d off," was the hero's reply. The
Culloden, still pushing on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides
into the Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast loose,
she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden passed triumphantly
through. Scarcely had she broken the enemy's line, than the
commander-in-chief signaled the order to tack in succession.
Troubridge's manoeuvre was so dashingly performed, that the admiral
could not restrain his delight and admiration.

"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at Troubridge there!
He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of all England were upon
him; and would to God they were, for then they would see him to be
what I know him."

The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal consequences
of their disunited order of sailing, now endeavoured to retrieve the
day, and to break through the British line. A vice-admiral, in a
three-decker, led them, and was reaching up to the Victory just as she
had come up to tack in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with
great apparent determination till within pistol-shot, but there he
stopped; and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him,
she thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's decks,
and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran clear out of
the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked into her station, and
the conflict raged with desperate fury. At this period of the battle,
the Spanish commander-in-chief bore up with nine sail of the line to
run round the British, and rejoin his leeward division. This was a
formidable manoeuvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to find,
and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of waiting till his
turn to tack should bring him into action, took it upon himself to
depart from the prescribed mode of attack, and ordered his ship to be
immediately wore. This masterly manoeuvre was completely successful,
at once arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now attacked
the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also engaged by the
Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now shot away, Nelson put
his helm down, and let her come to the wind, that he might board the
San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards Sir Ed