1805.]

NELSON'S WILL.

167

purchase of an estate. To each of Nelson's surviving sisters, Susannah, wife of Mr. Thomas Bolton, and Catherine, wife of Mr. George Matcham,3 a sum of £10,000 was voted; and to Lady Nelson an annuity of £2000 was assigned. Nelson had commended to the care of his country Lady Hamilton and his natural daughter, Horatia. It was deemed impolitic on the part of the government to take any public notice of this commendation; and

ADMIRAL THE RT. HON. WILLIAM, EARL OF NORTHESK, K.B.

(From the engraving by Ridley and Holl, 1806.)

Lady Hamilton, who, had she been less improvident, might have lived very comfortably on the income which her husband and Nelson had assured for her, fell into poverty ere her death in 1815. Horatia is believed to have received some very slight and indirect recognition of her father's great services from the government of

1 Earl Nelson died in 1835, and was succeeded by Thomas, son of Mrs. Bolton.

5 Horatia, born Jan. 30th, 1801; died at Pinner, Middlesex, 1881.

a later day. She married a clergyman; her sons entered the public services; and in her numerous descendants runs the only blood which now represents the hero of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar.

The surviving sharers in the victory received the unanimous thanks of both Houses of Parliament. Collingwood was made a peer of the United Kingdom, with the title of Baron Collingwood of Caldburne and Hethpoole, and was granted a pension of £2000 a year. Lord Northesk was made a K.B.; and Captain Hardy, of the Victory, was created a Baronet. All the Flag-Officers and Captains who had been present received gold medals. The first Lieutenant of the Victory, the Lieutenants acting as Captains of the Ajax and Thunderer, and the first Lieutenants of the Mars and Bellerophon, whose Captains had fallen in the action, were made Post-Captains; and the signal, second, third, and fourth Lieutenants of the Victory,' the first and second Lieutenants of the Royal Sovereign, and the first Lieutenants of all the other ships3 engaged, were made Commanders. In addition, four Midshipmen of the Victory, three of the Royal Sovereign, two of the Britannia, and one of each other ship and frigate present were promoted to be Lieutenants. Lieutenant La Penotière, of the Pickle, who carried home Collingwood's dispatches, was made a Commander immediately after his arrival in England. The patriotism of private societies and individuals conferred numerous other rewards upon those who had been engaged. A medal also was struck and presented, by permission, to seamen and Marines as well as to officers, by Mr. M. Boulton, of the Soho Ironworks; though no government medal for Trafalgar was awarded to any officers of less than post-rank, or to any seamen or Royal Marines, until 1849, in pursuance of a Gazette notice of June 1st, 1847.

Lord Collingwood, who was continued in the chief command of the Mediterranean fleet, remained to watch the enemy's fleet in Cadiz; but that fleet did not venture to sea. On October 25th, Vice-Admiral François Etienne Rosily arrived from Paris by way of Madrid to supersede Vice-Admiral Villeneuve, who, however, had been taken prisoner in the battle. Villeneuve was released on

1 John Pasco, Edward Williams (2), Andrew King, and John Yule, (all Dec. 24, 1805).

2 John Ellis (2), Jan. 22, 1806, and William Stephens, (latter not till Jan. 4, 1803). See pp. 157-160. Possibly the exceptions, if there were any-and there seem to have been some-were accidental. It is most difficult to ascertain all the facts.

1805.]

THE FATE OF VILLENEUVE.

169

parole, and landed at Morlaix on April 22nd, 1806. A few days later he was staying at an hotel in Rennes, awaiting Napoleon's directions concerning his future movements. One morning he was found dead in his room, stabbed, so it was said, in five places; and it was alleged that he had perished by his own hand. It was, however, very widely believed among his friends that he had been assassinated; and it is noteworthy that Napoleon, when at St. Helena years afterwards, saw fit, not only to describe in detail how Villeneuve had killed himself, but also to assert that the unfortunate seaman had deliberately disobeyed him.

"Villeneuve," said Napoleon, "when prisoner in England, was so much affected by his defeat that he studied anatomy with a view to taking his own life. To that end, he purchased several anatomical engravings of the heart, and compared them with his own body in order to make certain of the exact position of that organ. Upon his arrival in France, I ordered him to remain at Rennes, and not to come to Paris. Villeneuve, fearing to be convicted by a council of war of having disobeyed my orders, and of having lost the fleet in consequence (for I had directed him not to put to sea, and not to engage the English), determined to put an end to himself. He took his engravings of the heart, again compared them with his breast, made a deep prick with a long pin in the centre of the picture, and then, applying the same pin as nearly as possible to the corresponding place in his own body, drove it in up to the head, pierced his heart, and so died. When they opened his room they found him dead, the pin being in his breast, and the mark on the picture corresponding with the wound on his body. He should not have acted in that way. He was a gallant man, although he had no talent." 1

This tale is scarcely of a nature to disarm suspicion. The truth, however, can now never be known. Villeneuve, in spite of Napoleon's professed opinion of his gallantry, was, it is certain, buried without honours.

