the plan I had previously arranged for attacking the enemy; and it was not only my pleasure to find it generally approved, but clearly perceived and understood.”  To Lady Hamilton he gave an account of this scene which differs little from the above, except in its greater vividness.  “I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the Commander of the fleet, but also to every individual in it; and, when I came to explain to them the ‘Nelson touch,’ it was like an electric shock.  Some shed tears, all approved—­’It was new—­it was singular—­it was simple!’ and, from admirals downwards, it was repeated—­’It must succeed, if ever they will allow us to get at them!  You are, my Lord, surrounded by friends whom you inspire with confidence.’  Some may be Judas’s:  but the majority are certainly much pleased with my commanding them.”  No more joyful birthday levee was ever held than that of this little naval court.  Besides the adoration for Nelson personally, which they shared with their countrymen in general, there mingled with the delight of the captains the sentiment of professional appreciation and confidence, and a certain relief, noticed by Codrington, from the dry, unsympathetic rule of Collingwood, a man just, conscientious, highly trained, and efficient, but self-centred, rigid, uncommunicative; one who fostered, if he did not impose, restrictions upon the intercourse between the ships, against which he had inveighed bitterly when himself one of St. Vincent’s captains.  Nelson, on the contrary, at once invited cordial social relations with the commanding officers.  Half of the thirty-odd were summoned to dine on board the flagship the first day, and half the second.  Not till the third did he permit himself the luxury of a quiet dinner chat with his old chum, the second in command, whose sterling merits, under a crusty exterior, he knew and appreciated.  Codrington mentions also an incident, trivial in itself, but illustrative of that outward graciousness of manner, which, in a man of Nelson’s temperament and position, is rarely the result of careful cultivation, but bespeaks rather the inner graciousness of the heart that he abundantly possessed.  They had never met before, and the admiral, greeting him with his usual easy courtesy, handed him a letter from his wife, saying that being intrusted with it by a lady, he made a point of delivering it himself, instead of sending it by another.

The “Nelson touch,” or Plan of Attack, expounded to his captains at the first meeting, was afterwards formulated in an Order, copies of which were issued to the fleet on the 9th of October.  In this “Memorandum,” which was doubtless sufficient for those who had listened to the vivid oral explanation of its framer, the writer finds the simplicity, but not the absolute clearness, that they recognized.  It embodies, however, the essential ideas, though not the precise method of execution, actually followed at Trafalgar, under conditions considerably