280 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS suffering under inconveniences which a conscientious discharge of his duty had brought on him, he talked of quitting the service of an ungrateful country. In March, 1787, he married Mrs. Nisbet, a West-Indian lady, and in the same year returned to England. He continued unemployed till January, i 793 ; when, on the breaking out of the French wars, he was appointed to the Agamemnon, sixty-four, and ordered to serve in the Mediterranean under the command of Lord Hood. An ample field for action was now open to him. Lord Hood, who had known him in the West Indies, and appreciated his merits, employed him to co-operate with Paoli in delivering Corsica from its subjection to France ; and most labori- ously and ably did he perform the duty intrusted to him. The siege and capture of Bastia was entirely owing to his efforts ; and at the siege of Calvi, during which he lost an eye, and throughout the train of successes which brought about the temporary annexation of Corsica to the British crown, his services, and those of the brave crew of the Agamemnon, were conspicuous. In 1 795 Nelson was selected to co-operate with the Austrian and Sardinian troops in opposing the progress of the French in the north of Italy. The incapacity, if not dishonesty, and the bad success of those with whom he had to act, rendered this service irk- some and inglorious ; and his mortification was heightened when orders were sent out to withdraw the fleet from the Mediterranean, and evacuate Corsica and Elba. These reverses, however, were the prelude to a day of glory. On February 1 3, 1797, the British fleet, commanded by Sir John Jervis, fell in with the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. In the battle which ensued. Nelson, who had been raised to the rank of Commodore, and removed to the Captain, seventy-four, bore a most distinguished part. Apprehensive lest the enemy might be enabled to es- cape without fighting, he did not hesitate to disobey signals, and executed a man- ceuvre which brought the Captain into close action at once with three first-rates, an eighty, and two seventy-four gun ships. Captain Trowbridge, in the Culloden, immediately came to his support, and they maintained the contest for near an hour against this immense disparity of force. One first-rate and one seventy-four dropped astern disabled ; but the Culloden was also crippled, and the Captain was fired on by five ships of the line at once ; when Captain Collingwood, in the Ex- cellent, came up and engaged the huge Santissima Trinidad, of one hundred and thirty-six guns. By this time the Captain's rigging was all shot away ; and she lay unmanageable abreast of the eighty-gun ship, the San Nicolas. Nelson seized the opportunity to board, and was himself among the first to enter the Spanish ship. She struck after a short struggle ; and, sending for fresh men, he led the way from his prize to board the San Josef, of one hundred and twelve guns, ex- claiming, " Westminster Abbey or victory." The ships immediately surrendered. Nelson received the most lively and public thanks for his services from the ad- miral, who was raised to the peerage by the title of Earl St. Vincent. Nelson re- ceived the Order of the Bath ; he had already been made Rear- Admiral, before tidings of the battle reached England. During the spring, Sir Horatio Nelson commanded the inner squadron em-