The story of Trafalgar must be completed with an account of the fate which befel Rear-Admiral Dumanoir Le Pelley, and the four ships with which he escaped to the southward, after the battle of October 21st. He would have made for Toulon had he not known that Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis, with several sail of the line, was in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar. He ultimately decided, therefore, to endeavour to reach one of the French Atlantic ports.

It should be explained that the French Rochefort squadron,2 under Rear-Admiral Allemand, which had quitted its port in the previous July, was still at sea, playing havoc with British commerce, and that several British squadrons, and scores of British cruisers, were looking for it. At the end of October, the Phonix, 36, Captain 2 See pp. 118, 120.

1 Méms. du Dr. O'Mear

Thomas Baker (1), while making, with sealed orders, for a given. rendezvous westward of Scilly, learnt from some neutrals that a squadron, supposed to be Allemand's, had been sighted in the Bay of Biscay. Baker took upon himself the responsibility of prematurely opening his orders, and, finding that they were of no great importance, went in search of the enemy. On November 2nd, being in the latitude of Cape Finisterre, he sighted and chased four large ships; and, when he in turn was chased, he steered south, to carry his intelligence to Captain Sir Richard John Strachan, who was cruising off Ferrol,' and into whose hands he hoped to lead the foe. In the afternoon Baker sighted four other large ships to the southward; and a little later the vessels which had been chasing him hauled their wind. The Phonix hauled up to keep in sight the latter, which presently wore and stood to the eastward; whereupon the frigate stood again S.S.E. and strove to attract the attention of the other ships, which she believed to be British.

Baker had discovered Dumanoir's squadron, which, at about the same time, had also been sighted and chased by the Boadicea, 38, Captain John Maitland (2), and the Dryad, 36, Captain Adam Drummond. At 8.45 P.M. on November 2nd, the Phoenix saw these vessels; and at 9.30 P.M., these vessels saw the four ships which the Phoenix had previously observed to the southward, and which, with three others not far from them, proved to be Strachan's command. The Boadicea and Dryad, not succeeding in getting any answer to their signals, became suspicious, and, at about 10.30 P.M., tacked to the N.E. and were soon out of sight; but the Phoenix, at 11 P.M., though first fired at, hailed the Cæsar and informed Strachan that four ships of the enemy were not far away on his lee bow. The British squadron being much scattered, Strachan directed Baker to make sail and hasten forward the stragglers, and himself bore away in chase with a W.N.W. wind. He soon discovered the enemy crowding sail in the E.N.E., and bearing away. At 1.30 A.M. on November 3rd, the moon set, and, the weather being thick and dirty, the French were lost sight of. Strachan, therefore, shortened sail to wait for the ships astern of him; and, at 9 A.M.,2 he again saw the French in the N.N.E. had then with him three ships of the line besides his own, together

1 Having been detached from the Channel fleet on October 29th, to look for the Rochefort squadron.

2 At 7.30 A.M., Cape Ortegal bore S.E. E., distant 36 miles.

1805.]

STRACHAN AND DUMANOIR.

171

with the Santa Margarita, 36; and he instantly chased with all possible sail set, the wind having then veered to W.S.W. The forces in presence of one another were:

3 The Formidable had had three guns dismounted at Trafalgar, and had thrown overboard twelve of her quarter-deck 12-prs. during the chase; so that she had but 65 guns mounted. Chevalier says only 60.

♦ Chevalier calls him sometimes Bellanger and sometimes Berrenger.

At noon, when the wind blew strong from S.S.W., the French were about fourteen miles distant; at about 3 P.M., the Santa Margarita, and, later, the Phoenix, well ahead of their consorts, began to draw up with the enemy's rear. In the afternoon, on the other hand, the Bellona unfortunately parted company, owing to her inferior sailing. By dawn on November 4th, when there was a moderate breeze from S.E., the leading British ship of the line was but about six miles astern of the rearmost Frenchman, the Scipion, which, earlier in the morning, had exchanged shot with the Santa Margarita, and subsequently with the Phoenix also, and which was thenceforward continually harassed by the frigates. Soon afterwards, the Cæsar, Hero, and Courageux formed in line ahead, and aided by a shift of wind to S.S.E., began to approach so rapidly that, at 11.45 A.M., realising that he could not avoid an action, Dumanoir Le Pelley ordered his ships to take in their small sails, and to haul up together on the starboard tack with their heads to N.E. by E. After having obeyed this signal the French ships formed line ahead in the order given in the above table, the Scipion bearing S. by W. from the Cæsar, distant a little more than a mile. Both the Namur and the Révolutionnaire, though they had much improved their positions, were still considerably astern of their consorts, the one bearing S.W., distant fourteen miles, and the other bearing W.S.W., distant seven miles, from the Cæsar.

Strachan informed Gardner and Lee that he purposed to attack the centre and rear of the French; and, at about noon, the three