The King and Queen, however, found this method of blockade too slow, and determined to appeal to the conservative instincts of many of their subjects, who had lazily acquiesced in the Ja cobin coup d'etat, through the agency of an eminent ecclesiastic— Cardinal Ruffo. His Eminence landed in Italy, and his appeal for an "Army of the faith" was soon answered by thousands flocking to his banner, and he was even joined by a detachment of Russians and Turks. While these events were taking place, a French fleet of 26 vessels, under Admiral Bruix, set out from Brest and was joined by 17 Spanish warships at Cartagena. Such a force constituted a threat to Nelson who called up his ships from Malta and Naples and prepared for resistance. He man aged, however,—and this was important in view of Ruffo's suc cessful beginning—to maintain the blockade of the latter by means of a squadron of small ships placed under Captain Foote of the frigate "Seahorse." The Franco-Spanish threat proved an idle one and the allied fleet soon retired, but, in the meanwhile, Ruffo was driving all before him and finally shut up the French in the Castle of St. Elmo, in the city of Naples, and the native insurgents in the sea-washed castles of Uovo and Nuovo. From this commanding position he began to parley with the enemy, and the king, hearing of this, and nervous of what the Cardinal might do—he had not been empowered to make terms of peace—asked Nelson to pro ceed to Naples and take matters into his hands.
Peace.—Nelson sailed for Naples, with Sir William and Lady Hamilton on board, on June 21st, and arrived there on the 24th to find the white flag flying from the castles and from his own flotilla. Supposing this to indicate an armistice, he at once made signal for the resumption of hostilities, only shortly to be informed by Captain Foote that matters had gone further and that a treaty of peace had been signed by which the native insurgents were to be allowed to leave their strongholds with all the honours of war, and were to be carried by ship to countries that would be glad to receive them. In making such a treaty there can be no doubt that Ruffo had greatly exceeded his instructions, though it is probable that he was actuated by motives of humanity since his control over his bloodthirsty army was incomplete. Nelson refused to listen to Ruffo's arguments or to admit the validity of his undertakings. Furthermore, he argued, there was no need for the insurgents, if they unconditionally sur rendered as he proposed to make them, to trust themselves to the mob on shore, since they could be accommodated in boats with out being taken to friendly countries. He agreed to let the armistice run its course, but let it be known that at the end of it he would expect unconditional surrender._ This he received, and the rebels were placed in boats. One, Carraciolo, reached the hills, only to be caught at last and brought to Ruffo who, in his turn, because Carraciolo was a naval officer, handed him over to Nelson in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Nea politan fleet. Nelson at once convened a court martial of Nea politan officers to try the rebel. The Court sentenced him to death by a majority vote, and this sentence was duly carried out.
For refusing to carry into effect Ruffo's peace terms and for not interfering to prevent the execution of Carraciolo, Nelson has been violently, and at times virulently, attacked, but it can not be said that his traducers had ever succeeded in making out a very strong case against him. The whole matter is too involved to be fully discussed here; the conclusions which have been reached by scholars on either side have almost invariably reflected the political parti pris of the writers.
The whole question of Nelson's conduct at Naples is of course bound up with his friendship with Lady Hamilton. No one denies that it was now that Nelson's friendship for this woman ripened into the intimacy that was eventually to separate him from his wife. But that a private attachment, culpable as it may have been, warped his judgment in public matters no one has yet shown, nor has anyone explained why it should.
These events were shortly followed by the reduction of the French and by the restoration of the Nea politan royal family in July, while in the same month Nelson laid himself open to a sharp rebuke from the Admiralty for disobeying the orders of Lord Keith who had been appointed to succeed Lord St. Vincent in the Mediterranean command. Keith, puzzled as to the objective of a combined Franco-Spanish fleet, decided that Minorca was in danger, and ordered Nelson to its defence. Nelson decided that it was not in danger and did not go. His judgment was correct, but his disobedience was inexcusable. On Jan. loth, 180o, having in the meantime been created Duke of Bronte by the King of Naples, Nelson joined Keith at Leghorn to take part in an attempt on Corsica, during which he captured "Le Genereux" which had escaped him at the Nile. Shortly after wards he obtained leave to go home and, not being spared a battle ship, he travelled overland with Sir William and Lady Hamilton, being greatly feted on the way. He landed in England in No vember.
His leave, though it was long enough to promote the final separation between him and his wife, was short. He became Vice-Admiral on Jan. 1, 180i, and soon after was offered the post of second-in-command to Sir Hyde Parker in the fleet which was to break up the armed neutrality of the northern powers. It is difficult to see why such a brilliant man was subordinated to one of such ordinary gifts as Parker, who appears at the beginning to have been suspicious of the abilities of his second-in-command. Nelson, however, choked down his natural disgust, and treated Parker with such tact that the Ad miral's hostility soon melted into something approaching friend ship. Indeed Nelson had his Commander-in-Chief to some ex tent under his thumb by the time they reached Copenhagen, and so was permitted, with rather more than half the fleet, to carry out his famous attack on the city and its defences that resulted in the battle of Copenhagen (q.v.). This battle showed up strongly Nelson's ability to hit upon the weak point in a de f ensive scheme, and is famous also for his action in putting his telescope to his blind eye when, in the middle of the fight, his attention was directed to Parker's signal ordering his withdrawal, and declaring he could not see it. It was an order that could not be obeyed without serious consequences to the fleet. In May, Parker was recalled and Nelson assumed the command, but the armed neutrality was dissolved and this left him with little to do. His health, too, was bad and in June he came home, his services being recognised by the bestowal of the title of Viscount. In the interval, before the Peace of Amiens, he was in command of a flotilla of small ships that were to combat Napoleon's threat of invasion. More in the hope of satisfying public opinion than for any other reason, an attack was launched on Boulogne with the object of destroying the flat-bottomed boats situated there. The port, however, was too strongly defended even for a Nelson.