he hostile fleet, which sailed that evening. They dogged it late
into the night, going at times thirteen knots before the blast of the
storm, in order to keep clear of the enemy; and at two in the morning
of January 19th, being then in the latitude of Ajaccio, satisfied that
the French were steering steadily south-southwest, and under a press
of sail, which indicated a mission of importance, they parted company
and hastened to Nelson, whom they joined twelve hours later, as
already stated.

Nelson needed no time to deliberate. His mind was long before fixed to
follow, and there was but one way to do so. The enemy's course, as
reported, led to the southern end of Sardinia, after reaching which
the wind was fair for Naples, Sicily, and the East. The British ships
were moored--two anchors down. At half-past four they were under way,
standing in single column for the narrow passage between Biche and
Sardinia, the "Victory" leading, each vessel steering by the stern
lights of the one ahead of her. At seven P.M. all were clear, and the
fleet hauled up along the east coast of Sardinia, which made a lee for
them. "At midnight," Nelson notes in his journal, "moderate breezes
and clear." During the same hours the untrained squadron of Villeneuve
was losing topmasts in the fury of the gale.

The following afternoon,[83] as the British drew out from under the
lee of Sardinia, they found the wind blowing a hard gale from
south-southwest, which lasted all that night. The fleet could make no
way against it, but neither could the French utilize it, unless, which
was unlikely, they had got much farther to the southward than Nelson
had. When he left Madalena, he had sent a frigate ahead, with orders
to round Sardinia by the south and try to get sight or word of the
enemy. On the morning of the 22d she rejoined, the fleet having then
drifted to fifty miles east of Cape Carbonara, the southeastern point
of Sardinia. At 11 A.M. her captain informed Nelson that the
afternoon before he had seen a French frigate standing into the Gulf
of Cagliari, but, the weather being thick, giving an horizon of only
three miles, nothing more had been discovered. The admiral had sent
word of the French sailing to Acton at Palermo, and through him to
Naples and Malta, Ball being requested to seek for information in
every practicable direction. Naples was for the moment safe, as the
British squadron stood across any possible road by which the French
could ap