On the 22d Hamilton presented his letters of recall, and on the 24th he and Lady Hamilton, with a party, embarked on board the "Foudroyant" for a trip to Syracuse and Malta, from which they all returned to Palermo on the first of June.

Against this renewed departure Troubridge again remonstrated, in words which showed that he and others saw, in Nelson's determination to abandon the field, the results of infatuation rather than of illness.

"Your friends, my Lord, absolutely, as far as they dare, insist on your staying to sign the capitulation.

Be on your guard." Keith also wrote him in generous and unexceptionable terms: "I am very sorry, my dear Nelson, for the contents of your letter, and I hope you will not be obliged to go: strictly speaking, I ought to write to the Admiralty before I let a flag-officer go off the station; particularly as I am directed to send you, if you like it, to Egypt; but when a man's health is concerned, there is an end of all, and I will send you the first frigate I can lay hold of." FOOTNOTES: [1] The title of Bronte was assumed in Sicily only, until he received the consent of George III.

to accept it.
[2] The italics to this point are Nelson's; afterwards the author's.
[3] The Paget Papers, London, 1896, vol.i.p.