To the Admiral’s supreme disgust his own claims to the appointment were disregarded. Lord St Vincent’s command was given to Lord Keith, who had the additional good fortune to find that the French fleet was in Vado Bay. Nelson, urged on by Ferdinand and perhaps by Lady Hamilton, was on his voyage to Naples with a body of troops to render assistance to the royalists, when two British sail-of-the-line hove in sight. One of them bore an important despatch from Keith, to the effect that not only was the enemy at sea but likely to be bound towards Nelson. The latter immediately returned to Palermo, disembarked the soldiers and their munitions, and cruised off Maritimo. Here he hoped to be joined by the _Alexander_ and _Goliath_, which he had ordered to proceed from Malta some days before. Provided they arrived his force would be raised to eighteen battleships, including three Portuguese--four less than the enemy. “I shall wait off Maritimo,” he says, in reply to Keith, “anxiously expecting such a reinforcement as may enable me to go in search of the Enemy’s fleet, when not one moment shall be lost in bringing them to battle; for I consider the best defence for his Sicilian Majesty’s Dominions, is to place myself alongside the French.” No further ships arrived, and Nelson therefore returned to Palermo. Keith’s neglect aroused Nelson’s wrath to such an extent, that while he was at sea he sent a copy of the above letter to the Earl of St Vincent, complaining that the Commander-in-chief had not sent him “a force fit to face the Enemy: but, as we are, I shall not get out of their way; although, as I am, I cannot think myself justified in exposing the world (I may almost say), to be plundered by these miscreants. I trust your Lordship will not think me wrong in the painful determination I conceived myself forced to make, for agonized indeed was the mind of your Lordship’s faithful and affectionate servant.” Mahan remarks that Nelson’s station off Maritimo was strategically sound, enabling him to intercept the approach of the enemy “to either Naples or Sicily,” and it was while he was cruising here that he received a despatch from his former Commander-in-chief to the effect that Keith was searching for the French, and that reinforcements were making their way to Port Mahon. Nelson was convinced that the enemy was steering for Naples. After a brief visit to the King at Palermo and receiving Sir William and Lady Hamilton on board the _Foudroyant_, he sailed for the capital.