made by Earl Spencer, St. Vincent succeeded him as First Lord before
the expedition sailed, and the old seaman would much have preferred to
see Nelson at the helm. He was quite sure of the latter, he said, and
should have been in no apprehension if he had been of rank to take the
chief command; but he could not feel so sure about Sir Hyde, as he had
never been tried. Whatever the truth, Lady Malmesbury's comment after
the event was indisputable: "I feel very sorry for Sir Hyde; but no
wise man would ever have gone with Nelson, or over him, as he was sure
to be in the background in every case."

"I declare solemnly," wrote Nelson to Davison four days after
reporting, "that I do not know"--officially, of course--"that I am
going to the Baltic, and much worse than that I could tell you. Sir
Hyde is on board sulky. Stewart tells me, his treatment of me is now
noticed. Dickson came on board to-day to say all were scandalized at
his gross neglect. Burn this letter: then it can never appear, and you
can speak as if your knowledge came from another quarter." That day
the orders came from the Admiralty to go to sea; and the next, March
12, the ships then present sailed,--fifteen ships-of-the-line and two
fifties, besides frigates, sloops of war, brigs, cutters, fireships,
and seven bomb-vessels,--for, if the Danes were obstinate, Copenhagen
was to be bombarded. On the 16th of March Nelson wrote both to Davison
and Lady Hamilton that he as yet knew nothing, except by common
report. "Sir Hyde has not told me officially a thing. I am sorry
enough to be sent on such an expedition, but nothing can, I trust,
degrade, do what they will." His mind was in a condition to see the
worst motives in what befell him. "I know, I see, that I am not to be
supported in the way I ought, but the St. George is beginning to
prepare this day for battle, and she shall be true to herself....
Captain Murray sees, as do every one, what is meant to disgrace me,