would have executed them. We know
not what might have been hatched by a Sunday's grog: _now_ your
discipline is safe." His glorious reputation and his known kindly
character, supported by that of his captain, made mutiny impossible
under his flag. It had not been up a month on board the "Theseus,"
which was lately from the Channel and infected with the prevalent
insubordination, when a paper was dropped on the quarter-deck,
expressing the devotion of the ship's company to their commander, and
pledging that the name of the "Theseus" should yet be as renowned as
that of the "Captain."

The stringent blockade, and the fears for the specie ships, weighed
heavily on the Spaniards, who were not as a nation hearty in support
of a war into which they had been coerced by France. Their authorities
were petitioned to compel the fleet to go out. Whatever the event, the
British would at least have to retire for repairs; while if the Lima
and Havana ships--to look for which the Cadiz people every morning
flocked to the walls, fearing they might be already in the enemy's
hands--should be captured, the merchants of Spain would be ruined.
Better lose ten ships-of-the-line, if need be, than this convoy. With
rumors of this sort daily reaching him, Nelson's faculties were in a
constant state of pleasing tension. He was in his very element of
joyous excitement and expectation. "We are in the advance day and
night, prepared for battle; bulkheads down, ready to weigh, cut, or
slip,[56] as the occasion may require. I have given out a line of
battle--myself to lead; and you may rest assured that I will make a
vigorous attack upon them, the moment their noses are outside the
Diamond. Pray do not send me another ship," he implores; "if you send
any more, they may believe we are prepared, and know of their
intention." "If they come out," he writes later to a naval friend,
when he had ten sail under him, "there will be no fighting beyond my
squadron."

To increase yet further the pressure upon the Spanish fleet to come
out, a bombardment was planned against the town and the shipping, the
superintendence of which also was intrusted to the commander of the
inshore squadron. Only one bomb-vessel was provided, so that very
extensive results could scarcely have been anticipated; but Nelson
saw, with evident glee, that the enemy's gunboats had taken advanced
positions, and intended to have a hand in the night's work. "So much
the better," wrote he t