A large part of the book is in Nelson's own words. Appreciating the importance, in treating a national hero, of keeping as close as possible to history, _I have, wherever it was feasible, used, whether in dialogue or description, the actual words of Nelson and his contemporaries_. These I have derived from his own published and unpublished correspondence and journals, from the narratives of his officers, and similar sources. Similarly, I have derived my chapter on his visit to Pompeii largely from an account of a visit to Pompeii written in 1802. The style of the narrator of the story, Captain Thomas Trinder, is founded upon unpublished journals and letters of the time, in the possession of my father. They were mostly written by his godfather, Mr. Henry Brooke, who lived at Walmer, and may be taken as fair specimens of the writing of the travelled and better-educated Kentish gentleman of his day. Mr. Brooke was one of the last heads of the now abolished Alien Office, and as such had much to do with the French princes exiled in England during the Napoleonic régime. He was also present at the restoration of the French monarchy. Some of the pieces of queer grammar, such as "I have wrote," were probably idiomatic at the time, others are mere loose writing. The scene of the book is mostly laid in Naples and Sicily, and to acquire the requisite local knowledge I have paid two long visits to these places in 1896-8. The Mont' alto Palace and the Castle of the Favara, in fact nearly all the buildings described, actually exist, though in most cases they are much decayed or altered. The Hamiltons' Palace at Naples, though now divided into apartments, remains much as it was, except that, in Nelson's time, the sea came close up to it. The features of the sea-front of Naples are very much altered since then; but the Comte de la Ville, who is at the head of the _Storia Patria_, the excellent historical society of Naples, was kind enough to show me almost contemporary plans of the places described. And here I wish to take the opportunity of pointing out that the Neapolitans and Sicilians of to-day differ as much from the corrupt hangers-on of the Bourbons as the English public men of to-day differ from the venal followers of Sir Robert Walpole. I need hardly say that the denunciations of them, and above all of the French, are not my own, but always derived from Nelson's expressed sentiments, and nearly always given in his exact words.