r, as instructed; they did not all land, as
directed, on the mole: and, in consequence, they were stove, by running
ashore through a raging surf; the ammunition in the men's pouches got
wet; and the scaling ladders were either lost, or forgotten in the
confusion of the scene. Even those who landed with Captain Troubridge,
and whose valour instantly got entire possession of the town, lost the
only chance there seems to have remained for successfully storming the
citadel, by waiting so long in expectation of the rear-admiral, who had
been fatally prevented from landing, and other aids and augmentations,
that the Spanish troops gained time to collect, and approach them, from
the vicinity, in such force as nothing but the matchless address and
intrepidity of British officers, and British men, could possibly have
braved and surmounted. That they were extricated, by a daring resolution
and determined valour, in Captain Troubridge and Captain Hood, which
would have done honour even to Rear-Admiral Nelson himself, is as
certain, as that no want of courage prevented, in the smallest degree,
the success of the enterprise. There can be no such possible imputation.
By bravery, alone, it was wholly unaccomplishable; it might, possibly,
have been effected, but even that is by no means certain, if they had
not been deprived of the chief hero's most fertile mental resources,
ever rising with the exigency, which his fatal wound had effectually
prevented--and which no other man must be censured for not possessing;
because, perhaps, no other man ever did possess them in so eminent a
degree. Besides, justice demands a due acknowledgment, that those who
may rank among the greatest of men, having others at hand whom they
consider as still greater than themselves, are to be excused for not
hastily relying on their own judgment; though delay should, as it
generally does in the operations of war, prove ultimately dangerous. The
same persons, left under the necessity of acting for themselves, might
be inspired with more confidence in their own ability, and proceed very
differently in their operations.

In lamenting that the several trials were not instantly made, which have
been suggested as remaining at all practicable, during the critical
periods alluded to, due regard must be paid to the opinions of those who
had better opportunities of judging from intervening circumstances. Not,
indeed, that it is by any means unusual for the most exalted ch