Nelson" was strong, weak, and vain. If no one else gratuitously
sounded his praises, he would do so himself in the most comical way,
not altogether in public, but to "Santa Emma," whose function it was
to spread them abroad.

After the battle of Copenhagen, Sir Hyde Parker sailed for Carlscrona,
and left Nelson to hoist his flag as commander-in-chief on the _St.
George_, which was not ready, and was possibly being refitted after
rough handling. He tells Emma of Parker's departure, and adds, "if
there is any work to do," i.e. any fighting, "he is pretty certain
they will wait for him" before commencing it. And then he adds,
"_Nelson will be first_. Who can stop him?" On the eve of the battle
of Copenhagen he wrote to her, "Before you receive this, all will be
over with Denmark. Either your Nelson will be safe, and Sir Hyde
Parker victor, or your own Nelson will be laid low." What deep and
genuine love-lunacy to be found in a terrific warrior, whose very name
terrified those who had the honour to fight against him! The
incongruity of it baffles one's belief, and seems to reverse the very
order of human construction. In matters concerning his profession and
highly technical State affairs there was no more astute man, but as
soon as his thoughts centre on this female nightmare, he loses control
of his wonderful gifts, and his mind becomes deranged with the idea of
her being an object on which he should bestow reverence and infinite
adulation. If ever there was a creature of lamentable contradictions,
surely it was this genius, who immortalized our national glory at the
Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar! That a man of his calibre, surrounded
with eternal fame, should be inflamed with a passion for a woman of
negative morals who was refused admittance to the same circle that,
but for this attachment would receive him as their triumphant hero, is
an example of human eccentricity that never has and never can be