The following laconic epistle to Captain Troubridge, at Leghorn, exhibits a true sailor's letter.
"Naples, Dec. 10th 1798.
"MY DEAR TROUBRIDGE,
"I have just received Mr. Windham's letter of November 30th, and find it is settled that all the cargoes of the Genoese ships should be landed; and all the French privateers disarmed, and their crews sent away. So far, I am content. Money is not our object; but to distress the common enemy. I hope, if you liked it, you visited the Grand Duke, in my stead; I could not have been better represented—the copy is a damned deal better than the original.
"Nelson."
"Duckworth has a captain under him; John Dixon, from England, is
Post Captain; and Mr. Grey arrived."
At the same time, he wrote to his Excellency the Honourable Mr. Windham, apologizing for not having himself accepted his Royal Highness the Grand Duke's invitation to visit him at Pisa. "I have," says he, "to request that you will present my most profound acknowledgments to his Royal Highness. I was under a sacred promise, to return here as expeditiously as possible; and not to quit the Queen and Royal Family of Naples, without her majesty's approbation. This will plead my cause for quitting Leghorn so expeditiously."
Another letter, written to Mr. Windham this day, is too interesting to be omitted. It presents his opinion of the patriotic character of Mr. Windham, the disinterestedness of his own, and the wretched pusillanimity of the Neapolitan officers.
Naples, 10th Dec. 1798.