he did not dare to express his views publicly and these discussions were confined to a small circle into which I, with my eternal and insatiable curiosity, had squeezed myself. I do not know why, but it seemed to me that there was an expression of dissatisfaction on every face. The officers on the quarter-deck, and the sailors and non-commissioned officers at the bows, stood watching the ships to leeward, quite out of the line of battle, four of which ought to have been in the centre.
I forgot to mention one preliminary in which I myself had borne a hand. Early in the morning the decks were cleared for action, and when all was ready for serving the guns and working the ship, I heard some one say: “The sand—bring the sand.” Marcial pulled me by the ear, and taking me to one of the hatchways set me in a line with some of the pressed men, ship’s boys, and other supernumeraries. A number of sailors were posted on the ladders from the hatchway to the hold and between decks, and in this way were hauling up sacks of sand. Each man handed one to the man next to him and so it was passed on without much labor. A great quantity of sacks were thus brought up from hand to hand, and to my great astonishment they were emptied out on the upper deck, the poop, and the forecastle, the sand being spread about so as to cover all the planking; and the same thing was done between decks. My curiosity prompted me to ask the boy who stood next to me what this was for.
“For the blood,” he said very coolly.
“For the blood!” I exclaimed unable to repress a shudder. I looked at the sand—I looked at the men who were busily employed at this task—and for a moment I felt I was a coward. However, my imagination reverted to the ideas which had previously filled it, and relieved my mind of its alarms; I thought no more of anything but victory and a happy issue.
Everything was ready for serving the guns and the ammunition was passed up from the store-rooms to the decks by a chain of men, like that which had brought up the sand-bags.
The English advanced to attack us in two sections. One came straight down upon us, and at its head, which was the point of the wedge, sailed a large ship carrying the admiral’s flag. This, as I afterwards learned, was the Victory, commanded by Nelson. At the head of the other line was the Royal Sovereign, commanded by Collingwood. All these names, and the strategical plan of the battle, were not known to me till later.
My recollections, which are vividly distinct as to all the graphic and picturesque details, fail me with regard to the scheme of action which was beyond my comprehension at the time. All that I picked from Marcial, combined with what I subsequently learnt, sufficed to give me a good idea of the arrangement of our fleets; and for the better intelligence of the reader I give in the next page a list of our ships, indicating the gaps left by those that had not come up, and the nationality of each.
It was now a quarter to twelve. The fatal moment was approaching. The anxiety was general, and I do not speak merely from what was going on in my own mind, for I was absorbed in watching the ship which was said to contain Nelson, and for some time was hardly aware of what was going on round me.
Suddenly a terrible order was given by our captain—the boatswains repeated it; the sailors flew to the tops; the blocks and ropes creaked, the topsails flapped in the wind.
“Take in sail!” cried Marcial, with a good round oath. “The infernal idiot is making us work back.”
And then I understood that the Trinidad was to slacken her speed so as to run alongside of the Bucentaure, because the Victory seemed to be taking measures to run in between those two ships and so cut the line in the middle.
| Neptuno, Sp. | Front. | ||
| Le Scipion, Fr. | |||
| Rayo, Sp. | |||
| Le Formidable, Fr. | |||
| —— Le Duguay Trouin, Fr. | |||
| Le Mont Blanc, Fr. | |||
| Asís, Sp. | |||
| San Augustin, Sp. | Centre. | ||
| Le Héros, Fr. | |||
| Victory | Trinidad, Sp. | ||
| Nelson. | Le Bucentaure, Fr. | ||
| ——————> | —— Neptune, Fr. | ||
| Le Redoutable, Fr. | |||
| L’Intrépide, Fr. | |||
| —— Leandro, Sp. | |||
| Royal Sovereign | —— Justo, Sp. | Rear. | |
| Collingwood. | —— L’Indomptable, Fr. | ||
| ——————> | Santa Ana, Sp. | ||
| Le Fougueux, Fr. | |||
| Monarca, Sp. | |||
| Le Pluton, Fr. | |||
| Bahama, Sp. | Reserve. | ||
| —— L’Aigle, Fr. | |||
| Montañes, Sp. | |||
| Algeciras, Sp. | |||
| Argonauta, Sp. | |||
| Swiftsure, Fr. | |||
| —— L’Argonaute, Fr. | |||
| Ildefonso, Sp. | |||
| —— L’Achille, Fr. | |||
| Príncipe de Astúrias, Sp. | |||
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