mole, landed amid a
heavy surf, which stove the boats on a rocky beach and tumbled the men
into the water, whereby most of the ammunition was spoiled. In the
midst of the turmoil the cutter "Fox" was struck by a shot under
water, and went down, taking with her her commander and ninety-seven
men. Although the scaling-ladders had all been lost in the general
upset, those who here got on shore succeeded in climbing over the
walls, and forced their way to the place of rendezvous in the great
square. There Troubridge, having assembled between three and four
hundred men, held his ground, awaiting Nelson and the party that might
have entered by way of the mole.

It was in vain. Nelson had been struck by a grapeshot in the right
elbow, as, with sword drawn, he was stepping from the boat to the
landing. Bleeding profusely and faint, but clinging with his left hand
to the sword, which had belonged to his uncle Maurice Suckling, he
fell back into the arms of Josiah Nisbet, who managed with
considerable presence of mind to bind up the shattered limb and stop
the flowing of the blood. A few men being got together, the boat
pushed off to take the admiral back to the ship. At this moment
occurred the sinking of the "Fox;" upon which much delay ensued,
because Nelson refused to abandon the men struggling in the water, and
insisted upon looking personally to their being saved. At last the
"Seahorse" was reached; but here again he would not go on board,
saying that he would not have Mrs. Freemantle alarmed by seeing him in
such a condition and without any news of her husband, who had
accompanied the landing. When he got to the "Theseus," he declined
assistance to climb to the deck. "At two in the morning," wrote Hoste,
one of her midshipmen, who had been with him continuously since the
"Agamemnon" left England, "Admiral Nelson returned on board, being
dreadfully wounded in the right arm. I leave you to judge of my
situation, when I beheld our boat approach with him, who I may say has
been a second father to me, his right arm dangling by his side, while
with the other he helped himself to jump up the ship's side, and with
a spirit that astonished every one, told the surgeon to get his
instruments ready, for he knew he must lose his arm, and that the
sooner it was off the better."

At daylight Troubridge, who had collected some ammunition from Spanish
prisoners, started from the square to try what could be done without
ladders against