ten days."

Here he communicated with his old friend Collingwood; who, having
been detached with a squadron, when the disappearance of the combined

fleets, and of Nelson in their pursuit, was known in England, had taken
his station off Cadiz. He thought that Ireland was the enemy's ultimate

object; that they would now liberate the Ferrol squadron, which was
blocked up by Sir Robert Calder, call for the Rochefort ships,and then

appear off Ushant with 33 or 34 sail; there to be joined: by the Brest
fleet. With this great force he supposed they would make for Ireland--

the real mark and bent of all their operations; and their flight to the
West Indies, he thought, had been merely undertaken to take off Nelson's

force, which was the great impediment to their undertaking.
Collingwood was gifted with great political penetration. As yet,

however, all was conjectureconcerning the enemy; and Nelson, having
victualled and watered at Tetuan, stood for Ceuta on the 24th, still

without information of their course. Next day intelligence arrived that
the CURIEUX brig had seen them on the 19th, standing to the northward.

He proceeded off Cape St. Vincent, rather cruising for intelligence than
knowing whither to betake himself; and here a case occurred that more

than any other event in real history resembles those whimsical proofs of
sagacity which Voltaire, in his Zadig, has borrowed from the Orientals.

One of our frigates spoke an American, who, a little to the westward of
the Azores, had fallen in with an armed vessel, appearing to be a

dismasted privateer, deserted by her crew, which had been run on board
by another ship, and had been set fire to; but the fire had gone out. A

log-book and a few seamen's jackets were found in the cabin; and these
were brought to Nelson. The log-book closed with these words: "Two large

vessels in the W.N.W.:" and this led him to conclude that the vessel had
been an English privateer, cruising off the Western Islands. But there

was in this book a scrap of dirty paper, filled with figures. Nelson,
immediately upon seeing it, observed that the figures were written by a

Frenchman; and after studying this for a while, said, "I can explain the
whole. The jackets are of French manufacture, and prove that the

privateer was in possession of the enemy. She had been chased and taken
by the two ships that were seen in the W.N.W. The prizemaster, going on

board in a hurry, forgot to take with him his reckoning: there is none
in the log-book; and the dirty paper contains her work for the number of

days since the privateer last left Corvo; with an unaccounted-for run,
which I take to have been the chase, in his endeavour to find out her

situation by back reckonings. By some mismanagement, I conclude she was
run on board of by one of the enemy's ships, and dismasted. Not liking

delay (for I am satisfied that those two ships were the advanced ones of
the French squadron), and fancying we were close at their heels, they

set fire to the vessel, and abandoned her in a hurry. If this
explanation be correct, I infer from it that they are gone more to the

northward; and more to the northward I will look for them." This course
accordingly he held, but still without success. Still persevering, and

still disappointed, he returned near enough to Cadiz to ascertain that
they were not there; traversed the Bay of Biscay; and then, as a last

hope, stood over for the north-west coast of Ireland against adverse
winds, till, on the evening of the 12th of August, he learned that they

had not been heard of there. Frustrated thus in all his hopes, after a
pursuit, to which, for its extent, rapidity, and perseverance, no

parallel can he produced, he judged it best to reinforce the Channel
fleet with his squadron, lest the enemy, as Collingwood apprehended,

should bear down upon Brest with their whole collected force. On the
15th he joined Admiral Cornwallis off Ushant. No news had yet been

obtained of the enemy; and on the same evening he received orders to
proceed, with the VICTORY and SUPERB, to Portsmouth.

CHAPTER IX
1805

Sir Robert Calder falls in with the combined Fleets--They form a
Junction with the Ferrol Squadron, and get into Cadiz--Nelson is

reappointed to the Command--Battle of Trafalgar--Victory, and
Death of Nelson.

*
At Portsmouth, Nelson at length found news of the combined fleet. Sir

Robert Calder, who had been sent out to intercept their return, had
fallen in with them on the 22nd of July, sixty leagues off Cape

Finisterre. Their force consisted of twenty sail of the line, three
fifty-gun ships, five frigates, and two brigs: his, of fifteen line-of-

battle ships, two frigates, a cutter, and a lugger. After an action of
four hours he had captured an eighty-four and a seventy-four, and then

thought it necessary to bring-to the squadron, for the purpose of
securing their prizes. The hostile fleets remained in sight of each

other till the 26th, when the enemy bore away. The capture of two ships
from so superior a force would have been considered as no inconsider-

able victory, a few years earlier; but Nelson had introduced a new era
in our naval history; and the nation felt respecting this action as he

had felt on a somewhat similar occasion. They regretted that Nelson,
with his eleven ships, had not been in Sir Robert Calder's place; and

their disappointment was generally and loudly expressed.
Frustrated as his own hopes had been, Nelson had yet the high

satisfaction of knowing that his judgment had never been more
conspicuously approved, and that he had rendered essential service to

his country, by driving the enemy from those Islands where they expected
there could be no force capable of opposing them. The West India

merchants in London, as men whose interests were more immediately
benefited, appointed a deputation to express their thanks for his great

and judicious exertions. It was now his intention to rest awhile from
his labours, and recruit himself, after all his fatigues and cares, in

the society of those whom he loved. All his stores were brought up from
the VICTORY; and he found in his house at Merton the enjoyment which he

had anticipated. Many days had not elapsed before Captain Blackwood, on
his way to London with despatches, called on him at five in the morning.

Nelson, who was already dressed, exclaimed, the moment he saw him: "I am
sure you bring me news of the French and Spanish fleets! I think I shall

yet have to beat them!" They had refitted at Vigo, after the indecisive
action with Sir Robert Calder; then proceeded to Ferrol, brought out the

squadron from thence, and with it entered Cadiz in safety. "Depend on
it, Blackwood:" he repeatedly said, "I shall yet give M. Villeneuve a

drubbing." But when Blackwood had left him, he wanted resolution to
declare his wishes to Lady Hamilton and his sisters, and endeavoured to

drive away the thought. He had done enough, he said: "Let the man trudge
it who has lost his budget!" His countenance belied his lips; and as he

was pacing one of the walks in the garden, which he used to call the
quarter-deck, Lady Hamilton came up to him, and told him she saw he was

uneasy. He smiled, and said: "No, he was as happy as possible; he was
surrounded by his family, his health was better since he had been an

shore, and he would not give sixpence to call the king his uncle." She
replied, that she did not believe him, that she knew that he was longing

to get at the combined fleets, that he considered them as his own
property, that he would be miserable if any man but himself did the

business; and that he ought to have them, as the price and reward of his
two years' long watching, and his hard chase. "Nelson," said she,

"however we may lament your absence, offer your services; they will be
accepted, and you will gain a quiet heart by it: you will have a

glorious victory, and then you may return here, and be happy." He looked
at her with tears in his eyes: "Brave Emma! Good Emma! If there were

more Emmas there would be more Nelsons."
His services were as willingly accepted as they were offered; and

Lord Barham, giving him the list of the navy, desired him to choose his
own officers. "Choose yourself, my lord," was his reply: "the same

spirit actuates the whole profession: you cannot choose wrong." Lord
Barham then desired him to say what ships, and how many, he would wish,

in addition to the fleet which he was going to command, and said they
should follow him as soon as each was ready. No appointment was ever

more in unison with the feelings and judgment of the whole nation. They,
like Lady Hamilton, thought that the destruction of the combined fleets

ought properly to be Nelson's work; that he who had been
"Half around the sea-girt ball,

The hunter of the recreant Gaul,"
ought to reap the spoils of the chase which he had watched so long, and