Nelson: The Essential Hero (40 page)

What Fanny and his old father, sitting at Round Wood in the quiet of England, thought about it all is difficult to imagine. They could hardly visualise this world of wine and fireworks and Roman extravaganza. It must have been equally difficult for them to associate it with the man whom they had known in the past - the struggling sea-captain, often wounded in his country’s service, but always obsessed with the desire to get to sea and find himself in the forefront of action against the French.

That August, in return for his services to the King and Queen, Nelson was offered the dukedom of Bronte, an estate lying in the foothills of Mount Etna, which was said to be worth £3,000 a year.

Although he made some mild show of reluctance at accepting the royal gift, Nelson yielded to the protestations of the King and Queen that it was little enough in return for his having restored them to their kingdom. He liked the name Bronte, meaning ‘Thunder’, and was soon to begin signing himself ‘Bronte Nelson of the Nile’, a signature which he later changed - after he had received his own monarch’s permission to use his foreign title - to ‘Nelson and Bronte’. Despite his preoccupations in Palermo it cannot be said that during Keith's absence Nelson did nothing at all towards looking after his widespread command. He was increasingly absorbed in the affairs of Malta where the Maltese, deprived of regular corn shipments from Sicily, were starving while the French were still holding out behind the magnificent fortifications of Valetta. Troubridge and Ball were increasingly distressed by the situation of the Maltese peasantry, who had proved the most redoubtable allies but who must inevitably collapse if their needs were not met. In the end an arrangement was made whereby corn shipments were brought down from eastern Sicily
sub rosa
(for it was contrary to the orders of the Government), and the island settled down to another long winter of siege. Nelson had also been to Minorca where he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to prevail upon the military commander to spare him 2,000 men to assist him in the investment of Valetta.

Meanwhile, Napoleon, worsted by Sir Sidney at Acre, had escaped from the East which had now become not the pathway to his ambitions, but a trap from which he must escape at all costs. In France itself there seemed considerable likelihood of the monarchy being restored unless by some miracle a military leader could preserve the Republic. Emmanuel Sieyes, one of the five Directors, had remarked: ‘I seek a sword.’ And now, having by a series of seeming miracles evaded the British ships on watch throughout the Mediterranean, Napoleon slipped across the sea aboard the frigate
Muir on.
It might hardly be thought that to have abandoned an army, lost a fleet, and been worsted at Acre were the credentials to commend him to his fellow countrymen, but Napoleon still possessed an infinite glamour. Furthermore, so desperate was the situation in France, and so weak the leadership, that the return of this genie from the East was all that was needed to revive the vigour of his countrymen. On 9 October, Napoleon landed at Frejus in southern France. Despite the proven superiority of the British Navy, he had twice escaped Nelson on the waters of the Mediterranean. Within a month of his arrival in France, he had not only given his country a new constitution but himself held the reins of power as First Consul. The British were now to be confronted not only with a fresh and intense activity of their enemies but with something that was to prove even more distasteful to them than the Revolution - a military dictatorship.

The
New Year brought a new century, one in which Napoleon’s hold upon the Continent (despite Nelson’s expressed belief that the war would soon be over) was immeasurably to strengthen. The year also started for Nelson with an unwelcome summons to Leghorn where Lord Keith, having returned to his command, was more than anxious to see his disobedient junior. Keith’s behaviour throughout this period was a model of restraint. He was Nelson’s senior by three years as a flag-officer, and twelve years in age; he was a man of irreproachable, even if unglamorous, record; and he was well aware of the predicament that Nelson had got himself into through his infatuation with the wife of the British ambassador. It was not the kind of situation that quiet Scottish admirals relish having to handle. Nelson for his part, accustomed to his diet of praise and his role as sole commander, did not take kindly to becoming second fiddle on the Mediterranean scene. The spoiled boy met the stem but just schoolmaster.

