falling by the wheel as he retreated.  Berry had by this time reached the poop, where he hauled down the colors, while Nelson passed to the forward part of the ship, meeting on his way several Spanish officers, who, being by this time in the hands of British seamen, gave up to him their swords.  The Spanish guns on the lower decks still continued firing for some moments, apparently at the “Prince George,” which had passed to leeward of the “Captain,” and now kept her batteries playing upon the hull of the “San Nicolas” forward of the part where the “Captain” touched her.

At this moment a small-arm fire was opened from the stern galleries of the “San Josef” upon the British party in the “San Nicolas.”  Nelson caused the soldiers to reply to it, and ordered reinforcements sent to him from the “Captain.”  Parties were stationed at the hatchways of the “San Nicolas” to control the enemy and keep them below decks, and then the boarders charged again for the Spanish three-decker.  Nelson was helped by Berry into her main chains; but he had got no farther before a Spanish officer put his head over the rail and said they surrendered.  “From this most welcome information,” continues Nelson, in his narrative, “it was not long before I was on the quarter-deck, when the Spanish captain, with a bow, presented me his sword, and said the admiral was dying of his wounds below.  I asked him, on his honour, if the ship were surrendered? he declared she was; on which I gave him my hand, and desired him to call to his officers and ship’s company, and tell them of it—­which he did; and on the quarter-deck of a Spanish First-rate, extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive the swords of vanquished Spaniards; which, as I received, I gave to William Fearney, one of my bargemen, who put them with the greatest sangfroid under his arm.  I was surrounded by Captain Berry, Lieutenant Pierson, 69th Regiment, John Sykes, John Thomson, Francis Cook, all old Agamemnons, and several other brave men, seamen and soldiers:  thus fell these ships.”  The firing from the lower deck of the “San Nicolas” was by this time stopped, and the “Prince George” was hailed that both the enemy’s vessels were in possession of the British.  The “Victory,” Jervis’s flagship, passed a few moments later and cheered, as did every ship in the fleet.

The dramatic and picturesque surroundings which colored the seizure of these two Spanish ships have doubtless given an exaggerated idea of the danger and difficulty attending the exploit.  The impression made upon a sympathetic and enthusiastic eye-witness, Sir Gilbert Elliot, who saw the affair from the decks of the frigate “Lively,” has been transmitted to posterity with little diminution.  “Nothing in the world was ever more noble than the transaction of the Captain from beginning to end, and the glorious group of your ship and her two prizes, fast in your gripe, was never surpassed, and I dare say never will.”  Yet it may better be looked upon as another of those