The caricaturists soon pounced upon the subject, and the way in which the news of the victory was taken by different statesmen is very amusingly shown. (Gillray, October 3, 1798.) Burdett, who is always represented with his crop of hair combed over his eyes, is reading the ‘Extraordinary Gazette,’ and, in astonishment, exclaims, ‘Sure I cannot see clear?’ Jekyll is telling Lord Lansdowne how nine French ships of war were captured and two burnt; but his lordship claps his hands to his ears, and calls out, ‘I can’t hear, I can’t hear.’ The Duke of Bedford will not believe it, and is tearing up the notification of ‘the complete destruction of Buonaparte’s Fleet,’ exclaiming, ‘It’s all a damn’d Lye;’ whilst poor Erskine, with Republican briefs before him, drops the paper which tells him of the capture of Bonaparte’s despatches, and, with a smelling-bottle to his nose, plaintively calls out, ‘I shall faint, I, I, I.’ The poor Duke of Norfolk, whose many empty bottles of port testify to his inebriate condition, is very ill, and gives his opinion that ‘Nelson and the British Fleet’ is ‘a sickening toast.’ Tierney is in despair, and with the ‘End of the Irish Rebellion’ in his pocket, and on his knees a paper, ‘End of the French Navy. Britannia rules the Waves,’ calls out, with upturned eyes, ‘Ah! our hopes are all lost.’ Moodily, with his head resting on his hands, sits Sheridan, with a ‘List of the Republican Ships taken and destroyed’ before him, and his thoughts are of prudence, ‘I must lock up my Jaw.’ Black-visaged Fox, wearing a Cap of Liberty, has kicked over the stool that hitherto has supported him, and mournfully bidding ‘Farewell to the Whig Club,’ says, ‘and I---- end with Éclat.’ [Illustration] This victory of the Nile is very graphically depicted (Gillray, October 6, 1798) in the ‘Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt;--Destruction of Revolutionary Crocodiles;--or--The British Hero cleansing y^e Mouth of y^e Nile.’ Here Nelson has half-a-dozen crocodiles (typical of captured French ships) hooked and in his power, whilst, with a stout cudgel of ‘British Oak,’ he is spreading deadly blows and consternation into a quantity of tricoloured crocodiles. The blowing up of the ‘Orient’ is shown by one crocodile which is thus being destroyed.