On 11 July 1800, Nelson finally struck his flag, after more than two years icontinuous and exhausting service in the Mediterranean and returned home to Britain overland in company with the Hamiltons.

The journey turned into a triumphal progress. Nelson was one of the few leaders who had succeeded in beating the French and as a result he was a household name in Europe as well ais in Britain. Wherever they went there were special ceremonies and princes and people alike crowded to see the Hero of the Nile. They stopped so many times en route that a journey they could have made in a few weeks, eventually took three and half months.

It was an extraordinary interlude in Nelson's life and shows how, at least in the early stages, his relationship with Emma affected his professional judgement. Elsewhere, the war was still raging furiously, and British forces were engaged in a number of vital operations. Against such a background, Nelson's long, leisurely progress through Germany did him much harm with the authorities in Britain – especially since most reports of their activities highlighted his very obvious infatuation with Emma.

That infatuation was now to cause him trouble at home. It appears that Nelson genuinely believed that Fanny would be prepared to be as complacent as Sir William, so that the liaison with Emma could continue. But Fanny had her own brand of quiet and dignified courage, against which Nelson's ruthless eagerness beat in vain. In the end, he was forced to chose between his wife and his lover, a decision that clearly wracked him with guilt.

The misery of these domestic wrangles was cut short by a summons to serve at sea again, with the Channel Fleet under his old mentor Lord St Vincent, and he hoisted his flag in his former trophy from the Battle of Cape St Vincent, now HMS San Josef, on 17 January 1801.

Very little correspondence from the period of the journey through Germany, and the brief period of leave in England, has survived. Nicolas prints just 13 letters for the period July 1800 to January 1801, and little more has been discovered in the recent searches.