SOME years ago, Professor J. K. Laughton's admirable selection of "Letters and Dispatches of Horatio, Viscount Nelson," inspired me with such an interest in Nelson's wonderfully human and graphic correspondence that I studied the larger and earlier "Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson," collected by Sir Harris Nicolas. The present book is the outcome of a long and affectionate study of these two works, and the well-thumbed pages of Southey and Jeaffreson. But since, at the time of my first visit to Sicily, a little more than two years ago, I had definitely before me the project of writing a Nelson novel for the one-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Nile (August 1st, 1898), I have read most of the important works dealing with Lord Nelson's life, especially Captain Mahan's "Life of Nelson," which is a monument of impartiality, research, and the application of professional knowledge to literature. I have also, by the kindness of Lord Dundonald, Mr. Morrison, and others, had the opportunity of seeing a quantity of unpublished Nelsoniana, which have been of the utmost value to me in forming a final opinion of the character of my hero.