right to all his confidence and to
share all his honors, it challenges rather the sympathy than the
criticism of the reader. "I will relate another anecdote, all vanity
to myself, but you will partake of it: A person sent me a letter, and
directed as follows, 'Horatio Nelson, Genoa.' On being asked how he
could direct in such a manner, his answer, in a large party, was,
'Sir, there is but one Horatio Nelson in the world.' I am known
throughout Italy," he continues; "not a Kingdom, or State, where my
name will be forgotten. This is my Gazette. Probably my services may
be forgotten by the great, by the time I get home; but my mind will
not forget, nor cease to feel, a degree of consolation and of applause
superior to undeserved rewards. Wherever there iscould have been.
Even the royal favor was conciliated, despite the obstinate temper
which yielded prejudices with difficulty. "I must rejoice," wrote
Nelson to the Duke of Clarence, who had mentioned to him the King's
approval, "in having gained the good opinion of my Sovereign, which I
once was given to understand I had no likelihood of enjoying."[54] It
was to the honor of the monarch that he was thus as pliant to admit
merit in an officer as yet only rising to distinction, as he was firm
at a later day to stamp with the marks of his displeasure the flagrant
moral aberration of the then world-renowned admiral.

The coveted Knighthood of the Bath was accorded on the 17th of March,
"in order," wrote the First Lord, "to mark the Royal approbation of
your successful and gallant exertions on