h of water was insufficient. He was unwilling to sail
away to Corfu--as Bonaparte affirmed that he had ordered him to do if to
enter the harbor were impracticable--until he knew that the army was
securely established at Cairo. The French Admiral moored his fleet in
what he judged the best position; a position described by Nelson himself
as "a strong line of battle for defending the entrance of the bay (of
shoals), flanked by numerous gunboats, four frigates, and a battery of
guns and mortars."

The French ships were placed "at a distance from each other of about a
hundred sixty yards, with the van-ship close to a shoal in the
northwest, and the whole of the line just outside a four-fathom
sand-bank; so that an enemy, it was considered, could not turn either
flank." Nelson, with the rapidity of genius, at once grasped this plan
of attack. Where there was room for a French ship to swing, there was
room for an English ship to anchor. He would place half his ships on the
inner side of the French line, and half on the outer side. The number of
ships in the two fleets was nearly equal, but four of the French were of
larger size. At 3 P.M. the British squadron was approaching the bay,
with a manifest intention of giving battle. Admiral Brueys had thought
that the attack would be deferred to the next morning. Nelson had no
intention of permitting the enemy to weigh anchor and get to sea in the
darkness.

By six o'clock Nelson's line was formed, without any precise regard to
the succession of the vessels according to established forms. The shoal
at the western extremity of the bay was rounded by eleven of the
British squadron. The Goliath led the way, and when her commander,
Foley, reached the enemy's van, he steered between the outermost ship
and the shoal. The Zealous--Captain Hood--instantly followed. At twenty
minutes past six the two van-ships of the French opened their fire upon
these vessels, but they were soon disabled. Four other British ships
also took their stations inside the French line. Nelson, in the
Vanguard, followed by five of his seventy-fours, anchored on the outer
side of the enemy. Nine of the French fleet were thus placed between the
two fires of eleven of the British ships. The Leander had not been
engaged, having been occupied in the endeavor to assist the Culloden,
which, coming up after dark, ran aground.

Before the sun went down the shore was crowded with the people of the
country gazing upon this