ejected, that his orders were put on especially for battle.

[67] There is here no mention of smoking; nor has any allusion to it, or to
tobacco, caught the author's eye in Nelson's letters.

[68] Dr. Beatty's Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson. Nicolas, vol. vii.
p. 259.

[69] Sir William Hotham.

[70] Many of these details are taken with little alteration from the "Life
of Rev. A.J. Scott."

[71] Memoir of Sir Thomas Hardy, in Clarke and M'Arthur's Life of Nelson
vol. iii. p. 234.

[72] Hillyar was then engaged to a lady in Malta.

[73] As Lady Nelson's first marriage was in 1779, Josiah Nisbet could not
have been eighteen when made a commander, in 1797.

[74] Phillimore's "The Last of Nelson's Captains," p. 146.

[75] Flag-officers had a share in all prizes taken by vessels of their
squadrons.

[76] Davison.

[77] _Ante_, p. 192.

[78] Pettigrew, vol. ii. p. 444.

[79] Nicolas, vol. vi. p. 288.

[80] Late British minister to Spain.

[81] Author's italics.

[82] The whole of this account is taken from the Life of Sir William
Parker. Phillimore's Last of Nelson's Captains, pp. 125-129.

CHAPTER XX.

THE ESCAPE AND PURSUIT OF THE TOULON FLEET.--NELSON'S RETURN TO
ENGLAND.

JANUARY-AUGUST, 1805. AGE, 46.

To understand rightly the movements of Nelson during the first months
of 1805, up to his return to England in August, and to appreciate
fully the influence of this closing period of his career upon the
plans and fortunes of Napoleon, it is necessary to state briefly the
projects of the latter, as formulated in his correspondence.

The great object of the Emperor was to invade England, crossing the
Channel with the army, 150,000 strong, which for two years past he had
been assembling and drilling in the neighborhood of Boulogne. To this
end all his plans were subsidiary--to it all movements at this moment
were intended to conduce. He had no illusions as to the difficulties
of the enterprise; he recognized fully that the odds were against
success, but he had too often achieved the apparently impossible to
permit the word to stop him in an attempt, which, if accomplished,
would cause all other obstacles to disappear from his path of
conquest. There were chances in his favor. Warily and steadfastly he
advanced, step by step, determined to take no risk that could by the
utmost care be changed into security, but equally resolved to dare the
hazard, if by the military movements set in ac