"I cannot give up my officers," he said, in the spirit that so endeared him to his followers; but the compliment was felt, and was enhanced by the admiral's approval of his motives.

The prospective occupation of Toulon gave occasion for a yet more nattering evidence of the esteem in which he was held.

As soon as the agreement with the city was completed, but the day before taking possession, Hood despatched him in haste to Oneglia, a small port on the Riviera of Genoa, and thence to Naples, to seek from the latter court and that of Turin[18] a reinforcement of ten thousand troops to hold the new acquisition.

The "Agamemnon" being a fast sailer undoubtedly contributed much to this selection; but the character of the commanding officer could not but be considered on so important, and in some ways delicate, a mission.
"I should have liked to have stayed one day longer with the fleet, when they entered the harbour," he wrote to Mrs.Nelson, "but service could not be neglected for any private gratification,"-- a sentiment she had to hear pretty often, as betrothed and as wife, but which was no platitude on the lips of one who gave it constant demonstration in his acts.

"Duty is the great business of a sea officer," he told his intended bride in early manhood, to comfort her and himself under a prolonged separation.