as I am told the troops
are still embarked. From Barcelona I shall proceed direct to
Rendezvous 98."[90] Accordingly, on the 26th of March he anchored at
Palmas, and began at once to clear the transports. "By the report of
the Fleet Captain, I trust [it will be evident that] it could not with
propriety be longer deferred." Still satisfied that the French were
bound to Egypt, he would here be close to their necessary route, and
with a lookout ship thirty miles to the westward felt assured they
would not escape him. Four days after he anchored, Villeneuve started
on his second venture, and thinking, as Nelson had plotted, that the
British fleet was off Cape San Sebastian, he again shaped his course
to pass east of the Balearics, between them and Sardinia. The news of
his sailing reached Nelson five days later, on April 4th, at 10 A.M.
He had left Palmas the morning before, and was then twenty miles west
of it, beating against a head wind. The weary work of doubt,
inference, and speculation was about to begin once more, and to be
protracted for over three months.

In the present gigantic combination of Napoleon, the Brest squadron,
as well as those of Rochefort and Toulon, was to go to the West
Indies, whence the three should return in mass to the English Channel,
to the number of thirty-five French ships-of-the-line. To these it was
hoped to add a number of Spanish ships, from Cartagena and Cadiz. If
the movements were successful, this great force would overpower, or
hold in check, the British Channel Fleet, and secure control of the
Straits of Dover long enough for the army to cross. It is with the
Toulon squadron that we are immediately concerned, as it alone for the
present touches the fortunes of Nelson. Villeneuve's orders were to
make the best of his way to the Straits of Gibraltar, evading the
British fleet, but calling off Cartagena, to pick up any Spanish ships
there that might be perfectly ready to join him. He was not, however,
to delay for them on any account, but to push on at once to Cadiz.
This port he was not to enter, but to anchor outside, and there be
joined by the "Aigle," the ship that had so long worried Nelson, and
also by six or eight Spanish ships believed to be ready. As soon as
these came out, he was to sail with all speed for Martinique, and
there wait forty days for the Brest squadron, if the latter, whose
admiral was to be commander-in-chief of the allied fleets, did not
appear sooner. Ville