The Rochefort ships sailed on the 11th of January.  For a week before and a week after that date the winds at Toulon hung between northeast and southeast, favorable, therefore, for a voyage to the Straits of Gibraltar; but Villeneuve argued, judiciously, that a fleet intent on evasion only, and to avoid fighting, should move with great speed until lost to sight—­that is, should start with a very fresh breeze, the direction of which was of secondary moment.  This view of the matter escaped Nelson’s attention, and therefore contributed seriously to mislead him in his reasoning as to the enemy’s probable object.

On the 17th of January the wind at Toulon shifted to north-northwest, with signs of an approaching gale, such as the Gulf of Lyons is noted for.  The next morning Villeneuve sent a division to drive away Nelson’s lookouts.  This duty was imperfectly performed.  It should have been done by a frigate squadron strong enough to force them out of sight of the main body, and having orders to rejoin the latter at a distant rendezvous.  As it was, the British frigates did not lose touch of the hostile fleet, which sailed that evening.  They dogged it late into the night, going at times thirteen knots before the blast of the storm, in order to keep clear of the enemy; and at two in the morning of January 19th, being then in the latitude of Ajaccio, satisfied that the French were steering steadily south-southwest, and under a press of sail, which indicated a mission of importance, they parted company and hastened to Nelson, whom they joined twelve hours later, as already stated.

Nelson needed no time to deliberate.  His mind was long before fixed to follow, and there was but one way to do so.  The enemy’s course, as reported, led to the southern end of Sardinia, after reaching which the wind was fair for Naples, Sicily, and the East.  The British ships were moored—­two anchors down.  At half-past four they were under way, standing in single column for the narrow passage between Biche and Sardinia, the “Victory” leading, each vessel steering by the stern lights of the one ahead of her.  At seven P.M. all were clear, and the fleet hauled up along the east coast of Sardinia, which made a lee for them.  “At midnight,” Nelson notes in his journal, “moderate breezes and clear.”  During the same hours the untrained squadron of Villeneuve was losing topmasts in the fury of the gale.

The following afternoon,[83] as the British drew out from under the lee of Sardinia, they found the wind blowing a hard gale from south-southwest, which lasted all that night.  The fleet could make no way against it, but neither could the French utilize it, unless, which was unlikely, they had got much farther to the southward than Nelson had.  When he left Madalena, he had sent a frigate ahead, with orders to round Sardinia by the south and try to get sight or word of the enemy.  On the morning of the 22d she rejoined, the fleet having then drifted to fifty miles east