raire,
Royal Sovereign_ and _Belleisle_.

Not until about three o'clock were the shattered but victorious
British in the center threatened by the return of the ten ships in
the Allied van. Culpably slow, however hindered by lack of wind,
several of these joined stragglers from Gravina's division to leeward;
the _Intrepide_, under her brave skipper Infernet, set an example all
might well have followed by steering straight for the _Bucentaure_,
and surrendered only to overwhelming odds; five others under Rear
Admiral Dumanoir skirted to windward and escaped with the loss of
one of their number, cut off by two British late-comers, _Spartiate_
and _Minotaur_.

"Partial firing continued until 4:30, when a victory having been
reported to the Right Honorable Lord Viscount Nelson, he died of
his wound." So reads the _Victory's_ log. The flagship had been
in deadly grapple with the _Redoutable_, whose complement, like
that of many another French and Spanish ship in the action, showed
that the decadence of their navies was not due to lack of fighting
spirit in the rank and file. Nelson was mortally wounded by a musket
shot from the mizzen-top soon after the ships closed. In his hour
of supreme achievement death came not ungraciously, giving final
assurance of the glory which no man ever faced death more eagerly
to win.

Of the Allied fleet, four fled with Dumanoir, but were later engaged
and captured by a British squadron near Corunna. Eleven badly battered
survivors escaped into Cadiz. Of the 18 captured, 11 were wrecked or
destroyed in the gales that swept the coast for several days after
the battle; three were recaptured or turned back to their crews
by the prize-masters, and only four eventually reached Gibraltar.

[Illustration: TRAFALGAR, ABOUT 12:30

From plan attached to report of Capt. Prigny, Villeneuve's Chief
of Staff (Deshriere, _Trafalgar_, App. p. 128.)]

The Trafalgar victory did not indeed reduce France to terms, and
it thus illustrates the limitations of naval power against an enemy
not primarily dependent upon the sea. But it freed England from
further threat of invasion, clinched her naval predominance, and
opened to her the prospect of taking a more aggressive part in
the land war. Even this prospect was soon temporarily thrust into
the background. On the very day of Trafalgar Napoleon's bulletins
announced the surrender of 60,000 Austrians at Ulm, and the Battle
of Austerlitz a month later crushed t