ROBERT SOUTHEY 215 



fleets were distinctly seen from the Victory's deck, 

 formed in a close line of battle ahead, on the star- 

 board tack, about twelve miles to leeward, and 

 standing to the south. Our fleet consisted of 

 twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates ; 

 theirs of thirty-three, and seven large frigates. 

 Their superiority was greater in size, and weight 

 of metal, than in numbers. They had four thou- 

 sand troops on board ; and the best riflemen who 

 could be procured, many of them Tyrolese, were 

 dispersed through the ships. Little did the 

 Tyrolese, and little did the Spaniards, at that 

 day imagine what horrors the wicked tyrant whom 

 they served was preparmg for their country! Soon 

 after daylight Nelson came upon deck. The 

 2 1 St October was a festival in his family, because 

 on that day his uncle, Captain Suckling, in the 

 Dreadnought^ with two other line-of-battlcships, 

 had beaten off a French squadron of four sail of 

 the line and three frigates. Nelson, with that 

 sort of superstition from which few persons are 

 entirely exempt, had more than once expressed his 

 persuasion that this was to be the day of his 

 battle also ; and he was well pleased at seeing 

 his prediction about to be verified. The wind was 

 now from the west, light breezes, with a long 

 heavy swell. Signal was made to bear down upon 

 the enemy in two lines ; and the fleet set all sail. 

 Collingwood, in the Royal Hovcreii^^n^ led the lee 



