A SECRET letter giving an insight into how Lord Nelson planned the naval campaign against the French, was sold for £4,500 at auction in Exeter.

The letter was written from HMS Victory in February 1804 to Nelson's second in command and sets up a new rendezvous point for the fleet.

The letter was written 20 months before the Battle of Trafalgar at a time when Nelson's fleet was blockading the French inside Toulon.

The secret order reads: Rendezvous No 99 Twelve leagues due West from Cape Corse. To be added to the list of Rendezvous.

It is addressed from Victory at the Madalina Islands, 13th February 1804 and sent to Sir Richard Bickerton Bart, Rear Admiral of the White aboard HMS Kent.

Nelson set up a supply base at what are now called the Maddelena Islands off the northern tip of Sardinia after the Napoleonic War resumed in May 1803.

The letter is the headline item in a batch of papers relating to the Nelson family, which was sold yesterday by auctioneers Hampton and Littlewood in Exeter.

Other documents include minutes of meetings setting up a fund in memory of Nelson and letters from his family.