He, meantime, was almost heartbroken by the situation in which he found himself.

He had promised relief to the islanders, relying upon the queen's promise to him.

He had distributed the whole of his private stock,--there was plenty of grain at Palermo, and in its neighbourhood, and yet none was sent him: the enemy, he complained, had more interest there than the king; and the distress for bread which he witnessed was such, he said, that it would move even a Frenchman to pity.
Nelson's heart, too, was at this time a-shore.

"To tell you," he says, writing to Lady Hamilton, "how dreary and uncomfortable the VANGUARD appears, is only telling you what it is to go from the pleasantest society to a solitary cell, or from the dearest friends to no friends.

I am now perfectly the GREAT MAN--not a creature near me.