were repossessed by the Spaniards.

Arriving in England, Nelson went to Bath, and there passed through a
period of extreme suffering and tedious recovery. "I have been so ill
since I have been here," says one of his letters, "that I was obliged
to be carried to and from bed, with the most excruciating tortures."
Exact dates are wanting; but he seems to have been under treatment
near three months, when, on the 28th of January, 1781, he wrote to
Locker, in his often uncouth style: "Although I have not quite
recovered the use of my limbs, yet my inside is a new man;" and again,
three weeks later, "I have now the perfect use of all my limbs, except
my left arm, which I can hardly tell what is the matter with it. From
the shoulder to my fingers' ends are as if half dead." He remained in
Bath until the middle of March, latterly more for the mild climate
than because feeling the necessity of prosecuting his cure; yet that
his health was far from securely re-established is evident, for a
severe relapse followed his return to London. On the 7th of May, 1781,
he writes to his brother: "You will say, why does not he come into
Norfolk? I will tell you: I have entirely lost the use of my left arm,
and very near of my left leg and thigh." In estimating Nelson's
heroism, the sickly fragility of his bodily frame must be kept in
memory; not to excuse shortcomings of nerve or enterprise, for there
were none, but to exalt duly the extraordinary mental energy which
rather mocked at difficulties than triumphed over them.

While yet an invalid he had again applied for employment, and, as the
war was still raging, was appointed in August, 1781, to the
"Albemarle," a small frigate of twenty-eight guns. He was pleased with
the ship, the first commissioned by himself at home, with a long
cruise in prospect; and, together with his expressions of content with