aesar_, of eighty guns, with
six seventy-fours, was despatched to keep guard over Cadiz; and he had
scarcely reached his station there when a boat, pulling furiously over
from Gibraltar, reported that Admiral Linois' squadron had made its
appearance off the Rock, beating up westward. The sails of the
_Caesar_ were instantly swung round, a many-coloured flutter of bunting
summoned the rest of the squadron to follow, and Saumarez began his
eager chase of the French, bearing away for the Gut under a light
north-west wind. But the breeze died down, and the current swept the
straggling ships westward. All day they drifted helplessly, and the
night only brought a breath of air sufficient to fan them through the
Straits.

Meanwhile Linois had taken refuge in the tiny curve of the Spanish
coast known as the roadstead of Algeciras. Linois was, perhaps, the
best French seaman of his day, having, it is true, very little French
dash, but endowed with a wealth of cool resolution, and a genius for
defensive warfare altogether admirable. Algeciras gave Linois exactly
what he wanted, an almost unassailable position. The roadstead is
open, shallow, and plentifully besprinkled with rocks, while powerful
shore batteries covered the whole anchorage with their zone of fire.
The French admiral anchored his ships at intervals of 500 yards from
each other, and so that the lines of fire from the batteries north and
south crossed in front of his ships. The French squadron carried some
3000 troops, and these were at once landed, and, manning the batteries,
raised them to a high degree of effectiveness. Some fourteen heavy
Spanish gunboats added enormously to the strength of the French
position.

The French never doubted that Saumarez would instantly attack; the
precedents of the Nile and of Copenhagen were too recent to make any
doubt possible. And Saumarez did exactly what his enemies expected.
Algeciras, in fact, is the battle of the Nile in miniature. But
Saumarez, though he had the swift daring of Nelson, lacked his warlike
genius. Nelson, in Aboukir Bay, leaped without an instant's pause on
the line of his enemy, but then he had his own ships perfectly in hand,
and so made the leap effective. Saumarez sent his ships into the fight
headlong, and without the least regard to mutual support. At 7.50 on
the morning of July 6, an uncertain gust of air carried the leading
British ship, the _Pompee_, round Cabrita; Hood, in the _Vener