he enemy's line without running on
board one of their ships: Hardy informed him of this, and asked which he
would prefer.

Nelson replied: "Take your choice, Hardy, it does not signify much."

The master was then ordered to put the helm to port, and the _Victory_
ran on board the _Redoubtable_, just as her tiller ropes were shot away.
The French ship received her with a broadside; then instantly let down
her lower-deck ports, for fear of being boarded through them, and never
afterwards fired a great gun during the action. Her tops, like those of
all the enemy's ships, were filled with riflemen. Nelson never placed
musketry in his tops; he had a strong dislike to the practice, not
merely because it endangers setting fire to the sails, but also because
it is a murderous sort of warfare, by which individuals may suffer, and
a commander, now and then, be picked off, but which never can decide the
fate of a general engagement.

Captain Harvey, in the _Temeraire_, fell on board the _Redoubtable_ on
the other side. Another enemy was in like manner on board the
_Temeraire_; so that these four ships formed as compact a tier as if
they had been moored together, their heads lying all the same way. The
lieutenants of the _Victory_, seeing this, depressed their guns of the
middle and lower decks, and fired with a diminished charge, lest the
shot should pass through, and injure the _Temeraire_. And because there
was danger that the _Redoubtable_ might take fire from the lower-deck
guns, the muzzles of which touched her side when they were run out, the
fireman of each gun stood ready with a bucket of water, which, as soon
as the gun was discharged, he dashed into the hole made by the shot. An
incessant fire was kept up from the _Victory_ from both sides; her
larboard guns playing upon the _Bucentaure_ and the huge _Santissima
Trinidad_.

[Illustration: AN INCESSANT FIRE WAS KEPT UP BY THE "VICTORY"]

It had been part of Nelson's prayer that the British fleet might be
distinguished by humanity in the victory which he expected. Setting an
example himself, he twice gave orders to cease firing upon the
_Redoubtable_, supposing that she had struck, because her great guns
were silent; for, as she carried no flag, there was no means of
instantly ascertaining the fact.

From this ship, which he had thus twice spared, he received his death. A
ball fired from her mizzen-top, which, in the then situation of the two
vessels, was not more t