was a most unenviable being. In a letter, not addressed to his wife, for from her he was now alienated, though a few weeks before, in the battle of the Nile, when he thought himself mortally wounded, he charged his chaplain to deliver to her his dying remembrance;-in a letter, addressed to his old friend, Mr. Alexander Davison, he says,

"Believe me, my only wish is to sink with honour into the grave; and when that shall please God, I shall meet death with a smile. Not that I am insensible to the honours and riches my king and country have heaped upon me,-so much more than any officer could deserve; yet am I ready to quit this world of trouble, and envy none but those of the estate six feet by two." Vol. ii p. 43.

In 1800, Nelson returned to England, where, says his biographer, he had every earthly blessing except domestic happiness; he had forfeited that for ever. Before he had been three months at home, he was separated from Lady Nelson. Some of his last words to her were, "I call God to witness, there i nothing in you, or in your conduct, that I wish otherwise.' This was the consequence of his infatuated attachment to Lady Hamilton. It had before caused a quarrel with his son-in-law, and occasioned remonstrances from his true friends; which produced no other effect than that of making him displeased with them, and more dissatisfied with himself. He did not long remain unemployed. In the spring of 1801, he was appointed second in command to Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, over a fleet sent to the Baltic, to chastise Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, for a coalition with France, against the maritime rights of Britain. Mr. Southey's narrative of this expedition, though minute in detail, is admirable in execution, and more picturesque and impressive than any thing that we have met with in these volumes. The talents of the historian, and the powers of his hero, are here displayed to the utmost advantage. We shall quote the description of the passage of the Sound by the British fleet, which ushers in the awful tragedy of the battle of Copenhagen, and presents to the mind a scene of beauty and solemnity, of magnificence and terror, that makes the heart throb with expectation and fear, while it is dilated with sublime and ineffable emotion, as the pictures, drawn by the poetical writer, by land and water, of living and inanimate nature, are perfectly realized in the reader's imagination.

Great actions, whether military or naval, have generally given celebrity to the scenes from whence they are denominated; and thus petty villages, and capes, and bays, known only to the coasting trader, become associated with mighty deeds, and their names are made conspicuous in the history of the world. Here, however, the scene was every way worthy of the drama. The political importance of the Sound is such, that grand objects are not needed there to impress the imagination; yet is the channel full of grand and interesting objects, both of art and nature. This passage, which Denmark had so long considered as the key of the Baltic, is, in its narrowest part, about three miles wide; and here the city of Elsineur is situated; except Copenhagen, the most flourishing of the Danish towns. Every vessel which passes, lowers her top-gallant sails, and pays toll at Elsineur: a toll which is believed to have had its o.igin in the consent of the traders to that sea, Denmark taking upon itself the charge of constructing light houses, and erecting signals, to mark the shoals and rocks from the Cattegat to the Baltic: and they, on their part, agreeing that all ships should pass this way, in order that all might pay their shares: none from that time using the passage of the Belt; because it was not fitting that they, who enjoyed the benefit of

the beacons in dark and stormy weather, should evade contributing to them in fair seasons and summer nights. Of late years about ten thousand vessels had annually paid this contribution in time of peace. Adjoining Eisineur, and at the edge of a peninsular promontory, upon the nearest point of land to the Swedish coast, stands Cronenburg Castle, built after Tycho Brahe's design; a magnificent pile; at once a palace, and fortress, and state prison, with its spires and towers, and battlements and batteries. On the left of the strait is the old Swedish city of Helsinburg; at the foot, and on the side of a hill. To the north of Helsinburg the shores are steep and rocky; they lower to the south; and the distant spires of Landscrona, Lund, and Malmoe, are seen in the flat country. The Danish shores consist partly of ridges of sand; but, more frequently, their slopes are covered with rich wood, and villages and villis, denoting the vicinity of a great capital. The isles of Huen. Saltholm, and Amak, appear in the widening channel; and, at the distance of twenty miles from Elsineur, stands Copenhagen, in full view; the best built city of the north, and one of the finest capitals of Europe; visible, with its stately spires, far off. Amid these magnificent objects, there are some which possess a peculiar interest for the recollections which they call forth. The isle of Huen, a lovely domain, about six miles in circumference, had been the munificent gift of Frederic the Second to Tycho Brahe. Here most of his discoveries were inade; and here the ruins are to be seen of his observatory, and of the mansion where he was visited by princes; and where, with a princely spirit, he received and entertained all comers from all parts, and promoted science by his liberality, as well as by his labours. Elsineur is a name familiar to English ears, being inseparably associated with Hamlet, and one of the noblest works of human genius. Cronenburg had been the scene of deeper tragedy: here Queen Matilda was confined, the victim of a foul and murderous court intrigue. Here, amid heart-breaking griefs, she found consolation in nursing her infant. Here she took her everlasting leave of that infant, when, by the interference of England, her own deliverance was obtained; and, as the ship bore her away from a country, where the venial indiscretions of youth and unsuspicious gaiety had been so cruelly punished; upon these towers she fixed her eyes, and stood upon the deck, obstinately gazing toward them, till the last speck had disappeared

