in getting the bulk of the fleet into action. Loss
of time was the only excuse for attacking in line ahead, and the only
reason he could suppose for the change of plan. If they had all gone
down together in line abreast, he is sure the victory would have been
more quickly decided and the brunt of the fight more equally
borne. Nothing, he thinks, could have been better than the plan of the
memorandum if it had only been properly executed. An attack in two
great divisions with a squadron of observation--so he summarises the
'Nelson touch'--seemed to him to combine every precaution under all
circumstances. It allows of concentration and containing. Each ship
can use her full speed without fear of being isolated. The fastest
ships will break through the line first, and they are just those which
from their speed in passing are liable to the least damage, while
having passed through, they cause a diversion for the attack of their
slower comrades. Finally, if the enemy tries to make off and avoid
action, the fleet is well collected for a general chase. But as Nelson
actually made the attack in his hurry to close, he threw away most of
these advantages, and against an enemy of equal spirit each ship must
have been crushed as she came into action. Instead of doubling
ourselves, he says, we were doubled and even trebled on. Nelson in
fact presented the enemy's fleet with precisely the position which the
memorandum aimed at securing for ourselves--that is to say, he
suffered a portion of his fleet, comprising the Victory,
Temeraire, Royal Sovereign, Belleisle, Mars, Colossus, and
Bellerophon, to be cut off and doubled on.[22]

The last important witness is Captain Codrington, of the Orion. No one
seems to have kept his head so well in the action, and this fact,
coupled with the high reputation he subsequently acquired, gives
peculiar weight to his testimony. It is on the question of the
advanced or reserve squadron that he is specially interesting. On
October 19 at 8 P.M., just after they had been surprised and rejoiced
by Nelson's signal for a general chase, and were steering for the
enemy, as he says, 'under every stitch of sail we can set,' he sat
down to write to his wife. In the course of the letter he tells her,
'Defence and Agamemnon are upon the look out nearest to
Cadiz; ... Colossus and Mars are stationed next. The above four and as
many more of us are now to form an advanced squadron; and I trust by
the morning we shal