o sea, when he at once
concluded that he intended to enter the Mediterranean. Two days
afterwards, the ever-memorable 21st of October, 1805, at daylight, when
the English fleet was about seven leagues from Cape Trafalgar, Nelson
discovered the enemy six or seven miles to the eastward, which had so
manoeuvred as to bring the shoals of Trafalgar and San Pedro under the
lee of the British fleet, while they kept the port of Cadiz open for
themselves.

Nelson now hoisted the signal to bear down on them in two lines. Nelson
led one in the _Victory_, Collingwood the other in the _Royal
Sovereign_. On going into action he asked Captain Blackwood, who had
come on board to receive orders, what he should consider a victory.
"The capture of 14 sail of the line," was the answer. "I shall not be
satisfied with less than 20," said Nelson.

Shortly afterwards up went the signal, "England expects every man to do
his duty."

Notwithstanding the attempts made to induce Lord Nelson to allow the
_Temeraire_ to lead his line into action, the _Victory_ carrying all
sail, kept her station. Ahead of her was Villeneuve's flag-ship, the
_Bucentaur_, with the _Santissima Trinidad_ as his second before her;
while ahead of the _Royal Sovereign_, the leader of the lee column, was
the _Santa Anna_, the flag-ship of the Spanish vice-admiral. The sea
was smooth, the wind very light; the sun shone brightly on the
fresh-painted sides of the long line of French and Spanish ships, when
the _Fougueux_, astern of the _Santa Anna_, opened her fire on the
_Royal Sovereign_, which, at about ten minutes past noon, delivered her
larboard broadside, with guns double-shotted, at the _Santa Anna_, and
with such precision as to disable 14 of her guns, and to kill or wound
400 of her crew; while with her starboard broadside she raked the
_Fougueux_. Just then Collingwood exclaimed to his captain, "Rotherham,
what would Nelson give to be here;" and at the same moment Nelson was
observing, "See how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into
action."

The wind now falling to almost a calm, the _Victory_ and the ships in
her wake advanced so slowly that seven or eight of the rearmost ships of
the French van having opened fire upon the _Victory_ before she had
fired a single gun, 50 of her men were killed or wounded, and her
main-topmast with her studdensail-boom shot away, and every sail,
especially on the foremast, had become like a sieve. At about f