ly. There was no pursuit, the hostile
commander-in-chief being apparently satisfied to save the "Ca Ira" for
the moment, without bringing on a general engagement.

In this affair, what is mainly to be noted in Nelson is not the
personal courage, nor yet even the professional daring, or the skill
which justified the daring. It may be conceded that all these were
displayed in a high degree, but they can scarcely be claimed to have
exceeded that shown by other officers, not a few, when equally tried.
What is rather striking, account for it how we will, is that Nelson,
here as always, was on hand when opportunity offered; that after three
days of chase he, and he only, was so far to the front as to be able
to snatch the fleeting moment. "On looking round," he says at ten
o'clock, when about to begin the action, "I saw no ship-of-the-line
within several miles to support me; the Captain was the nearest on our
lee-quarter." With the looseness and lack of particularity which
characterize most logs and despatches remaining from those days, and
make the comprehension of naval engagements, other than the greatest,
a matter of painful and uncertain inference, it is impossible
accurately to realize the entire situation; but it seems difficult to
imagine that among all the other thirteen captains, "where emulation
was common to all and zeal for his Majesty's service the general
description of the fleet," to use Hotham's words, none could have been
on the spot to support so promising an attempt, had there been
"common" that sort of emulation which takes a man ever to the front,
not merely in battle but at all times,--the spirit that will not and
cannot rest while anything remains to be done, ever pressing onward to
the mark. To this unquestionably must be added the rapid comprehension
of a situation, and the exceeding promptitude with which Nelson seized
his opportunity, as well as the tenacious intrepidity with which he
held to his position of advantage, despite the imminent threat to his
safety from the uninjured and gigantic "Sans Culottes," barely out of
gunshot to windward. It is right also to note the accessibility to
advice, a feature of his genial and kindly temperament, to which he
admitted much of the success was due. The trait is not rare in mankind
in general, but it is exceptional in men of a character so
self-reliant and decided as Nelson. "If the conduct of the Agamemnon
on the 13th," he generously wrote, "was by any me