which never can be
successful against the brave.

[Illustration: AN OLD QUARTERMASTER HAD SEEN HIM FIRE]

Once they succeeded in setting fire, from the _Redoubtable_, to some
ropes and canvas on the _Victory's_ booms. The cry ran through the ship,
and reached the cockpit; but even this dreadful cry produced no
confusion: the men displayed that perfect self-possession in danger by
which English seamen are characterized; they extinguished the flames on
board their own ship, and then hastened to extinguish them in the enemy,
by throwing buckets of water from the gangway. When the _Redoubtable_
had struck, it was not practicable to board her from the _Victory_; for,
though the two ships touched, the upper works of both fell in so much,
that there was a great space between their gangways; and she could not
be boarded from the lower or middle decks, because her ports were down.
Some of our men went to Lieutenant Quilliam, and offered to swim under
her bows and get up there; but it was thought unfit to hazard brave
lives in this manner.

What our men would have done from gallantry, some of the crew of the
_Santissima Trinidad_ did to save themselves. Unable to stand the
tremendous fire of the _Victory_, whose larboard guns played against
this great four-decker, and not knowing how else to escape them, nor
where else to betake themselves for protection, many of them leapt
overboard, and swam to the _Victory_; and were actually helped up her
sides by the English during the action.

The Spaniards began the battle with less vivacity than their unworthy
allies, but they continued it with greater firmness. The _Argonauta_ and
_Bahama_ were defended till they had each lost about four hundred men;
the _San Juan Nepomuceno_ lost three hundred and fifty. Often as the
superiority of British courage has been proved against France upon the
sea, it was never more conspicuous than in this decisive conflict. Five
of our ships were engaged muzzle to muzzle with five of the French. In
all five Frenchmen lowered their lower-deck ports, and deserted their
guns; while our men continued deliberately to load and fire, till they
had made the victory secure.

Once, amid his sufferings, Nelson had expressed a wish that he were
dead; but immediately the spirit subdued the pains of death, and he
wished to live a little longer; doubtless that he might hear the
completion of the victory which he had seen so gloriously begun. That
consolation--that j