commander of the division should have been away from his post when
such an event was likely to happen. "My task is done, my health is
lost, and the orders of the great Earl St. Vincent are completely
fulfilled." "I have wrote to Lord Keith," he tells Spencer, "for
permission to return to England, when you will see a broken-hearted
man. My spirit cannot submit patiently." But by this time, if the
forbearance of the First Lord was not exhausted, his patience very
nearly was, and a letter had already been sent, which, while couched
in terms of delicate consideration, nevertheless betrayed the profound
disappointment that had succeeded to admiration for services so
eminent, and for a spirit once so indomitable: "To your letter of the
20th of March, all I shall say is, to express my extreme regret that
your health should be such as to oblige you to quit your station off
Malta, at a time when I should suppose there must be the finest
prospect of its reduction. I should be very sorry that you did not
accomplish that business in person, as the Guillaume Tell is your due,
and that ship ought not to strike to any other. If the enemy should
come into the Mediterranean, and whenever they do, it will be
suddenly, I should be much concerned to hear that you learnt of their
arrival in that sea, either on shore or in a transport at Palermo."

A nearer approach to censure was soon to follow. On the 9th of May,
apparently before Nelson's application for leave to return to England
had been received, the Admiralty sent orders to Keith, that if his
health rendered him incapable of doing his duty, he was to be
permitted to return home by sea when opportunity offered, or by land
if he preferred. Earl Spencer wrote him at the same time a private
letter, in which disapprobation was too thinly masked by carefully
chosen words to escape attention: "It is by no means my wish or
intention to call you away from service, but having observed that you