For upwards of 15 minutes the Royal-Sovereign was the only British ship in close action. At the end of that time, when the former had taken a position upon her opponent's lee bow, and was making the best possible use of it, the Belleisle, hauling up, fired a broadside into the lee quarter of the Santa-Ana, and then bore away towards the Indomptable. Owing to some of the ships astern of the Fougueux pressing forward to support the centre, while others remained with their sails aback or shivering, the Franco-Spanish line (if line we must call it) was becoming even more irregular than it had been. The slanting direction in which, on account of this movement, the British lee column was obliged to advance, enabled the ships to discharge their starboard guns at the enemy's rear; and an interchange of animated firing ensued, the smoke from which, for the want of a breeze to carry it off, spread its murky mantle over the combatants, and increased the confusion into which the rear of the combined fleet had already been thrown by the crash at its centre. Lord Nelson had already, in a two-decker, evinced how little he dreaded coming in contact with a Spanish first-rate; and even the towering and formidable looking four-decker at present in front of him had, on that very occasion, been driven from her purpose by his well-known prowess. But, although he directed the Victory to be steered towards the bow of his old opponent, it was not with the intention of attacking her: a Spanish rearadmiral, whatever the force of his ship, was considered an unworthy object while a French vice-admiral commanded the fleet. Lord Nelson did not feel a doubt, and the sequel proved he was correct, that M. Villeneuve was in one of the two or three ships next astern of the four-decker; and, knowing that, to fetch a ship lying to at a distance ahead, he must keep her on his lee bow, he ordered the Victory to be steered in the manner just related. Although every glass on board the Victory was put in requisition to discover the flag of the French commander-in-chief, all the answers to the repeated questions of Lord Nelson on the subject ended in disappointment. The four-decker's flag at the mizen could be made out, and some signals were occasionally seen at the main of two or three of the ships, but no French flag at the fore. Often did the little man himself, with his remaining eye, cast an anxious glance towards the Franco-Spanish line in search of the ship which he meant the Victory first to grapple with; and so lightly did Lord Nelson value personal risk, that, although urged more than once on the subject, he would not suffer those barriers from the enemy's grape and musketry, the *It was probably signals, made when the Victory was much closer, that gave rise to the following entry in the log of the Spartiate : "Observed her bearing down between a Spanish four-decker and a French two-decker, with admiral's flags at the main.” hammocks, to be placed one inch higher than, to facilitate his view of objects around him, they were accustomed to be stowed. The Victory, meanwhile, was slowly advancing to a gun-shot distance from the enemy's line. At 20 minutes past noon, which was about 20 minutes after the Fougueux had opened her fire upon the Royal-Sovereign, and about 10 after the latter had passed under the stern of the Santa-Ana, the Bucentaure fired a shot at the Victory, then, with studding-sails set on both sides, steering about east and going scarcely a knot and a half through the water. The shot fell short. Two or three minutes elapsed, and a second shot was fired; which, the Victory then about a mile and a quarter distant, fell alongside. A third shot almost immediately followed, and that went over the ship. One or two others did the same, until, at length, a shot went through the Victory's main topgallantsail; affording to the enemy the first visible proof that his shot would reach. A minute or two of awful silence ensued; and then, as if by signal from the French admiral, the whole van, or at least seven or eight of the weathermost ships opened a fire upon the Victory, such a fire as had scarcely before been directed at a single ship. In a few minutes a round shot killed Mr. John Scott, Lord Nelson's public secretary, while he was conversing with Captain Hardy. Since the commencement of the firing the wind had gradually died away to a mere breath. Still the Victory driven onward by the swell and the remains of her previous impetus, was going slowly ahead, in the direction, now, of the interval between the SantisimaTrinidad and Bucentaure: both of which ships, aided occasionally by the Redoutable astern of the latter, continued upon her a very heavy and destructive fire. To this heavy and unremitting cannonade the Victory neither did, nor from her position could, bestow any return. In a very few minutes, however, after the firing had opened upon her, one of the foremost guns on the starboard side went off by accident. In a private ship this would scarcely have been noticed; but, as happening on board the ship of the commander-in-chief, it excited the attention of the fleet, and was minuted down in the log of one ship, the Polyphemus, as a real commencement of the action by the Victory; thus: "About 20 m. past 12 Victory fired upon by the enemy's van, which was returned with a few of her foremost guns on the starboard side." Seeing, by the direction of her course, that the Victory was about to follow the example of the Royal-Sovereign, the French and Spanish ships ahead of the British weather column closed like a forest. This movement, headed by the stoppage in the headway of the Santa-Ana, and by the bearing up of the two Spanish ships ahead of her in the manner already related, divided the combined line nearly in the centre, leaving, including the Redoutable from her station astern of the San-Leandro, 14 ships in the van, and 19 in the rear, with an interval between them of at least three quarters of a mile. Just as she had got within about 500 yards of the larboard beam of the Bucentaure the Victory's mizen topmast was shot away about two thirds up. A shot also struck and knocked to pieces the wheel; and the ship was obliged to be steered in the gun-room, the first lieutenant (John Quilliam) and master (Thomas Atkinson) relieving each other at this duty. Scarcely had two minutes elapsed before a double-headed shot killed eight marines on the poop, and wounded several others: on which the admiral ordered Captain Adair to disperse his men round the ship, that they might not suffer so much from being together. Presently a shot, that had come through a thickness of four hammocks near the larboard chess-tree, and had carried away a part of the larboard quarter of the launch as she lay on the booms, struck the fore-brace bits on the quarterdeck, and passed between Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy; a splinter from the bits bruising the left foot of the latter, and tearing the buckle from his shoe. "They both," says Doctor Beatty, instantly stopped, and were observed by the officers on deck to survey each other with inquiring looks, each supposing the other to be wounded. His lordship then smiled and said, "This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long;' and declared that, through all the battles he had been in, he had never witnessed more cool courage than was displayed by the Victory's crew on this occasion.”* 66 In a few seconds afterwards, as the Bucentaure slowly forged ahead, a large French ship was seen upon her lee quarter, and another ship astern of the former, in the act of ranging up, as if with the intention of completely closing the interval. Now it was that Captain Hardy, represented to Lord Nelson the impracticability of passing through the line without running on board one of the ships. His lordship quickly replied, "I cannot help it: it does not signify which we run on board of. Go on board which you please take your choice." At this moment, such had been the effect of the heavy and unremitting fire to which she had so long been exposed, the loss on board the Victory amounted to 20 officers and men killed, and 30 wounded; a loss that would have been still more severe, had not the enemy's guns been pointed at the rigging and sails, rather than at the hull of the ship. In consequence of this, every studding-sail boom on the foremast (the Victory, unlike other ships, had no booms rigged out upon her mainmast) had been shot off close to the yard-arm, and every sail, especially on the foremast, was like a riddle: her almost new foresail, indeed, had from 80 to 100 yards of it stripped from the yard. This clearly shows what an advantage the centre and rear had lost in not having opened an earlier fire * Beatty's Narrative, p. 27. + Ibid., p. 30. |