could and abandon the idea of Palermo, supplementing his refusal to
employ the _Foudroyant_ in any such way. He would only allow a frigate
to escort her own frigates to Trieste. Lady Minto wrote to her sister
from Florence that Keith told the Queen that "Lady Hamilton had had
command of the fleet long enough," and then she adds, "The Queen is
very ill with a sort of convulsive fit, and Nelson is staying to nurse
her, and does not intend going home until he has escorted her back to
Palermo. His zeal for the public service," she continues, "seems
entirely lost in his love and vanity, and they all sit and flatter
each other all day long."

Nelson, steady in his attachment to the Queen declared that he would
see her through and then continue his journey home with the Hamiltons.
They all left Leghorn together, arrived at Florence safely, were
taken from Ancona to Trieste on two Russian frigates, and landed at
Trieste. The Queen of Sicily accompanied them to Vienna, and Nelson
and the Hamiltons continued their triumphant journey through Germany
to Hamburg. His association with the Court of Naples was now at an
end, and his real friends, believing that it had corrupted and sapped
his better nature, were glad of it. His mind at this time was filled
with delusions about his future. He repeatedly declared that he would
never serve again, and from a mixture of motives he acquired happiness
in the belief that he would avenge his keenly-felt wrongs by achieving
oblivion. The idea that fate held in store for him a higher and a
sterner destiny never occurred to him, and he little realized that he
would soon be removed from a sphere where his presence would be no
longer needed. He was, in fact, combating the very destiny he had so
often sought in which he would achieve immortal glory.