The whole will fall on you." Nelson was not, and could not be, insensible to the distress which his friend so earnestly represented.

He begged, almost on his knees, he said, small supplies of money and corn, to keep the Maltese from starving.

And when the court granted a small supply, protesting their poverty, he believed their protestations, and was satisfied with their professions, instead of insisting that the restrictions upon the exportation of corn should be withdrawn.

The anxiety, however, which he endured, affected him so deeply that he said it had broken his spirit for ever.

Happily, all that Troubridge with so much reason foreboded, did not come to pass.