r_. In
the smoke and confusion, however, he could not find that ship, and so
carried the captured French admiral to the _Mars_. Hercules Robinson
has drawn a pen picture of the unfortunate French admiral as he came on
board the British ship: "Villeneuve was a tallish, thin man, a very
tranquil, placid, English-looking Frenchman; he wore a long-tailed
uniform coat, high and flat collar, corduroy pantaloons of a greenish
colour with stripes two inches wide, half-boots with sharp toes, and a
watch-chain with long gold links. Majendie was a short, fat, jocund
sailor, who found a cure for all ills in the Frenchman's philosophy,
"Fortune de la guerre" (though this was the third time the goddess had
brought him to England as a prisoner); and he used to tell our officers
very tough stories of the 'Mysteries of Paris.'"

By five o'clock the roar of guns had died almost into silence. Of
thirty-three stately battle-ships that formed the Franco-Spanish fleet
four hours earlier, one had vanished in flames, seventeen were captured
as mere blood-stained hulks, and fifteen were in flight; while
Villeneuve himself was a prisoner. But Nelson was dead. Night was
falling. A fierce south-east gale was blowing. A sea--such a sea as
only arises in shallow waters--ugly, broken, hollow, was rising fast.
In all directions ships dismantled, with scuppers crimson with blood,
and sides jagged with shot-holes, were rolling their tall, huge hulks
in the heavy sea; and the shoals of Trafalgar were only thirteen miles
to leeward! The fight with tempest and sea during that terrific night
was almost more dreadful than the battle with human foes during the
day. Codrington says, the gale was so furious that "it blew away the
top main-topsail, though it was close-reefed, and the fore-topsail
after it was clewed up ready for furling." They dare not set a storm
staysail, although now within six miles of the reef. The _Redoutable_
sank at the stern of the ship towing it; the _Bucentaure_ had to be cut
adrift, and went to pieces on the shoals. The wind shifted in the
night and enabled the shot-wrecked and storm-battered ships to claw off
the shore; but the fierce weather still raged, and on the 24th the huge
_Santissima Trinidad_ had to be cut adrift. It was night; wind and sea
were furious; but the boats of the _Ajax_ and the _Neptune_ succeeded
in rescuing every wounded man on board the huge Spaniard. The boats,
indeed, had all put off when a c