Nelson: The Essential Hero (29 page)

The incident of the intercepted brig and the sighting of the frigates has often been treated as if it had no more significance than that Nelson learned the enemy had taken Malta, and had a six-day start on him for some conjectural destination. It was far more important than that. The frigates seen by the British did not fail to sight the approaching fleet. After all, that was exactly what frigates were designed for, to be the lookouts and eyes of a battle fleet. The fact that they did see and report back to Napoleon is confirmed by a letter from Louis Bonaparte, who was in the expedition, to his brother Joseph. Napoleon and Admiral Brueys now learned that, contrary to prior reports and expectations, the British had returned to the Mediterranean. Proof of this is the subsequent course taken by the French armada : a temporary diversion from their real objective which had the intended effect of throwing the hunters off the scent.

One minor puzzle remains. At a later date, after his return to Sicily, Nelson was to write to Sir William Hamilton in Naples: ‘It has been said that to leeward of the two frigates off Cape Passaro was a line-of-battle ship, with the riches of Malta on board, but it was the destruction of the enemy, not riches for myself, that I was seeking. These would have fallen to me if I had had the frigates, but except the ship-of-the-line, I regard not all the riches in the world.’ The ship to which Nelson here refers (although he was not to know it at the time) was clearly Brueys’ flagship
L'Orient
with Napoleon on board, which had
left
Malta three days before the two frigates were sighted. It is clear that, while watering in Syracuse before the second stage of the chase, Nelson and others heard many details as to the activities of the French during their initial occupation of the island. Among them was the despoliation of churches and palaces, and in particular the looting of the great cathedral of St John in Valetta. This wealth had indeed been embarked aboard
L'Orient
, but even if she was the last in the line to leave Malta she would hardly have still been in sight on the twenty-second, when the
Mutine
spoke to the Italian brig. Here, later information has been imposed upon previous observation : observation in which there is no mention of any French being in sight except the frigates.

Nelson had long suspected that, if Sicily were not Napoleon’s objective, then it must most likely be Egypt, which in its turn meant Alexandria, the only port on that inhospitable shore capable of harbouring a large fleet. He was not alone in his thinking, for Henry Dundas, the Secretary for War, in a letter to Lord Spencer at the Admiralty written early in June had suggested he had a feeling that Egypt - with India as the ultimate objective - was at the heart of Napoleon’s plans. Rumour had also been rife on the Continent that the French expedition was embarking notable savants, historians and antiquarians with a view to uncovering the treasures of the East as well as setting up schools and administrative centres which would spread the language and culture of France over what would soon be her new possessions. Captain Sidney Smith, at that time a French prisoner of war, had managed to get a letter out of France as early as January that year, with a warning to the effect that the aims and ambitions of the Directory extended to Egypt and beyond. After Sidney Smith’s release Lord St Vincent had personally heard his tale, and undoubtedly passed it on to Nelson.

So, despite the excellent security maintained by the French - which still at this moment off Cape Passero had Nelson and his senior officers unsure as to what move to make - there had been straws in the wind of gossip as well as enlightened speculation about Bonaparte’s real intentions. Indeed, two days before reaching Naples, Nelson had written to Lord Spencer that he had learned from a Tunisian vessel off the Italian coast that the French had been seen off Trapani in western Sicily, headed towards the east. ‘If they pass Sicily I shall believe they are going on their scheme of possessing Alexandria - a plan concocted with Tippoo Sahib, by no means so difficult as might at first be imagined.’ Well, they had indeed bypassed Sicily, taken Malta en route, and were now certainly eastward bound. Yet even so, and convinced as he was of their destination, Nelson wanted to sound out the opinions of his captains. If they trusted him, he equally trusted them. It was this mutual value set upon each other, this shared confidence, as well as steady exchange of views between the ‘Band of Brothers’ that set the British fleet quite apart from the French - quite apart indeed from possibly any other fleet that had previously existed.

Berry, Nelson’s own Captain aboard
Vanguard
, held the same opinion as his Admiral. But then he might have been influenced by so forceful a personality. Saumarez, not entirely a Nelson partisan (more experienced in fleet actions, he had referred to Nelson, whose ambitious nature was alien to him, as ‘our desperate Commodore’) was summoned aboard the flagship together with Ball, Darby and Troubridge for a discussion. Saumarez later gave his opinion in writing that: ‘Under all the circumstances I think it most conducive to the good of His Majesty’s service to make the best of our way for Alexandria, as the only means of saving our possessions in India should the French Armament be destined for that country.’ Although both Corfu and Constantinople were mentioned as possibilities, the general concurrence was that Alexandria was more likely. Troubridge also confirmed in a letter that, in his opinion, ‘their getting of Alexandria or any port in Egypt will put our possessions in India in a very perilous situation’. The order was given and the fleet ‘crowding sail’ dropped the flanks of the Sicilian foothills behind them and altered course to the south-east. The chase was on. But the hounds which pursued were deprived of their eyes. They had only their sense of smell (their deductive intelligence) to rely on as to the direction taken by the hunted.

Napoleon himself had every reason to feel content - even though he was upon this infernal element the sea, where things could not be directed as they could ashore by his critical and strategic evaluations, let alone determined by his will. Here, whatever revolutionary France might say as to ‘God is dead’, fate or the imponderable powers of nature still held sway. Napoleon would almost certainly have agreed with the words of ’Amr, that great general and passionate follower of Mahomet, who had himself conquered Alexandria and subdued Egypt in the seventh century. Contemplating the sea and ships upon it, he had remarked : ‘If a ship lies still, it rends the heart; if it moves, it terrifies the imagination. Upon it a man’s power ever diminishes and calamity increases. Those within it are like worms in a log, and if it rolls over they are drowned.’

Nevertheless, for the moment Napoleon was relaxed. Malta had been, as he had always known it would be, a fruit so over-ripe that it had fallen into his hand with scarcely a touch. ‘Certainly,’ as he wrote, ‘it possessed vast physical powers of resistance, but no moral strength whatsoever.’ He had secured this essential base, and General Vaubois with his troops would be able to hold Valetta and prevent any British ships entering the great harbour. Before joining
L'Orient
at Toulon Napoleon had asked Brueys to make sure that a comfortable berth was ready for him, since he expected to be sick throughout most of the voyage. On the contrary, the weather had been fair; the Mediterranean climate suited his Corsican blood better than the raw north; and even the favourable wind from astern seemed to augur well for his ambitions. The news that an English fleet was in the central Mediterranean was not so pleasant, but there were thousands of miles of water and a simple stratagem might well lose them. It might also cause any merchantmen which sighted the armada to assume that their destination lay further to the north - toward Greece, the Aegean, and possibly Constantinople. Brueys was ordered to steer as if making for Crete - a course a little south of due east.

On the night of 22 June, not long after Nelson’s ships had put Sicily behind them and were heading direct for Alexandria, a heavy summer mist — not uncommon in the Ionian Sea at that time of year - hung over the water. Nelson’s ships, unencumbered with any convoy, were so close on the enemy’s heels that the dull thud of the British

Lord Nelson
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Sir John Jervis
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Lord Nelson
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