V.—­Trafalgar

Here, at last, he heard news of the combined fleets; Sir Robert Calder had fallen in with them near Finisterre and had fought an indecisive engagement.

On September 14, 1805, he passed through the crowds at Portsmouth, many of whom were in tears, many kneeling and blessing him as he passed.  He arrived off Cadiz on September 29 with twenty-three ships, and on October 9 he sent Collingwood his plan of attack—­what he called “the Nelson-touch.”  These tactics consisted in cutting through the line of the enemy in three places.

On the morning of the 19th the enemy came out of the port of Cadiz, and all that day and night, and the next day, the British pursued them.  At daybreak of the 21st, the combined fleets were distinctly seen from the Victory, about twelve miles to leeward.  Signal was made to bear down on the enemy in two lines, and all sail was set, the Victory leading.

Nelson now retired to his cabin and wrote in his diary a prayer committing himself and the British cause to Heaven, and then wrote a memorial setting forth Lady Hamilton’s services to Britain, and leaving her and her daughter Horatia as a legacy to his country.

Villeneuve, commanding the enemy, was a skilful seaman, and his plan of defence was as original as the plan of attack.  He formed the fleet in a double line, every alternate ship being a cable’s length to windward of her second ahead and astern.  Nelson, certain of triumph, issued his last signal:  “England expects every man to do his duty,” which was received throughout the fleet with acclamations.

The English lines, led by Nelson and by Collingwood, swept down upon the hostile fleet, the Victory steering for the bow of the Santissima Trinidad.  At four minutes after twelve she opened fire, and almost immediately ran against the Redoubtable.  Four ships, two British and two French, formed as compact a tier as if they had been moored together, their heads all lying the same way.

At a quarter past one, a ball fired from the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable struck Nelson on the left shoulder, and he fell on his face.  “They have done for me at last, Hardy,” he said; “my backbone is shot through.”  He was carried below, laid on a pallet in the midshipmen’s berth, and insisted that the surgeon should leave him—­“for you can do nothing for me.”  He was in great pain, and expressed much anxiety for the event of the action, until Captain Hardy was able to tell him that fifteen of the enemy had been taken.  Repeating that he left Lady Hamilton and Horatia as a legacy to his country, and exclaiming, “Thank God, I have done my duty!” Nelson expired.

He cannot be said to have fallen prematurely whose work was done.

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MADAME DE STAAL

Memoirs