Harvey being rather out of hail, his lordship
sent me to communicate his wishes, which I
did, when, on returning to the Victory, I found
him doing all he could rather to increase than
diminish sail, so that the Téméraire could not
pass the Victory; consequently, when they came
within gun-shot of the enemy, Captain Harvey,
finding his efforts ineffectual, was obliged to
take his station astern of the admiral."

Nelson then went over the different decks,
where the men stood grouped in eights round
their favourite guns. He spoke to them in his
own kind and pleasant way, and saw that the
preparations were everywhere complete. As he
ascended the quarter-deck ladder it was as if he
ascended to a throne, and the men greeted him
with three cheers.

The French fleet, commanded by Admiral
Villeneuve in the Bucentaur, included Nelson's
old antagonist, the Santissima Trinidada (of one
hundred and forty guns), two vessels of one
hundred and twelve guns, one of one hundred, six
of eighty-four and eighty, the rest being seventy-
fours of a large class, together with seven
frigates of heavy metal, forty-four and forty
guns each, besides other smaller vessels. The
Spaniards were commanded by Admiral
Gravina, who had under him Vice-Admiral Don J.
d'Aliva and Rear-Admiral Don B. M. Cisneros.
Villeneuve had under him Rear-Admirals
Dumanoir and Moyon. Four thousand troops were
embarked on board the fleet under the
command of General Contarini in the Bucentaur,
amongst whom were several of the most skilful
sharpshooters that could be selected, and many
Tyrolese riflemen. Various sorts of combustibles
and fire-balls were also embarked. The
Spaniards appeared with their heads to the
northward, and formed their line of battle with
great closeness and correctness; and as the
mode of attack by Nelson was unusual, so the
structure of their line was new. It formed a
crescent convexing to leeward, and Admiral
Collingwood, in leading down to the centre,
had both the van and rear of the enemy abaft
his beam. They were formed in a double line
thus:

1          2          3

     4          5          6

French and Spaniards alternately, and it was
their intention, on our breaking the line astern
of No. 4 (which manoeuvre they expected we
should, as usual, put into execution), for No. 2
to make sail; that the British ship in hauling
up should fall on board of her, whilst No. 5
should bear up and take her, and No. 1 bring her
broadside to bear on her starboard bow. This
manoeuvre only succeeded with the Tonnant and
Bellerophon, which were amongst the ships
that suffered most. Before their fire, therefore,
opened, every alternate ship was about a cable's
length to windward of her second ahead and
astern, forming a kind of double line, and ap-
peared, when on their beams, to leave a very
little interval between them, and this without
crowding their ships. Admiral Villeneuve was
on board the Bucentaur, eighty guns, in Ihe
centre, and the Prince of Asturias bore
Gravina's flag in the rear.

Collingwood led our lee line of thirteen
ships. Nelson, the weaker line of fourteen.
Nelson steered two points more to the north
than Collingwood, in order to cut off the enemy's
retreat towards Cadiz. The lee line, therefore,
was first engaged. Villeneuve was desperate;
he had resolved to fight against the wish of the
Spaniards, partly because he thought that Nelson
had not arrived, and because he knew that
Napoleon, furious at his poor success with Sir
Robert Calder, had already sent M. Rosaly to
supersede him. His crews were in a feverish
clamour of bragging excitement, every one
shouting at the same time, as usual with the
Gaul at moments of danger.

Nelson's eyes brightened with delight when
he saw Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, go
straight as an arrow at the centre of the
enemy's line, chop it through astern of the Santa
Anna, a three-decker (112), then open fire and
engage that vessel at the muzzle of her guns
on the starboard side.

"See!" he cried, "see how that noble fellow,
Collingwood, carries his ship into action."

Collingwood at the same moment looked back
exultingly at the Victory, and said to his
captain (Rotherham of the cocked-hat): "Rotherham,
what would not Nelson give to be here?"
Only the day before, Nelson had reconciled
Collingwood and Rotherham. Saying, "Look!
yonder are the enemy," made them shake hands.

Villeneuve was watching the English advance
from amid a group of his moustachioed and
chattering officers; the English came on gay and
confident as boys starting for cricket.

"Nothing," he said, "but victory can attend
such gallant conduct." At half-past eleven the
French guns opened on the Royal Sovereign;
as the Victory came sweeping down, the French
ships ahead of her, and across her bows, at fifty
minutes past, eleven began to try the distance;
they fired single guns. Perceiving a shot pass
through her maintop gallant-sail, they opened a
feu d'enfer, chiefly (as is their custom) at the
rigging, to disable her before she could grapple.
Nelson instantly ordered Blackwood and
Captain Prowse, of the Sirius, to go on board
their ships, and tell all the line-of-battle captains
as they passed to disregard his plan of action
if in any other way they could get quicker and
closer alongside an enemy. "He then," Blackwood
says, "again desired me to go away; and as
we were standing on the front of the poop, I took
his hand, and said, 'I trust, my lord, that on
my return to the Victory, which will be as soon
as possible, I shall find your lordship well, and in
possession of twenty prizes.' On which he
made this reply: ' God bless you, Blackwood;
I shall never speak to you again'"

The two columns, led on by their brave chiefs,
continued to advance, with light airs and all sails
set, towards the van and centre of the enemy,
whose line extended about N.N.E. and S.S.W.

Nelson gave orders to hoist several flags on
the Victorv, for fear that a single one might be