but with this day my ability ceases. As the Government are bent
on starving us, I see no alternative but to leave these poor
people to perish, without our being witness of their distress. I
curse the day I ever served the Neapolitan Government. We have
characters, my Lord, to lose; these people have none. Do not
suffer their infamous conduct to fall on us. Our country is
just, but severe. Such is the fever of my brain this minute,
that I assure you, on my honour, if the Palermo traitors were
here, I would shoot them first, and then myself. Girgenti is
full of corn; the money is ready to pay for it; we do not ask it
as a gift. Oh! could you see the horrid distress I daily
experience, something would be done. Some engine is at work
against us at Naples, and I believe I hit on the proper person.
If you complain, he will be immediately promoted, agreeably to
the Neapolitan custom. All I write to is known at the Queen's.
For my own part, I look upon the Neapolitans as the worst of
intriguing enemies; every hour shows me their infamy and
duplicity. I pray your Lordship be cautious; your honest open
manner of acting will be made a handle of. When I see you and
tell you of their infamous tricks, you will be as much surprised
as I am. The whole will fall on you.

Nelson must have known the position set forth in this feverish
communication from a man whose judgment and affection he had no reason
to suspect. It is a deplorable example of infatuation that every one
who knew the Court and the rascals that surrounded it was aware of its
shameless tricks except Nelson himself. They protested that they had
withdrawn the restrictions on the exportation of corn so far as they
could, and he swallowed their lies with the simplicity of a child. He
must have been the victim of mesmeric influence not to see through