Availing himself of the departure of the English fleet for the Mediterranean, the alarm excited by his Egyptian expedition, the panic that would be inspired by his sudden appearance at Boulogne, and his preparations against England, he hoped to oblige that power to withdraw her naval force from the Mediterranean, and to prevent her sending out troops to Egypt.

This project was often in his head.

He would have thought it sublime to date an order of the day from the ruins of Memphis, and three months later, one from London.

The loss of the fleet converted all these bold conceptions into mere romantic visions.
When alone with me he gave free vent to his emotion.

I observed to him that the disaster was doubtless great, but that it would have been infinitely more irreparable had Nelson fallen in with us at Malta, or had he waited for us four-and-twenty hours before Alexandria, or in the open sea.