ord, and said
the admiral was dying of his wounds below. I asked him, on his honour,
if the ship were surrendered? he declared she was; on which I gave him
my hand, and desired him to call to his officers and ship's company,
and tell them of it--which he did; and on the quarter-deck of a
Spanish First-rate, extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive
the swords of vanquished Spaniards; which, as I received, I gave to
William Fearney, one of my bargemen, who put them with the greatest
sangfroid under his arm. I was surrounded by Captain Berry, Lieutenant
Pierson, 69th Regiment, John Sykes, John Thomson, Francis Cook, all
old Agamemnons, and several other brave men, seamen and soldiers: thus
fell these ships." The firing from the lower deck of the "San Nicolas"
was by this time stopped, and the "Prince George" was hailed that both
the enemy's vessels were in possession of the British. The "Victory,"
Jervis's flagship, passed a few moments later and cheered, as did
every ship in the fleet.

The dramatic and picturesque surroundings which colored the seizure of
these two Spanish ships have doubtless given an exaggerated idea of
the danger and difficulty attending the exploit. The impression made
upon a sympathetic and enthusiastic eye-witness, Sir Gilbert Elliot,
who saw the affair from the decks of the frigate "Lively," has been
transmitted to posterity with little diminution. "Nothing in the world
was ever more noble than the transaction of the Captain from beginning
to end, and the glorious group of your ship and her two prizes, fast
in your gripe, was never surpassed, and I dare say never will." Yet it
may better be looked upon as another of those "fortunate" occurrences
which attend--and in Nelson's career repeatedly attended--the happy
meeting of opportunity and readiness. Doubtless they were beaten
ships, but other beaten ships have escaped in general actions--did at
St. Vincent. "I pretend not to say," wrote Nelson a week later, "that
these ships might not have fell, had I not boarded them; but truly it
was far from impossible but they might have forged into the Spanish
fleet as the other two ships did." He was there, he could do nothing
else, he saw with his rapid glance that he might do this, and he did
it. And, after all, it was a big thing,--this boarding a first-rate
ship over the decks of another hostile ship, not inaptly characterized
in the fleet as "Nelson's patent bridge." We must mark, too, or we
sh