No severer condemnation, perhaps, was ever implied by him, than when he wrote to Sidney Smith, unqualifiedly, "I strictly charge and command you never to give any French ship or man leave to quit Egypt." To deny an officer discretion was as scathing an expression of dissatisfaction as Nelson could utter; and as he sowed, so he reaped, in a devotion and vigor of service few have elicited equally.
In Malta Nelson remained but thirty-six hours.

Arriving at 4 P.M.

on the evening of June 15th, he sailed again at 4 A.M.of the 17th.

He had expected partly to find the fleet there; but by an odd coincidence, on the same day that he hoisted his flag in Portsmouth, it had sailed, although in ignorance of the war, to cruise between Sicily and Naples; whence, on the day he left Gibraltar, the commanding officer, Sir Richard Bickerton, had started for Toulon,--"very judiciously," said Nelson,--the instant he heard of the renewal of hostilities.
The "Amphion" passed through the Straits of Messina, and within sight of Naples, carrying Nelson once more over well-known seas, and in sight of fondly remembered places.

"I am looking at _dear_ Naples, if it is what it was," he wrote to Elliot from off Capri.