o Jervis; "I wish to make it a warm night in
Cadiz. If they venture from their walls, I shall give Johnny[57] his
full scope for fighting. It will serve to talk of better than
mischief." "It is good," he writes to another, "at these times to keep
the devil out of their heads. I had rather see fifty shot by the
enemy, than one hanged by us."

The bombardment, which was continued upon two successive nights, did
little direct harm; but it led to a sharp hand-to-hand contest between
the British and Spanish boats, in which Nelson personally bore a part,
and upon which he seems afterwards to have dwelt with even greater
pride and self-satisfaction than upon the magnificent victories with
which his name is associated. "It was during this period that perhaps
my personal courage was more conspicuous than at any other part of my
life." On the first night the Spaniards sent out a great number of
mortar gunboats and armed launches. Upon these he directed a vigorous
attack to be made, which resulted in their being driven back under the
walls of Cadiz; the British, who pursued them, capturing two boats and
a launch. In the affray, he says, "I was boarded in my barge with its
common crew of ten men, coxswain, Captain Freemantle, and myself, by
the commander of the gunboats; the Spanish barge rowed twenty-six
oars, besides officers,--thirty men in the whole. This was a service
hand-to-hand with swords, in which my coxswain, John Sykes, now no
more, twice saved my life. Eighteen of the Spaniards being killed and
several wounded, we succeeded in taking their commander." In his
report he complimented this Spanish officer, Don Miguel Tyrason, upon
his gallantry. Near a hundred Spaniards were made prisoners in this
sharp skirmish.

Not even the insult of bombardment was sufficient to attain the
designed end of forcing the enemy's fleet out to fight. The Spaniards
confined themselves to a passive defence by their shore batteries,
which proved indeed sufficient to protect the town and shipping, for
on the second night they got the range of the bomb-vessel so
accurately that the British were forced to withdraw her; but this did
not relieve the vital pressure of the blockade, which could only be
removed by the mobile naval force coming out and fighting. So far from
doing this, the Spanish ships of war shifted their berth inside to get
out of the range of bombs. Nelson cast longing eyes upon the smaller
vessels which lay near the harbor's mout