In December Keith returned to the Mediterranean and resumed the command, and on 20 Jan. 1800 Nelson joined him at Leghorn. The two then returned together to Palermo, whence they proceeded to Malta a few days later. An attempt of the French to break the blockade was expected, and to prevent this Keith spread his force round the island with such good effect that at daybreak on 18 Feb. a French squadron, consisting of the 74-gun ship Généreux, one of the two which had escaped from the Nile, with three frigates and a corvette, came into a cluster of English ships commanded by Nelson himself in the Foudroyant, when the Généreux and one of the frigates were captured. Nelson was very well satisfied with the result, the more so as he had always spoken of the two Nile ships as his; but he was overcome by his passion for Lady Hamilton, and could not remain away from Palermo, and on 24 Feb. he wrote to Keith: ‘My state of health is such that it is impossible I can much longer remain here. Without some rest I am gone. I must therefore, whenever I find the service will admit of it, request your permission to go to my friends at Palermo.’ Very reluctantly Keith gave him the required permission, but it was 16 March before he arrived at Palermo, and on the 20th he wrote to Troubridge: ‘It is too soon to form an opinion whether I can be cured of my complaint … Probably my career of service is at an end, unless the French fleet should come into the Mediterranean, when nothing shall prevent my dying at my post.’ On 4 April he was cheered by the news of the capture of the Guillaume Tell [see Berry, Sir Edward; Blackwood, Sir Henry], the last of the Nile ships. In announcing the event to the secretary of the admiralty he added: ‘My task is done, my health is finished, and probably my retreat for ever fixed, unless another French fleet should be placed for me to look after.’
In consequence, it would seem, of Keith's report, the admiralty wrote, on 9 May, that if Lord Nelson's health rendered him incapable of doing his duty, he was to be permitted to return home in any ship which Keith might have to send to England, or overland if he should prefer it; and to Nelson himself Lord Spencer wrote privately, to the effect that, if his health did not permit him to undertake the reduction of Malta, it would be better for him to come to England, instead of remaining at Palermo, in an inactive situation at a foreign court. Nelson received this letter in the beginning of June. During May he had been at Malta, and the Hamiltons had accompanied him on board the Foudroyant. He now determined to take advantage at once of the permission to go home. He wished to return to England in his flagship; but as Keith pronounced this quite impossible, he resolved to go overland with the Hamiltons, who were also returning to England. Accordingly, he quitted the Foudroyant at Leghorn on 26 June, left Leghorn on 17 July, and, travelling by easy stages to Ancona, and thence in a Russian frigate to Trieste, reached Vienna towards the end of August. Everywhere he was the lion of the hour, and at Vienna was royally fêted, though his friends regretted the publicity which he gave to his subjection to Lady Hamilton (Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, iii. 114, 147). The party left Vienna on 26 Sept., and, passing through Prague, were received for a few days at Dresden by Hugh Elliot, and fell under the observation of Mrs. St. George, whose satirical comments on the admiral and his companions were many years afterwards given to the world by her son, Archbishop R. C. Trench (Journal kept during a Visit to Germany, pp. 76–81). It is quite possible that these were somewhat exaggerated; but there is no reason to doubt that the unfavourable and painful sketch is substantially true. From Dresden they passed on to Hamburg, and landed at Yarmouth on 6 Nov. 1800, when Nelson wrote to the admiralty that, his health being perfectly re-established, it was his wish to serve immediately.
In London he joined his wife, who received him with a chilling coldness which widened the gulf that was opening between them. After a few weeks of acrimonious intercourse, to which Nelson afterwards referred with horror (Nicolas, vii. pp. 392, ccix), they separated early in 1801; and, with the exception of a short interview a few days afterwards, they did not again meet. At this time, indeed, Nelson seems to have desired a reconciliation (ib. iv. 272); but his wife made no response, and they had no further communication, though he made her the very liberal allowance of 1,200l. a year.
On 1 Jan. 1801 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and on the 17th hoisted his flag on board the San Josef as second in command of the Channel fleet, under Lord St. Vincent. By the middle of February, however, he was moved into the St. George, and on 17 Feb. was formally directed to put himself under the orders of Sir Hyde Parker (1739–1807) [q. v.], the commander-in-chief of a squadron to be employed on particular service. It was known that the service was
