while we were unable to follow. That is the worst of fighting with
cowards. If they had been brave men they would have stopped to fight,
and we should have captured every one of their ships. That was the
battle of Saint Vincent. The commodore was made an admiral and a
knight, and now everybody in England, high and low, rich and poor, had
heard of him, and sung his praises.

"You've seen a picture of Sir Horatio Nelson, as he was then, in a boat
attacked by Spaniards, and his coxswain, John Sykes, defending him, and
receiving on his own head the blow made at him by one of the enemy.
I'll tell you how it was:--

"His flag was flying on board the `Theseus,' and he had command of the
inner squadron blockading Cadiz. The Spanish gunboats had annoyed us,
and he resolved to attack them with the boats at night. In we pulled.
In the admiral's barge there were only his ten barge-men--I was one of
them--Captain Freemantle, and his coxswain, John Sykes, when suddenly we
found ourselves close up with a Spanish launch carrying twenty-six men
or more. To run was not in our nature, so we tackled to with the
launch. It was desperate work, and the Spaniards fought well. Sir
Horatio was foremost in the fight; but the enemy seemed to know who he
was, and aimed many a blow at his head. Sykes, not thinking of himself,
defended him as a bear does her whelps. Blow after blow he warded off,
till at last his own arm was disabled. Still, instead of getting over
to the other side of the boat, he stood by the admiral. Down came
another Spaniard's sword which Sir Horatio could not ward off, but Sykes
sprung forward and received the blow on his own head, which it laid
open. This did not make us less determined to beat the enemy. One
after the other we cut them down till we killed eighteen, wounded the
rest, and towed their launch off in triumph. It will just show you how
the men who served with him loved the admiral. That was a desperate
fight in a small way, let me tell you; but before long we had still
worse work to go through.

"Many men are thought a great deal of if they gain one victory. Nelson
never but once suffered a defeat. It was at the island of Teneriffe.
He was sent there, by Sir John Jervis, with a squadron to cut out a rich
Manilla ship returning to Spain, which lay in the harbour of Santa Cruz.
Our squadron consisted of four ships of the line, three frigates, and
the `Fox' cutter. Our first attempt at landing fa