Nelson, utterly fearless, seems to have had a premonition of his fate.  He had made a hasty codicil to his will, and entered the struggle to conquer or die.  Both fates were reserved for him.  From the beginning of the battle the French and Spanish ships suffered terribly from the British fire; but they also inflicted heavy losses on their assailants.  Here and there a French vessel was shattered and fell out of the fight.  Nelson was struck with a ball, but refused to go below.  Again he was hit in the shoulder by a musketeer from the masts of the “Redoubtable” and fell to the deck.  “They have done for me at last, Hardy,” said he to Sir Thomas Hardy, captain of the ship.  He was carried below by the officers, and as he lay bleeding the news was brought to him that already fifteen of the enemy’s ships had surrendered.  “That is well,” said the dying hero; “but I had bargained for twenty.”  Then his thoughts turned to Lady Hamilton, to whom he was devoted.  “Take care of Lady Hamilton, Hardy; take care of poor Lady Hamilton,” said he, as the death dew dampened his brow.  He then embraced the captain and expired.

The victory of the British fleet was complete.  The allies lost nineteen ships.  Admiral Gravina was killed, and Villeneuve was taken prisoner.  He never reacted from the mortification of his defeat, but lingered until the following year, when he despaired of life and hope and committed suicide.  Nelson, in the midst of a pageant hitherto unsurpassed, was buried in St. Paul’s.  The battle of Trafalgar passed into history as the first and greatest naval conflict of the century.

CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ.

The first four years of the present century were a lull before a tempest.  These years covered on our side of the sea the administration of the elder Adams.  In Europe they corresponded to the period of the transformation of the Consulate into the French Umpire.  This change was rapidly and easily effected.  The star of Napoleon emerged from the chaos and the cloud and rose rapidly to the zenith.  But the mood of the age was war, war.  Could Europe in these first years have foreseen the awful struggles that were just before, then Europe might well have shuddered.

Now it was that the ascendancy of the Corsican brought in a reign of violence and blood.  Napoleon became the trampler of vineyards.  His armies made Europe into mire.  England—­agreeing at Amiens not to fight—­fought.  Pitt, now in the last year of his life, used all of his resources to bring about a league against France.  He persuaded Alexander of Russia, Francis of Austria, and Gustavus of Sweden—­all easy dupes of a greater than themselves—­to make a new coalition.  He tried to induce Frederick William of Prussia to join his fortunes with the rest; but the last-named monarch was for the time restrained by the weakness of prudence.  The agents of Napoleon held out to the king suggestions of the restoration of Hanover to Prussia.  But Austria and Russia and Sweden pressed forward confidently to overthrow the new French Empire.  That Empire, they said, should not see the end of the first year of its creation!