The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 2Harrison, James
History
The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 2
Harrison, James
Admirals -- Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Biography; Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount, 1758-1805
value.
Transient, however, seem to have been all the felicities of his
lordship's most eventful life. The happiness which he enjoyed, in seeing
the companions of his cares and successes thus rewarded with truly royal
munificence; while he felt himself remunerated, beyond his proudest hope
or expectation; the pleasing sensations which he must necessarily have
experienced on beholding the vast and magnificent preparations to
celebrate their united atchievments on the anniversary of receiving, at
Naples, the first intelligence of the glorious victory off the Nile,
which had arrived on the 3d of the preceding September; were not
permitted to remain undisturbed in his ever anxious bosom, even for a
few days.
On the 31st, his lordship received letters from Malta, which gave birth
to most extraordinary suspicions. The agonized feelings of his heroic
mind are not to be described; but, nothing could for a moment divert him
from the painful discharge of it's duty. In a state of inconceivable
agitation, he wrote the following letter to Sir John Acton.
"Palermo, 31st Aug. 1799.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"I send your excellency a letter from Captain Ball, of his
majesty's ship Alexander, with two papers enclosed. I cannot bear
the thought of what the papers convey; but it is my duty, as a
British admiral, to ask of your excellency an explanation of this
very extraordinary business--which, I trust in God, is entirely
false, as far as relates to his Sicilian Majesty and Prince Luzzi!
If this man is an unauthorized person, his majesty will have no
difficulty in approving of my condemning him as a spy; and, as
such, ordering him to be hanged. But, what shall I say, if Prince
Luzzi has authorized this man to enter La Vilette, and to
communicate with the enemy? I must say, that the minister has
betrayed his trust; for I never will believe, that their Sicilian
Majesties could treat in such a manner his Britannic Majesty, my
royal master. On your excellency's communication of his Sicilian
Majesty's pleasure, depends the line of conduct which my duty will
call upon me to perform. I have the honour to be, with the greatest
respect, your excellency's obedient servant,
"Bronte Nelson."
"His Excellency, Sir John Acton, Bart."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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