"My station to the westward of Toulon, an unusual one," he writes to Addington in August, 1803, "has been taken upon an idea that the French fleet is bound out of the Straits and probably to Ireland.

I shall follow them to the Antipodes." Two months later he says: "Plausible reasons may certainly be given for every one of the plans" suggested by his various correspondents; but he thinks that either Alexandria or outside the Mediterranean is the most probable.

"To those two points my whole attention is turned." "Their destination, is it Ireland or the Levant?
That is what I want to know;" but in December he still holds to his first impression: "My opinion is, certainly, out of the Mediterranean." In this perplexity Elliot suggested to him to receive on board the fleet some good Frenchmen, who could land from time to time and get information in Toulon,--a proposition which drew from Nelson a characteristic and amusing explosion.

"Mr.Elliot wanted to send me some _good_ Frenchmen, to go ashore and get me information.

My answer to all these offers is 'No.' I can be told nothing of any consequence to me; but a copy of the French admiral's orders, when he is to put to sea, and where he is destined to, is the only useful information I can care about.