NAVY. 



163 



n mutual determination to fight. This day had been 

 B festival in the family of Nelson, because it was the 

 anniversary of a victory gained by his uncle. To 

 Nelson, whose peculiar mind was no stranger to 

 superstition, the omen was most welcome. ' Yet, 

 though he expected to win the battle that was about 

 to be fought, he felt equally sure that he would not 

 survive to enjoy it. He knew that his life would be 

 aimed at by the Tyrolese sharpshooters of the enemy, 

 and, far from dreading it, he seemed to desire to die 

 in the moment of victory. He wore, as usual, his 

 uniform of admiral, covered with stars and decora- 

 tions, which could not fail to attract the bullets of 

 the riflemen, and which filled his followers with 

 apprehension. Yet it was in vain to ask him to 

 remove them. Even when persuaded by Hardy to 

 order other ships to pass ahead, he still carried all 

 sail on the Victory, thereby rendering it impossible 

 for the order to be obeyed. The allied fleet formed 

 their line of battle on the larboard tack, the wind 

 being at south-west. Trafalgar lay to leeward, and 

 the bay of Cadiz was open for escape. The ships 

 were drawn up in a double line in close order, the 

 intervals in the first line being filled by the ships of 

 the second, with room to fire between. This com- 

 bined the advantage of a dense, unassailable column, 

 with a sufficient interval to obviate the danger of 

 contact among the ships. Nelson bore down also in 

 a double line, himself leading the left of fourteen 

 ships in the Victory, and Collingwood in the Royal 

 Sovereign, the right line of thirteen ships. His 

 object was to break the line of the enemy in two 

 points, separating and overpowering them in sections 

 inferior to his own. Above all, he directed his 

 captains to remember that his object was a close and 

 decisive action ; and that if his signals were not 

 seen, no captain could go wrong in placing himself 

 quickly and closely alongside an enemy. The wind 

 was light, and the British fleet, under a crowd of 

 sail, bore gallantly before it, rising and falling grace- 

 fully upon the long swell that rolled towards the bay 

 of Cadiz. Nor was the array of the allies less noble 

 and imposing, as they firmly awaited the approach of 

 their enemies, drawn up in their double line, and 

 with the sun shining full upon their white sails and 

 frowning broadsides. The scene the purpose were 

 full of sublimity; and to Nelson, who, independent of 

 his thirst of glory, fancied that in destroying French- 

 men, he was about to serve humanity, this moment 

 must have been the proudest of his life. As he 

 gazed upon his anticipated prize, he asked captain 

 Blackwood what he would esteem a victory. The 

 answer was that, considering the noble manner in 

 which battle was offered, the capture of fourteen sail 

 would be a brilliant result. " I shall not," said he, 

 "be satisfied with less than twenty." Presently 

 Blackwood took leave, to return to his own ship, 

 and expressed the hope soon to congratulate the 

 admiral upon the accomplishment of his wish. Nel- 

 son pressed his hand affectionately, and said " God 

 bless you, Blackwood ! I shall never see you again." 

 And now, from the mast-head of the Victory was 

 unfurled that eloquent signal " England expects 

 every man to do his duty !" In consequence of the 

 second column being steered more off the wind, at a 

 less acute angle with the enemy's line, Collingwood 

 came much sooner into contact with it ; broke 

 through it astern of the Santa Anna, firing raking 

 broadsides on either hand as he passed, and engaging 

 the Spaniard to leeward, at the muzzles of his guns. 

 At the same time, three or four other ships gathered 

 round, pouring their broadsides into the Royal Sove- 

 reign. "See," cried Nelson, "how that noble 

 fellow, Collingwood, carries his ship into action !" 

 And Collingwood, on his side, appreciating the 



feelings of his chief, was just then saying to liia 

 captain, notwithstanding the uproar and carnage, 

 ' Rotherham, what would Nelson give to be here !" 

 Meantime Nelson was bearing down, exposed to a 

 raking fire from all the ships under his lee, without 

 being able to return a broadside. His secretary was 

 killed beside him ; directly after, a double-headed 

 shot struck a party of marines drawn up upon the 

 poop near him, killing eight of them ; and in another 

 minute, a shot passed between the admiral and cap- 

 tain Hardy. Each for an instant believed the other 

 killed. At length the Victory, having run between 

 two of the enemy's ships, opened both her broadsides 

 with tremendous effect. Soon after, she ran on board 

 the Redoubtable ; which ship was closely engaged 

 by the British Temeraire; and, another enemy having 

 fallen on board of the Temeraire, the whole four lay 

 desperately grappled, broadside to broadside. Whilst 

 to the left the Victory received and answered the fire 

 of the Bucentaure and Santissima Trinidad, on the 

 right she depressed her guns so as not to send the 

 shot through into the Temeraire. The Redoubtable 

 let down her lower deck ports, for fear of being 

 boarded through them, but kept up a fire from the 

 upper batteries and from small-armed men stationed 

 in the tops. From a generous though mistaken and 

 Quixotic sense of humanity, Nelson made no use of 

 small arms in the tops, either to clear the enemy's 

 decks and pick off officers, or to siience the fire of 

 their topmen. To this fault he owed his death ; for 

 after he had twice ordered the fire upon the Redoubt- 

 able to cease, because she seemed to have struck, a 

 ball, fired from her mizzen-top, which was quite close 

 to the poop of the Victory, struck his epaulette, and 

 entered his back. He fell with his face upon the 

 deck. Hardy turned round as some men were rais- 

 ing him. " They have done for me at last, Hardy," 

 said he. As they carried him down the ladder, he 

 remarked that the tiller ropes had been shot away, 

 and ordered them to be replaced. Then with his 

 handkerchief he covered his features and decorations, 

 desirous now to conceal from his crew, lest they 

 should be disheartened, what he had been unwilling 

 to hide from the enemy. Soon after lie reached the 

 cockpit, his wound was discovered to be mortal ; he 

 felt it himself, and insisted that the surgeon should 

 leave him, to attend those whom he might yet save. 

 He was in great pain, and intensely anxious to know 

 how the battle went. " Will no one bring Hardy to 

 me?" he asked. " He must be killed! He is surely 

 dead!" At length Hardy came, and the two friends 

 shook hands in silence. After a pause, the dying 

 man faintly uttered, " Well, Hardy, how goes the 

 day?" " Very well ; ten ships have already struck." 

 Finding that all was well, and that no British ship 

 had yielded, he turned to speak of himself. " I am 

 a dead man, Hardy! I am going fast! Ji will soon 

 be all over witli me !" Hardy hoped that there was 

 yet a chance of recovery. " O no ! it is impossible. 

 I feel something rising in my breast that tells me so." 

 The surgeon asked him if he suffered much. He 

 answered, so much that he wished himself dead. 

 " And yet," he added, thinking, perhaps, of the new 

 honours that awaited him, " one would like to live a 

 little longer." Captain Hardy, having been again 

 on deck, returned, at the end of an hour, to his dying 

 friend. He could not tell, in the confusion, the exact 

 number of the allies that had surrendered ; but there 

 were at least fifteen; for the other ships had followed 

 their admirals into action, breaking the enemy's line 

 and engaging closely to leeward, in the same gallant 

 style as the Victory and Sovereign. Nelson answered, 

 " That is well ; but I bargained for twenty." And 

 his wish was prophetic ; he had not miscalculated the 

 superiority of his followers.; twenty actually surren. 

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