Keith’s first action was to go down with Nelson to Sicily to take a look at things for himself, and then to proceed to Malta to see what further efforts could be made to bring the protracted siege to an end. One of the first things which must have pleased Keith — even if it had exactly the reverse effect on the other actors in the drama - was the news that Sir William Hamilton was being relieved of his post. He had been thirty-six years with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and he had himself suggested the year before that he would like to return to England to look after his estates. It should have come as a shock to no one that a younger man, the Honourable Arthur Paget, had been appointed to relieve him. Nevertheless all w^as confusion in the court, the Queen
^{
half dead with grief’, Emma lamenting in inconsolable attitudes, and even Sir William somewhat bemused at the prospect of leaving a world where he had become an Inglese Italianato’, even if not the corollary ‘diavolo incarnato’.

There was much to concern both Keith and Nelson in the affairs of Malta. The Russian Admiral Ushakov had been ordered by the Tsar to abandon the blockade of the island and to withdraw his fleet from the Mediterranean. At the same time the Tsar, who was growing disillusioned with his allies and was contemplating making terms with the French, had instructed Marshal Suvarov to leave Italy and retire to Prague. It looked as if the siege of Valetta, which had promised to end in the near future, might be far from over. Keith was eager to see the state of things for himself and at the same time to remove Nelson from the idleness of Palermo, and concentrate his attention on the beleaguered island. Ironically enough, Keith’s determination to take Nelson with him down to Malta was to add a further feather in the latter’s cap during the last months of his career in the Mediterranean.

On 13 February, Nelson wrote to Emma Hamilton from the
Foudroyant
: ‘We are now off Messina with a fresh breeze and fair. [He had picked up the northerly wind that often funnels between the straits.] . . . To say how I miss your house and company would be saying little; but in truth you and Sir William have so spoiled me that I am not happy anywhere else but with you, nor have I an idea that I ever can be.’ He was soon to achieve the only true happiness that suited his nature : a successful action at sea that almost closed the book on the Battle of the Nile.
Le Genereux
, which had managed to escape from the net at Aboukir Bay, had been sent under Rear-Admiral Peree in company with three smaller warships to escort three transports carrying 3,000 troops, as well as stores and munitions, to relieve General Vaubois in Valetta. Keith, who was aboard the
Queen Charlotte
off Malta, on receiving the news from a frigate that the convoy was off the west of Sicily heading for Malta with a favourable wind, despatched Nelson in the
Foudroyant
together with the
Northumberland
and the
Audacious
to beat to windward and endeavour to intercept the French squadron. There was a heavy sea and a thick fog, through which the British tacked back and forth covering the northern approaches to Malta and seeking the enemy.

It was at dawn on 18 February that they heard through a pearly grey mist the distant boom of cannon. The
Alexander
, which had been on patrol off the south-east of the island, had come across the reinforcing French squadron. It had come under the lee of Malta intending to cut up the coast on the short run into Valetta. They had anticipated a close watch being kept on the Malta-Sicily channel, and had hoped that by coming round from the south they would escape detection. Nelson and the ships with him, being to the north of the French, now had the weather gauge and turned promptly towards the sound of firing. Tray God,’ he wrote in his journal, ‘we may come alongside them.’ The
Alexander
meanwhile had engaged the largest transport and had forced her to heave to, on seeing which the escorts had withdrawn in an attempt to escape - for it was clear that other British vessels would soon be on the scene. They were hotly pursued by the frigate
Success
under Captain Peard who, in Nelson’s words, ‘with great judgement and gallantry, lay across his hawse, and raked him with several broadsides’. The brief action which followed has been preserved in the amber of the account of Midshipman Parsons, who was himself aboard the
Foudroyant.
Although often quoted, it can hardly be omitted, for it is one of the only pictures that have survived the years to give a vivid picture of Nelson in action. ‘ “Deck there!” ’ it begins, ‘ “the stranger is evidently a man-of-war - she is a line-of-battle ship, my Lord, and going large on the starboard tack.”

‘ “Ah ! an enemy, Mr Stains. I pray God it may be
Le Genereux
. The signal for a general chase, Sir Ed’ard . . . make the
Foudroyant
fly!” [Captain Sir Edward Berry had replaced Hardy in command of Nelson’s flagship.]

