o'clock," wrote Nelson to Troubridge on the 11th. "Now we can have no
desire for staying, for her ladyship is gone, and the _Ball_ for
Friday knocked up by yours and the Earl's unpoliteness, to send
gentlemen to sea instead of dancing with white gloves. I will only
say," he continues, "as yet I know not that we are even going to the
Baltic, except from the newspapers, and at sea I cannot go out of my
ship but with serious inconvenience,"--owing to the loss of his arm.
What was not told him before starting, therefore, could not be told by
mouth till after arrival.

It will be remembered that Sir Hyde Parker had succeeded Hotham in the
chief command of the Mediterranean, for a brief but critical month in
1795,[23] and that Nelson had then complained of his action as regards
the general conduct of the campaign, and specifically for having
reduced to the point of inefficiency the small squadron under Nelson's
own direction, upon which the most important issues hinged. Possibly
Parker had heard this, possibly the notorious disregard of Keith's
orders a few months before influenced him to keep his renowned, but
independent, subordinate at a distance in official matters. It was not
well advised; though probably the great blunderers were the Admiralty,
in sending as second a man who had shown himself so exceptionally and
uniquely capable of supreme command, and so apt to make trouble for
mediocre superiors. If Lord St. Vincent's surmise was correct, Parker,
who was a very respectable officer, had been chosen for his present
place because in possession of all the information acquired during the
last preparation for a Russian war; while Nelson fancied that St.
Vincent himself, as commander of the Channel fleet, had recommended
him, in order to get rid of a second in command who did not carry out
satisfactorily the methods of his superior. If that were so, the
mistake recoiled upon his own head; for, while the appointment was