The order closed with further words of commendation, which will not have the immortal response of the human heart to the other phrases; but which, uttered at such a moment, conveyed a salutary warning, justified as much by recent unhappy events in the British navy, as by the well-known disorganization and anarchy that had disgraced that of France.  “It must strike forcibly every British seaman, how superior their conduct is, when in discipline and good order, to the riotous behaviour of lawless Frenchmen."[67] Captain Berry states that the assembling of the “Vanguard’s” ship’s company for the thanksgiving service strongly impressed the prisoners on board,—­not from the religious point of view, which was alien from the then prevalent French temper,—­but as evidence of an order and discipline which could render such a proceeding acceptable, after a victory so great, and at a moment of such seeming confusion.  No small amount of self-possession, indeed, was needed thus to direct the attention of six hundred men, in the confined space of a ship, whose shattered sides and blood-stained decks bore witness to the hundred dead and wounded snatched from their number within the few hours before; yet, on the other hand, nothing could have been better calculated to compose the thoughts, or to facilitate the transition from the excitement of battle to the resumption of daily life.

If, by the escape of two ships-of-the-line, the British triumph lacked something in technical completeness, the disaster to the French was no less absolute.  Victory, said Nelson truly, is not the name for such a scene as I have witnessed.  There remained now to gather up the spoils of the field, and to realize the consequences of the battle, great and small, near and remote.  The first was speedily done; battered as they were, “only two masts standing out of nine sail-of-the-line,” within a fortnight six of the nine prizes were ready to start for Gibraltar.  Little by little, yet with the rapidity of his now highly trained intuitions, Nelson saw the greatness of what he had effected, and with his full native energy struggled on, amid mental confusion and bodily suffering, and in the heat of an Egyptian August, to secure all the fruits of success.  With splitting head and constantly sick, a significant indication of the rattling shock his brain had received, he was wonderfully helped, so far as the direction of his efforts was concerned, by the previous familiarity of his mind with the various elements of the problem.  First of all, the home government must be informed of an event that would so profoundly affect the future.  Berry’s orders, as bearer of despatches to St. Vincent off Cadiz, were issued on the 2d of August; but there were no frigates, and the “Leander,” appointed to carry him, could not sail till the 6th.  For the same reason it was not until the 14th that the “Mutine” could be sent off with duplicates, to go direct to the Admiralty by way of Naples,—­a wise precaution in all events, but doubly justified in this case; for the brig reached port, whereas the fifty-gun ship was captured by the “Genereux.”  The “Mutine’s” account, though hastened forward without delay, reached London only on the 2d of October, two months after the action.