s Lady Hamilton and
his daughter Horatia as a legacy to his country, and that Horatia is
never to be forgotten.

Even at this distance of time one cannot help regretting that nature's
power did not sustain him to see the total debacle of the enemy
fleets. He knew that he had triumphed, and that his task had ended
fatally to himself, but his sufferings did not prevent his spirit
sallying to and fro, making him feel the joy of living and wish that
he might linger but a little longer. He was struck down at a critical
stage of the battle, though there was never any doubt as to how it
would end, thanks to the adroit skill and bravery of Collingwood and
those who served under him. It is a happy thought to know that our
hero, even when the shadows were closing round him, had the pleasure
of hearing from the lips of the faithful Hardy that fifteen of the
enemy ships had struck and not one of ours had lowered a flag. But how
much more gladsome would the passing have been had he lived to know
that the battle had ended with the capture of nine French vessels and
ten Spanish, nineteen in all. He died at 4.30 p.m. on the 21st
October, 1805, just when the battle was flickering to an end.
Villeneuve had given himself up, and was a prisoner on board the
_Mars_. Dumanoir had bolted with four of the line, after committing a
decidedly cowardly act by firing into the captured Spanish ships, the
object being to put them out of the possession of the British. They
could not succeed in this without killing large numbers of their
allies, and this was all they were successful in doing. It was a
cruel, clumsy crime, which the Spanish rightly resented but never
succeeded in avenging.

Meanwhile the Spanish Admiral Gravina, who had lost an arm, took
command of the dilapidated combined fleets, and fled into Cadiz with
five French and five Spanish ships, and by 5 p.m. the thundering of
the guns had ceased, and the sea all round was a scene of death,
dismasted ships, and awful wreckage. The Rear-Admiral Dumanoir was
sailing gaily towards the refuge of Rochefort or Ferrol when he came
into view of, and ultimately had to fight on the 4th November, a
squadron under Sir Richard Strachan. Dumanoir and his men are said to
have fought with great fierceness, but his ships were beaten,
captured, and taken in a battered condition, and subsequently sent to
England, so that now twenty-three out of the thirty-three that came
out of Cadiz with all the swagger of