Nelson: The Essential Hero by Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford Page B

friend James Shepard became a vice-admiral. But by that time Nelson himself would have come to other conclusions about the pleasures of decorations and fine clothing.
    At St Omer he once again fell in love, this time with one of two daughters of a visiting English clergyman. The eldest daughter captivated the impressionable tow-headed captain, who seems to have spent much of his time with the family - ‘French goes on but slowly’ -and who was finally to declare that she was ‘the most accomplished young woman my eyes ever beheld’. He even went so far as to write to his uncle William Suckling asking him if, in the event of his marriage, he would make an allowance of ‘a hundred a year, until my income is increased to that sum either by employment or any other way’. His total income at that time was less than £130 per annum.
    Uncle William was certainly prepared to help him - as indeed he did at the time of Nelson’s marriage in 1787 - but before he could signal his readiness to do so Nelson arrived back in London. Various reasons have been suggested to account for this, among them the fact that his twenty-three-year-old sister Anne had just died at Bath. But Nelson’s letters to his correspondents all differ, and to such an extent that one sees him at something of a loss to explain his sudden change of plans. It would seem most probable that the captivating Miss Andrews had rejected him : after all, a postcaptain with no private fortune, on half-pay in a time of peace, was no great catch. The very fact that Nelson does not refer to her again suggests the chagrin of a rebuffed suitor. One cannot help wondering whether in later days she did not regret her decision. As for Nelson, a woman whom he found so attractive - with ‘such accomplishments that, had I a million of money, I am sure I should at this moment make her an offer of them’ and coming from the same background as himself - might well have made an ideal wife. It is noticeable that he never displayed such evidence of passion towards the lady who ultimately did become his wife. Meanwhile, his general air of uncertainty about his future seems reflected in his letters. He wrote to his brother William that ‘London has so many charms that a man’s whole time is taken up’, suggesting that, as far as his pocket permitted, he was living the life of a man about town. A letter written on 31 January, however, is more revealing. The general election of 1784 had taken place, and it is clear that Nelson had for a time considered himself as a potential candidate for Parliament. In disillusionment as to the Walpole connection, he wrote to the Reverend William : ‘As to your having enlisted under the banners of the Walpoles, you might as well have enlisted under those of my grandmother.’ That Fox had got in instead of his hero Pitt was a bitter blow but ‘Mr Pitt, depend upon it, will stand against all opposition : an honest man must always in time get the better of a villain ; but I have done with politics; let who will get in, I shall be left out.’ Nelson was lucky that the sea soon reclaimed him. A man so honest and ingenuous, so incapable of the backbiting and devious intrigue that constitutes politics, would have proved nothing but an unwitting tool or a sad disaster.
    On 18 March he was appointed yet again to a 28-gun frigate, this time the Boreas. Miss Andrews’ younger brother George went with him, so at any rate he was still on good terms with the family, even if matrimony was no longer on the cards. He hoped this time for the East Indies, but was to be disappointed. It was to be the West Indies once again, and this time not only with a lot of young midshipmen to train but, worst of all, with the wife of the Admiral commanding the Leeward Islands as a guest aboard. Lady Hughes and her daughter Rosy were to prove a sore affliction, the former eternally talkative and the latter clearly despatched as part of ‘the fishing fleet’ to catch herself a