n command of the
Toulon squadron, aided by the weather, evaded Nelson's watchfulness and
disappeared towards the east. Nelson, however, suspected the real
plan, and with fine insight took up a position which must have
intercepted Villeneuve; but that admiral found the weather too rough
for his ships, and ran back into Toulon. "These gentlemen," said
Nelson, "are not accustomed to a Gulf of Lyons gale. We have faced
them for twenty-one months, and not lost a spar!" The Rochefort
squadron was, of course, left by its own success wandering in space, a
mere cluster of sea-vagrants.

By March 1805, Napoleon had a new combination prepared. In the ports
between Brest and Toulon were scattered no less than sixty-seven French
or Spanish ships of the line. Ganteaume, with his squadron, was to
break out from Brest; Villeneuve, with his, from Toulon; both fleets
were to rendezvous at Martinique, return by an unusual route, and
appear off Boulogne, a great fleet of thirty-five French ships of the
line.

About the end of June the Toulon fleet got safely out--Nelson being,
for once, badly served by his frigates--picked up additional ships off
Cadiz, and disappeared on its route to the West Indies. Nelson, misled
by false intelligence, first went eastward, then had to claw back
through the Straits of Gibraltar in the teeth of strong westerly gales,
and plunged over the horizon in fierce pursuit of Villeneuve. But the
watch kept by Cornwallis over Ganteaume in Brest was so close and stern
that escape was impossible, and one-half of Napoleon's combination
broke down. Napoleon despatched swift ships on Villeneuve's track,
summoning him back to Ferrol, where he would find a squadron of fifteen
French and Spanish ships ready to join him. Villeneuve, Napoleon
believed, had thoroughly deceived Nelson. "Those boasted English," he
wrote, "who claim to know of everything, know nothing of it," _i.e._ of
Villeneuve's escape and course. But the "boasted English," as a matter
of fact, did know all about it, and in place of weakening their forces
in the Bay of Biscay, strengthened them. Meanwhile Nelson, with ten
ships of the line, was hard on the track of Villeneuve with eighteen.
At Barbadoes, Nelson was sent a hundred miles out of his course by
false intelligence, and that hundred miles just enabled Villeneuve to
double back towards Europe.

Nelson divined this plan, and followed him with the fiercest energy,
sending off, meanwhile