The Admiral A Romance of Nelson in the Year of the Nile By Douglas Sladen Author of "A Japanese Marriage," etc A law unto himself London Hutchinson and Co Paternoster Row 828 5631ad 1898 NOTE. The cover is an exact reproduction in the original colours of a rare old print. The dates have of course been added. The clouds, to which Nelson points with his sword, express the wars and rumours of wars, with which the year 1798 was overhung. The sword indicates the spirit with which he approached questions of national honour. 2-5-58 6-27-57 PREFACE. OME years ago, Professor J. K. Laughton's SOME admirable selection of "Letters and Dispatches of Horatio, Viscount Nelson," inspired me with such an interest in Nelson's wonderfully human and graphic correspondence that I studied the larger and earlier "Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson," collected by Sir Harris Nicolas. The present book is the outcome of a long and affectionate study of these two works, and the well-thumbed pages of Southey and Jeaffreson. But since, at the time of my first visit to Sicily, a little more than two years ago, I had definitely before me the project of writing a Nelson novel for the one-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Nile (August 1st, 1898), I have read most of the important works dealing with Lord Nelson's life, especially Captain Mahan's |