"'At Quebec,' says Southey, 'Nelson became acquainted with Alexander Davison, by whose interference he was prevented from making what would have been called an imprudent marriage. The _Albemarle_ was about to leave the station, her Captain had taken leave of his friends, and was gone down the river to the place of anchorage; when the next morning, as Davison was walking on the beach, to his surprise he saw Nelson coming back in his boat. Upon inquiring the cause of his re- appearance, Nelson took his arm to walk towards the town, and told him he found it utterly impossible to leave Quebec without again seeing the woman whose society contributed so much to his happiness, and then and there offering her his hand.' 'If you do,' said his friend, 'your utter ruin must inevitably follow.' 'Then, let it follow,' cried Nelson; 'for I am resolved to do it.' 'And I,' replied Davison, 'am resolved you shall not.' Nelson, however, on this occasion was less resolved than his friend, and suffered himself to be led back to the boat.' "This led us to prepare a short 'Novelette' on the subject in the _Revue Canadienne_, in 1867, subsequently incorporated in the _Maple Leaves_: amended and corrected as new light dawned upon us in the _Tourists' Note Book_, issued in 1876, and _Chronicles of the St. Lawrence_, published in 1878. "Whether it was Alexander Davison, his tried friend in afterlife, as Southey suggests, or another Quebecer of note, in 1782, Matthew Lymburner, as Lt.-Col. John Sewell, on the faith of Hon. William Smith, the Historian of Canada, had stated to us, is of minor importance: one thing is certain, some thoughtful friend, in 1782, seems to have extricated the impulsive Horatio from the 'tangles of Neaera's hair' in the port of Quebec: the hand of fate had marked the future Captain of the _Victory_, not as the Romeo of a Canadian Juliet, but as the paramour of Lady Emma Hamilton. Alas! for his fair fame! It seems certain that the Commander of the _Albemarle_, during his repeated visits to our port, in July, September and October, 1782, became acquainted, possibly at some entertainment at Freemason's Hall,--the 'Windsor' of the period--with 'sweet sixteen' (he himself was but twenty-four) in the person of Miss Mary Simpson, the blooming daughter of an old Highlandman, Sandy Simpson, a cousin to Mr. James Thompson, then overseer of works, and father of the late Judge John Gwalor Thompson, of Gaspé, and of late Com.-General James Thompson, of Quebec. Sandy Simpson was an _habitué_ of this historical and, for the period, vast old stone mansion where Captain Miles Prentice, [133] as he had been styled in 1775, hung out, with good cheer, the olive branch of Freemasonry and of loyalty to his Sovereign. The _bonne société_ of Quebec, in 1782, was limited