Frenchman has duped him, and by throwing false intelligence in his way
has sent him to the West Indies--or I ought to have seen him again
before this; but Sir John Duckworth who is a well-judging man ought
not to have been so deceived as to suppose that a squadron which had
been three or four months at sea were on their way to the West Indies
--but I do not despair of catching them yet, even without him.


Napoleon then believed that he had successfully duped Collingwood in this
manner; "Mon opinion est que Collingwood est parti et est alle aux Grandes
Indes," he wrote at this date, only to discover later that his enemy had
never been deceived.

Meanwhile Stanhope was devoting all his attention to a matter which he had
much at heart. So far Collingwood's great services to his country had been
rewarded with the barren honour of a peerage which had made an unwelcome
claim upon his slender means, and with regard to which his one petition
had been refused--that since he had no son to succeed him the title should
descend to one of his daughters. Stanhope was therefore anxious to procure
for Lord Collingwood a more substantial award in the form of an annuity
which might benefit his family. On February 11th 1806, Mrs Stanhope wrote
to her son--


News I have none for you to-day, further than that your Father is
delighted with having had it in his power to be of use to Lord
Collingwood. His Pension was granted for three generations in the Male
line; now, as he has no son nor ever likely to have any, it was really
only rewarding him for his own life. At the Duchess of Gordon's, where
your Father was last night, he saw Sheridan and Lord Castlereagh [7]