aid-de-camps with me;' and when he presented him to the Governor, he
said, 'Your Excellency must excuse me for bringing one of my
midshipmen, as I make it a rule to introduce them to all the good
company I can, as they have few to look up to besides myself during
the time they are at sea.' This kindness and attention made the young
people adore him; and even his wishes, could they have been known,
would have been instantly complied with."

The charm and wisdom of such a bearing is patent; but it was the
natural character of the man that thus shone out, and no mere result
of conscientious care. To the last, through all his ill-health,
anxiety, and sufferings, the same genial sweetness of manner, the
outcome of an unaffected, cordial good-will to all, was shown to those
who came in contact with him. Captain Duff, who met him for the first
time three weeks before Trafalgar, and who fell in the battle, wrote
to his wife in almost the same words as Lady Hughes: "You ask me about
Lord Nelson, and how I like him. I have already answered that question
as every person must do that ever served under him. He is so good and
pleasant a man, that we all wish to do what he likes, without any kind
of orders. I have been myself very lucky with most of my admirals, but
I really think the present the pleasantest I have met with." There do,
it is true, occur in Nelson's letters occasional, though very rare,
expressions of that passing annoyance with individuals which is
inseparable from the close and long-continued contact of ship life.
Thus, shortly before leaving the "Boreas," he writes: "I begin to be
very strict in my Ship. Whenever I may set off in another, I shall be
indifferent whether I ever speak to an Officer in her, but upon duty."
One wonders what passing and soon forgotten breeze, was responsible
for this most un-Nelson-like outburst. But to the end it remained true
that between the officers and crews under Nelson's command and their