care the least about the men." Yet he himself was so
beloved by his men, that his whole ship's company
offered, if he could get a ship, to enter for her im-
mediately. He was now, for the first time, presented
at court. After going through this ceremony, he
dined with his friend Davison, at Lincoln's Inn. As
soon as he entered the chambers, he threw off what
he called his iron-bound coat; and, putting himself at
ease in a dressing-gown, passed the remainder of the
day in talking over all that had befallen them since
they parted on the shore of the river St. Lawrence.

"I HAVE closed the war," said Nelson, in one of his
letters, "without a fortune; but there is not a speck in
my character. True honour, I hope, predominates in
my mind far above riches." He did not apply for a
ship, because he was not wealthy enough to live on
board in the manner which was then become cus-
tomary. Finding it, therefore, prudent to economise
on his half-pay during the peace, he went to France,
in company with Captain Macnamara, of the navy,
and took lodgings at St. Omer's. The death of his
favourite sister, Anne, who died in consequence of
going out of the ballroom, at Bath, when heated with
dancing, affected his father so much that it had nearly
occasioned him to return in a few weeks. Time, how-
ever, and reason and religion, overcame this grief in
the old man; and Nelson continued at St. Omer's
long enough to fall in love with the daughter of an
English clergyman. This second attachment appears
to have been less ardent than the first; for, upon
weighing the evils of a straitened income to a married
man, he thought it better to leave France, assigning
to his friends something in his accounts as the cause.
This prevented him from accepting an invitation from
the Count of Deux Ponts to visit him at Paris, couched

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