The Story of Nelson 27
In sending a copy of Nelson’s Report to the Admiralty, Sir Hyde Parker
paid a worthy tribute to the conduct of his second-in-command and of
his “entire acquiescence and testimony of the bravery and intrepidity
with which the Action was supported throughout the Line. Was it
possible,” he continues, “for me to add anything to the well-earned
renown of Lord Nelson, it would be by asserting, that his exertions,
great as they have heretofore been, never were carried to a higher
pitch of zeal for his Country’s service.
“I have only to lament that the sort of attack, confined within an
intricate and narrow passage, excluded the Ships particularly under my
command from the opportunity of exhibiting their valour; but I can with
great truth assert, that the same spirit and zeal animated the whole of
the Fleet; and I trust that the contest in which we were engaged, will
on some future day afford them an occasion of showing that the whole
were inspired with the same spirit, had the field been sufficiently
extensive to have brought it into action.”
Sentiments so ably expressed are delightful reading. Nelson, if less
dignified in his language, never failed to show his warm appreciation
of those who worked under him. Caring little for literary form, he
invariably blurted out the naked truth. His despatches were marked
by the same forcible characteristics exhibited in his conduct when
engaging the enemy. “The spirit and zeal of the Navy,” he tells a
correspondent who had congratulated him on the victory, “I never saw
higher than in this Fleet, and if England is true to herself, she may
bid defiance to Europe. The French have always, in ridicule, called us
a Nation of shopkeepers--_so_, I hope, we shall always remain, and,
like other shopkeepers, if our goods are better than those of any other
Country, and we can afford to sell them cheaper, we must depend on our
shop being well resorted to.”
An armistice for a term of fourteen weeks was agreed upon on the 9th
April 1801. This period would allow Nelson to settle with the Russian
fleet and return to Copenhagen, as he himself bluntly admitted during
the negotiations. Unused to such “straight talk” in diplomatic
overtures, one of the Danish Commissioners began to speak of a renewal
of hostilities. It merely added fuel to Nelson’s fire, and drew from
him the comment, made to one of his friends who was standing near,
“Renew hostilities! Tell him we are ready at a moment; ready to bombard
this very night.” The remark was quite sufficient to silence the man
who talked thus lightly of war.
An opportunity to teach the Russians a lesson did not come in Nelson’s
way. Scarcely more than a week passed from the time the signatures
had dried on the parchment when to Parker was sent news of the murder
of Paul I. With the death of the monarch Russian policy underwent a
complete change so far as Great Britain was concerned. The castles in
the air for the overthrow of the British rule in India, which the Czar
and Napoleon had hoped to place on solid foundations, melted away as
mist before the sun. Paul’s successor, Alexander I., knowing full well
the enormous importance of the British market for Russian goods, lost
no time in coming to terms with England. Shortly afterwards Sweden,
Denmark, and Prussia followed his example. The much-boasted Maritime
Confederacy was quietly relegated to the limbo of defeated schemes for
the downfall of the great Sea Power.
Meanwhile Sir Hyde Parker had been recalled from the Baltic, and had
placed his command in the hands of Nelson on the 5th May. The latter
proceeded from Kiöge Bay, his station since the birth of amicable
arrangements with the Danes, to Revel, where he hoped to meet the
Russian squadron he had been so anxious to annihilate before the battle
of Copenhagen.
“My object was to get to Revel before the frost broke up at Cronstadt,
that the twelve Sail of the Line might be destroyed,” he writes to
Addington, Pitt’s successor as Prime Minister, on the 5th May. “I shall
now go there as a friend, but the two Fleets shall not form a junction,
if not already accomplished, unless my orders permit it.” “My little
trip into the Gulf of Finland,” he tells Lord St Vincent, “will be, I
trust, of National benefit, and I shall be kind or otherwise, as I find
the folks.” Revel harbour was bare when he entered it, the squadron
having sailed for Cronstadt a few days before. However, on the 17th
May, he was able to inform Vansittart, “I left Revel this morning
where everybody has been kind to us.” He eventually returned to Kiöge
Bay, where he remained until he was relieved at his own request owing
to ill-health. “I have been even at _Death’s_ door, apparently in a
consumption,” he tells Ball, probably with a touch of exaggeration.
On the 19th June he set sail in a brig for home, arriving at Yarmouth
on the first day of the following month. His last act before he
quitted the fleet was to congratulate the men on the work they had
accomplished; his first act when he stepped on shore was to visit the
hospitals to which the wounded had been conveyed after the battle of
Copenhagen. As for his own reward, the King had seen fit to create him
Viscount Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe.
“_Let us think of them that sleep
Full many a fathom deep
By thy wild and stormy deep
Elsinore!_”
CHAPTER XVI
The Threatened Invasion of England
(1801)
“_Our Country looks to its Sea defence, and let it not be
disappointed._”
NELSON.
