later close association, especially when it is recalled that
Collingwood also succeeded, upon Nelson's death, to the Mediterranean
command, and was there worn out, as his predecessor fell, in the
discharge of his duty upon that important station, which thus proved
fatal to them both. Few historic parallels are so complete. Sir Peter
Parker, living until 1811, survived both his illustrious juniors, and
at the age of eighty-two followed Nelson's coffin, as chief mourner at
the imposing obsequies, where the nation, from the highest to the
lowest, mingled the exultation of triumph with weeping for the loss of
its best-beloved.

Of Nelson's exterior at this time, his early biographers have secured
an account which, besides its value as a portrait, possesses the
further interest of mentioning explicitly that charm of manner which
was one of his best birth-gifts, reflecting, as it did, the generous
and kindly temper of his heart. "The personal appearance of Captain
Nelson at this period of his life, owing to his delicate health and
diminutive figure, was far from expressing the greatness of his
intellectual powers. From his earliest years, like Cleomenes, the hero
of Sparta, he had been enamoured of glory, and had possessed a
greatness of mind. Nelson preserved, also, a similar temperance and
simplicity of manners. Nature, as Plutarch adds of the noble Spartan,
had given a spur to his mind which rendered him impetuous in the
pursuit of whatever he deemed honourable. The demeanour of this
extraordinary young man was entirely the demeanour of a British
seaman; when the energies of his mind were not called forth by some
object of duty, or professional interest, he seemed to retire within
himself, and to care but little for the refined courtesies of polished
life." No saving sense of humor seems to have suggested that the
profane might here ask, "Is this the British seaman?" "In his dress he