Meanwhile a commission from the fleet arrived in Corsica.  Sir Gilbert Elliot, the representative of the British government in the island, was at its head, and with him were associated two army officers, one of whom afterwards became widely celebrated as Sir John Moore.  A satisfactory agreement being concluded, Hood sailed from Hyeres Bay with the ships and troops, and operations began against San Fiorenzo, terminating in the evacuation of the place by the French, who upon the 19th of February retreated by land to Bastia.  Nelson was not immediately connected with this undertaking; but he had the satisfaction of knowing that two of the four frigates, of whose detention in the island he was the immediate cause, were here lost to the enemy.  He was during these weeks actively employed harrying the coast—­destroying depots of stores on shore, and small vessels laden with supplies.  These services were mainly, though not entirely, rendered in the neighborhood of Bastia, a strongly fortified town, which was to become the next object of the British efforts, and the scene of his own exertions.  There, also, though on a comparatively small scale, he was to give striking evidence of the characteristics which led him on, step by step, to his great renown.

When Hood himself took command at San Fiorenzo, he relieved Nelson from that part of his charge, and sent him on the 7th of February to blockade Bastia,—­a strictly detached service, and one of the utmost importance, as upon the intercepting of supplies the issue of the siege largely turned.  Three weeks later, on the 1st of March, Nelson wrote:  “We are still in the busy scene of war, a situation in which I own I feel pleasure, more especially as my actions have given great satisfaction to my commander-in-chief.  The blocking up of Corsica he left to me:  it has been accomplished in the most complete manner, not a boat got in, nor a soldier landed, although eight thousand men were embarked at Nice;” and, he might have added, although a vessel was said to sail from Nice every thirty-six hours.  Nor was his activity confined to blockading.  He continually reconnoitered the town and the works, in doing which on the 23d of February he engaged the batteries at short range, with the “Agamemnon” and two frigates,—­the action lasting for nearly two hours.  While it was at its height, the heads of the British columns, coming from San Fiorenzo, only twelve miles distant by land, were seen upon the heights overlooking Bastia from the rear.  “What a noble sight it must have been” to them! wrote Nelson enthusiastically, in the ardor of his now opening career,—­for it must be remembered that this hero of a hundred fights was even then but beginning to taste that rapture of the strife, in which he always breathed most freely, as though in his native element.