intrigues are conducted, avail him more than even the rapidity of his
armies--all the people he employs are equal to the task assigned them;
while in Austria and Spain, the operations are often directed by men
who, from Court favour, have got situations they are totally unfit
for. Catalonia has suffered much from this cause and everything has
gone wrong in Istria and Dalmatia, because there there was wanted a
man capable of conducting the war. It is true they have been removed,
but not until everything was lost by their want of skill.


And yet pitted against "such a Power as never appeared in Europe before,"
with the need of every faculty upon the alert, Collingwood was haunted
ever more and more by the dread that his increasing bodily weakness must
engender mental incapacity. A sinister note crept into his correspondence
and so early as August 26th, 1808, he wrote:--


_August 26th, 1808._

I have been lately unwell. I grow weak, and the fatigue and anxiety of
mind I suffer has worn me down to a shadow. I do not think I can go on
much longer, and intend, whenever I feel my strength less, to request
that I may be allowed to come to England. I have mentioned this to
Lord Mulgrave, but have not to the Admiralty Board.


Yet, determined not to abandon his duty, over a year later he was still at
his post.