with
Villeneuve's sails: they were at this time furled in the harbour of
Cadiz.

Unmeasured abuse has been showered upon Villeneuve for his retreat to
that harbour. But it must be remembered that in both of Napoleon's
last orders to him, those of July 16th and 26th, he was required to
sail to Cadiz under certain conditions. In the first order prescribing
alternative ways of gaining the mastery of the Channel, that step was
recommended solely as a last alternative in case of misfortune: he was
directed not to enter the long and difficult inlet of Ferrol, but,
after collecting the squadron there, to cast anchor at Cadiz. In the
order of July 26th he was charged positively to repair to Cadiz: "My
intention is that you rally at Cadiz the Spanish ships there,
disembark your sick, and, without stopping there more than four days
at most, again set sail, return to Ferrol, etc." Villeneuve seems not
to have received these last orders, but he alludes to those of July
16th.[334]

These, then, were probably the last instructions he received from
Napoleon before setting sail from the roads of Corunna on August 13th.
The censures passed on his retreat to Cadiz are therefore based on the
supposition that he received instructions which he did not
receive.[335] He expressly based his move to Cadiz on Napoleon's
orders of July 16th. The mishaps which the Emperor then contemplated
as necessitating such a step had, in Villeneuve's eyes, actually
happened. The admiral considered the fight of July 22nd _la malheureuse
affaire;_ his ships were encumbered with sick; they worked badly; on
August 15th a north-east gale carried away the top-mast of a Spanish
ship; and having heard from a Danish merchantman the news--false news,
as it afterwards appeared--that Cornwallis with twenty-five ships was to
the north, he turned and scudded before the wind. He could not divine
the disastrous influence of his conduct on the plan of invasion. He did
not know that his master was even then beginning to hesitate between a
dash on London or a campaign on the Danube, and that the events of the
next few days were destined to tilt the fortunes of the world. Doubtless
he ought to have disregarded the Emperor's words about Cadiz and to have
struggled on to Brest, as his earlier and wider orders enjoined. But the
Emperor's instructions pointed to Cadiz as the rendezvous in case of
misfortune or great difficulty. As a matter of fact, Napoleon on July
26th ordered t