'I, therefore,' said Lord Nelson, 'hope much from you in future.' "Here the Northumberland opened her fire, and down came the tri-colored ensign, amidst the thunder of our united cannon."[4] According to Keith, Nelson "on this occasion, as on all others, conducted himself with skill, and great address, in comprehending my signals, which the state of the weather led me greatly to suspect." Nelson's account to Hamilton was, "By leaving my admiral without signal, for which _I may be broke_, I took these French villains." "I have wrote to Lord Spencer," he tells his eldest brother, "and have sent him my journal, to show that the Genereux was taken by me, and my plan--that my quitting Lord Keith was at my own risk, and for which, if I had not succeeded, I might have been broke.

The way he went, the Genereux never could have been taken." In a letter to Lord Minto he attributed his success to his knowledge of all the local conditions, acquired by seven years' experience.

In his anxiety to make this instance prove his case, in the previous disobedience to Keith, for which the Admiralty had censured him, Nelson overreached himself and certainly fell into an ungenerous action.

His vaunt of success by the road of disobedience rested only on the fact that he had failed to see Keith's signal.

This the latter did not know, and evidently considered he had complied with its spirit.