However much Nelson may have appreciated the visits to London, Box
Hill, and Staines, which he now made in the company of Sir William and
Lady Hamilton, it was soon evident that his stay on shore would be
short. No home ties were severed when he was appointed to a special
service on the 24th July 1801, for he had finally separated from his
wife six months before. It was a mistaken match in every way. Although
it is often said that people of opposite temperaments make the best
partners in marriage, it certainly was not so in the case of Nelson and
Mrs Nisbet. Some of the reasons for the unhappiness of both have been
given in a previous chapter, the prime cause was Lady Hamilton, for
whom Nelson continued to entertain a mad infatuation until the day he
died. Quite naturally and legitimately Lady Nelson resented the conduct
of her husband. Any woman would have done the same. Angry words were
spoken on both sides, leading to the final and irrevocable breach,
but it is characteristic of Nelson’s generous nature that on their
last interview he said: “I call God to witness there is nothing in
you or your conduct I wish otherwise.” He was no less generous in the
allowance which he made to her.
For some months Napoleon had been intent on the building of a
flotilla for the invasion of England. All manner of wild rumours
had spread throughout the country as to the imminent peril of the
United Kingdom, but we now know that the First Consul’s scheme was
comparatively insignificant when compared to his enormous ship-building
programme of 1803-5 for the same purpose.[60] Indeed, a month before
Lord St Vincent, then First Lord of the Admiralty, communicated to
Admiral Lutwidge, the Commander-in-chief in the Downs, that his
command would be impinged upon to some extent by Nelson’s new post,
and that the enemy’s preparations were “beginning to wear a very
serious appearance,” Napoleon had already postponed his plan. This is
made abundantly clear by the First Consul’s order of the 23rd June
to Augereau, in command of the Army of Batavia: “You will receive
instructions for the formation at Flushing of five divisions of
gunboats, which, added to the sixteen divisions in Channel ports, will
impose on England.” Napoleon perfectly understood that the moment for
“leaping the ditch” had not yet arrived. Of the Navy proper at the
beginning of 1801 Great Britain had no fewer than 127 sail-of-the-line
in commission; France had forty-nine, many in an almost unseaworthy
condition. The Admiralty was not to know of the letter to Augereau or
of the exact state of the French marine. Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk,
the ports of concentration, sheltered some 150 boats of various
descriptions for the purpose of the projected expedition, and England
could afford to run no risks.
Nelson’s command extended from Orfordness, in Suffolk, to Beachy
Head, in Sussex. The specific purpose of his squadron was to defend
the mouths of the Thames and Medway, and of the coasts of Sussex,
Kent, and Essex. He speedily grasped the situation, and surmising
that London _ought_ to be the enemy’s object, informed the Admiralty
that not only should “A great number of Deal and Dover Boats” be
available off Boulogne to “give notice of the direction taken by the
enemy,” but that gunboats and flat boats should be kept near Margate
and Ramsgate, between Orfordness and the North Foreland, and in
Hollesley Bay, these to be aided by floating batteries. “If it is calm
when the Enemy row out, all our Vessels and Boats appointed to watch
them, must get into the Channel, and meet them as soon as possible:
if not strong enough for the attack, they must watch, and keep them
company till a favourable opportunity offers. If a breeze springs up,”
he goes on, “our Ships are to deal _destruction_; no delicacy can be
observed on this great occasion. But should it remain calm, and our
Flotilla not fancy itself strong enough to attack the Enemy on their
passage, the moment that they begin to touch our shore, strong or weak,
our Flotilla of Boats must attack as much of the Enemy’s Flotilla as
they are able--say only one half or two-thirds; it will create a most
powerful diversion, for the bows of our Flotilla will be opposed to
their unarmed sterns, and the courage of Britons will never, I believe,
allow one Frenchman to leave the Beach.” When the enemy comes in sight
the various divisions of the flotilla “are to unite, but not intermix.”
“_Never fear the event._” These notions, embodied in a lengthy
Memorandum to the Admiralty, are remarkable because Nelson prophesies
“a powerful diversion by the sailing of the Combined Fleet,” a plan
developed by Napoleon in the later phase of his gigantic preparations
for the invasion of our country. Whatever may have been in his mind in
1801 regarding this scheme he certainly did not confide to any of his
admirals or military commanders.
Nelson hoisted his flag on the _Unité_ frigate at Sheerness on the 27th
July. Additional evidence of the humorous turn of his mind is afforded
in a note bearing the same date addressed to Lady Hamilton. “To-day,”
he writes, “I dined with Admiral Græme, who has also lost his right
arm, and as the Commander of the Troops has lost his leg, I expect
we shall be caricatured as the _lame_ defenders of England.” Most
people who have the misfortune to lose a limb are inclined to resent
any reference to the fact on the part of another and to rigidly ignore
the misfortune in their own remarks, but Nelson rather gloried in his
dismembered state than otherwise. It was visible proof of his service to his country.
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