This solemn call on his country can require no comment. Woe to the
nation, which could dare to neglect such strong claims on it's justice
and beneficence! The proverbial generosity of Britons will, no doubt, in
due time, bountifully display it's accustomed munificence in favour of
the parties.
The Honourable Captain Blackwood, who is a subscribing witness to the
above codicil, after watching the enemy all night, had got on board the
Victory about seven in the morning: and, with Captain, Capel, of the
Phoebe; and Captain Prowse, of the Sirius; remained several hours in
consultation with Lord Nelson. When his lordship became convinced, that
the enemy could not possibly avoid an engagement, he displayed the
highest degree of animation. Confident of victory, he said to Captain
Hardy, and the other officers by whom he was surrounded--"They cannot
now escape us! I think, we shall, at least, make sure of twenty of them.
I may, probably, lose a leg; but that will be cheaply purchasing a
victory." However, it is an undoubted fact, that when the Honourable
Captain Blackwood, in taking leave of his lordship, previous to the
action, observed that, he hoped they should, in a few hours, meet again;
the hero replied, in a firm tone--"My dear Blackwood, I shall never
again speak to you!" This was no sentiment of despondency, but a strong
sense of the danger to be apprehended from so unequal a contest. The
enemy's line consisting of thirty-three ships, eighteen of which were
French, and fifteen Spanish; and the British fleet only twenty-seven:
and, by the advantage of size, as well as numbers, they had a
superiority of about three hundred and fifty guns. Ten thousand of their
choicest troops were also distributed throughout the fleet, to ensure
success by boarding; and their ships were furnished with fire-balls and
combustibles of every description, in the hope of setting our's on
fire. The French were commanded, in chief, by Admiral Villeneuve; and
not by Admiral Decrées, as Lord Nelson had lately supposed would be the
case; with Rear-Admirals Dumanoir and Magon: The Spaniards, by Admiral
Gravina, commander in chief; with Admirals Don Ignacio Morea D'Alva, Don
Domingo Guadalharas, and Commodore Don Baltazar. The structure of the
enemy's line was somewhat new, as well as the intended mode of attacking
them. It formed a crescent, convexing to leeward: every alternate ship
being about a cable's length to windward of it's second a-head and
a-stern, so as to seem a kind of double-line; leaving between them, when
on their beam, a very small interval, and this without crouding their
ships. Admiral Villeneuve, in the Bucentaure, occupied the centre; and
Admiral Gravina's flag was borne by the Prince of Asturias, in the rear:
but the French and Spanish ships appear to have been mixed, without any
regard to national arrangement.
The mode of attack having been long determined on by Lord Nelson, and
recently communicated, as has been seen, on the 10th instant, to the
flag officers and captains, few signals were necessary. On first
discovering the combined fleet, his lordship had immediately made the
signal to bear up in two columns, as formed in the order of sailing, to
avoid the inconvenience and delay of forming a line of battle in the
usual manner. Lord Nelson, as commander in chief, led the weather
column, in the Victory; and Vice-Admiral Collingwood, as second in
command, that of the lee, in the Royal Sovereign. The following are the
respective ships of which the two British lines were composed--