‘Thus spake the heroic Nelson; and every exertion that emulation could inspire was used to crowd the squadron with canvas, the
Northumberland
taking the lead with the flagship close on her quarter.

‘ “This will not do, Sir Ed’ard; it is certainly
Le Genereux
and to my flagship she can alone surrender. Sir Ed’ard, we must and shall beat the
Northumberland
.”

‘ “I will do my utmost, my lord; get the engine to work on the sails [to pump water over the canvas to tauten it and make it draw better] - hang butts of water to the stays - pipe the hammocks down, and each man place shot in them - slack the stays, knock up the wedges, and give the masts play - start off the water, Mr James, and pump the ship.”

‘The
Foudroyant
is drawing a-head, and at last takes the lead in the chase.

‘ “The admiral is working his fin (the stump of his right arm), do not cross his hawse, I advise you.”

‘The advice was good, for at that moment Nelson opened furiously on the quarter-master at the conn. [Conning the ship.]

‘ “I’ll knock you off your perch, you rascal, if you are so inattentive. Sir Ed’ard, send your best quarter-master to the weather wheel.”

‘ “A strange sail ahead of the chase,” called the look-out man. . . .

^c
“A sloop of war, or frigate, my lord,” shouted the young signal-midshipman.

‘ “Demand her number.”

‘ “The
Success
, my lord.”

‘ “Captain Peard; signal to cut off the flying enemy - great odds, though - thirty-two small guns to eighty large ones.”

‘ “The
Success
has hove-to athwart-hawse of the
Genereux
, and is firing her larboard broadside. The Frenchman has hoisted his tricolour, with a rear-admiral’s flag.”

‘ “Bravo,
Success
, at her again !”

‘ “She has wore round, my Lord, and firing her starboard broadside. It has winged her, my lord — her flying kites are flying away altogether. The enemy is close on the
Success
, who must receive her tremendous broadside.”

‘The
Genereux
opens her fire on her little enemy, and every person stands aghast, afraid of the consequences. The smoke clears away, and there is the
Success
, crippled, it is true, but bull-dog like, bearing up after enemy.

‘ “The signal for the
Success
to discontinue the action, and come under my stern,” said Lord Nelson. “She has done well, for her size. Try a shot from the lower deck at her, Sir Ed’ard.”

‘ “It goes over her.”

‘ “Beat to quarters, and fire coolly and deliberately at her masts and yards.”

‘The
Genereux
at this moment opened her fire on us; and, as a shot passed through the mizzen stay-sail, Lord Nelson, patting one of the youngsters on the head, asked him jocularly how he relished the music; and observing something like alarm depicted on his countenance, consoled him with the information that Charles XII ran away from the first shot he heard, though afterwards he was called “The Great”, and deservedly, from his bravery. “I, therefore,” said Nelson, “hope much from you in future.”

‘Here the
Northumberland
opened her fire, and down came the tricolour ensign, amidst the thunder of our united cannon.’

Berry now boarded the prize and received Rear-Admiral Peree’s sword, but the Admiral himself was dying from having had both legs taken off in one of the broadsides, Berry had last been aboard
Le
Genereux
when he had been wounded and taken prisoner after her capture of the
Leander
bearing the despatches about the Battle of the Nile.

Nelson was lucky - that quality which Napoleon required of his marshals. Had it not been for the initiative of Lord Keith it is extremely doubtful whether he would have left Palermo. As Ball wrote to Emma Hamilton, reporting the capture of
Le Genereux
and the dispersal of the rest of the convoy: ‘We may truly call him a
heaven-
born Admiral, upon whom fortune smiles wherever he goes. We have been carrying on the blockade of Malta sixteen months, during which time the enemy never attempted to throw in succours until this month. His Lordship arrived here the day they were within a few leagues of the island, captured the principal ships, so that not one has reached the port.’ Nelson for his part commented that twelve out of thirteen line-of-battle ships that had been at the Nile had now been accounted for, leaving only the
Guillaume Tell
which remained safe within Grand Harbour, protected by the guns of Valetta.