Nelson repined, but he submitted.

Within four weeks his flag was flying again, and himself immersed in professional anxieties.
War on the continent of Europe had ceased definitively with the treaty of Luneville, between France and Austria, signed February 9, 1801.
Over four years were to elapse before it should recommence.

But, as Great Britain was to be the first to take up arms again to resist the encroachments of Bonaparte, so now she was the last to consent to peace, eager as her people were to have it.

Malta had fallen, the Armed Neutrality of the North had dissolved, the French occupation of Egypt was at its last gasp.

Foiled in these three directions by the sea-power of Great Britain, unable, with all his manipulation of the prostrate continent, to inflict a deadly wound, Bonaparte now resorted to the threat of invasion, well aware that, under existing conditions, it could be but a threat, yet hoping that its influence upon a people accustomed to sleep securely might further his designs.