The Sound being the only frequented entrance to the Baltic, the great Mediterranean of the North, few parts of the sea display so frequent a navigation. In the height of the season, not fewer than an hundred vessels pass every four-and-twenty hours, for many weeks in succession: but never had so busy or so splendid a scene been exhibited there as on this day, when the British fleet prepared to force that passage, where, till now, all ships had vailed their top-sails to the flag of Denmark. The whole force consisted of fifty-one sail, of various descriptions; of which sixteen were of the line The greater part of the bomb and gun vessels took their station off Cronenburg Castle, to cover the fleet; while others, on the larboard, were ready to engage the Swedish shore. The Danes, having improved every moment which ill-timed negotiation and baffling weather gave them,

had lined their shore with batteries; and as soon as the Monarch, which was the leading ship, came abreast of them, a fire was opened from about a hundred pieces of canron and mortars: our light vessels immediately, in return, opened their fire upon the castle. Here was all the pompous circumstance and exciting reality of war, without its effects; for this ostentatious display was but a bloodless prelude to the wide and sweeping destruction which was soon to follow. The enemies' shot fell near enough to splash the water on board our ships: not relying upon any forbearance of the Swedes, they meant to have kept the mid channel: but, when they perceived that not a shot was fired from Helsingburg, and that no batteries were to be seen on the Swedish shore, they inclined to that side. so as completely to get out of reach of the Danish guns. The uninterrupted blaze which was kept up from them till the fleet had passed, served only to exhilarate our sailors, and afford them matter for jest, as the shot fell in showers a full cable's length short of its destined aim. A few rounds were returned from some of our leading ships, till they perceived its inutility :-this, however, occasioned the only bloodshed of the day, some of our men being killed and wounded by the bursting of a gun. As soon as the main body had passed, the gun vessels followed, desisting from their bombardment, which had been as innocent as that of the enemy; and, about mid-day, the whole fleet anchored between the island of Huen and Copenhagen. Sir Hyde, with Nelson, Admiral Graves, some of the senior captains, and the com:nanding officers of the artillery and the troops, then proceeded in a lugger, to reconnoitre the enemies' means of defence; a formidable line of ships, radeaus, pontoons, galleys, fire-ships, and gun-boats, flanked and supported by extensive batteries, and occupying, from one extreme point to the other, an extent of nearly four miles.' Vol. ii. p. 102-109.

We would willingly quote the whole account of the tremendous engagement that ensued, but must content ourselves with the account of Nelson's personal conduct during it, which exemplifies some of the principal traits of his character,-romantie intrepidity, stimulated, rather than repressed, by a deep consciousness of mortality, and the continual thought of present death, a terrible delight in the tumult and devastation of battle, -excessive anxiety for the issue, and a stern disdain of the orders of an inferior mind in a superior officer.

• Nelson's agitation had been extreme when he saw himself, before the action begun, deprived of a fourth part of his ships of the line. But no sooner was he in battle, where his squadron was received with the fire of more than a thousand guns, than, as if that artillery, like music, had driven away all care and painful thoughts, his countenance brightened; and as a bye-stander describes him, his conversation became joyous, animated, elevated, and delightful. The commander-in-chief mean-time, near enough to the scene of action to know the unfavourable accidents which had so materially weakened Nelson, and yet too distant to know the real state of the contending parties, suffered the most dreadful anxiety. To get to his assistance