Emperor of Russia he paid the politic attention of sending a detailed
report of all that had been done about Malta, made to him as Grand
Master of the Order,--a delicate and adroit flattery at the moment,
for the Czar then valued himself more as the restorer of an ancient
order of chivalry than as the inheritor of a great Sovereignty; and
his position was further recognized by asking of him the insignia of
the Order for Captain Ball and Lady Hamilton.

This immense load of correspondence and anxiety was additional to the
numerous unrecorded cares and interviews, relating to the routine work
and maintenance of a great squadron, often left bare of resources from
home, and to the support of the destitute population of Malta,--sixty
thousand souls; and all was carried on amid the constant going and
coming of the ambassador's house, kept open to naval officers and
others. This public sort of life and excitement involved considerable
expense, and was little to the taste of either Nelson or Hamilton,
the latter of whom was now approaching his seventieth year; but in it
Lady Hamilton was in all her glory, overwhelmed with compliments, the
victor of the Nile at her feet, and "making a great figure in our
political line," to use her husband's words. "Except to the Court,"
wrote Nelson, replying to a censure from the Admiralty for failing to
send a letter by a certain channel, when he had sent duplicates by two
other conveyances,--"except to the Court, till after eight o'clock at
night I never relax from business. I have had hitherto, the Board
knows, no one emolument--no one advantage of a Commander-in-chief." It
was in reference to this captious rebuff, received when immersed in
cares, that he wrote to Spencer: "Do not, my dear Lord, let the
Admiralty write harshly to me--my generous soul cannot bear it, being
conscious it is entirely unmerited."