t had been believed to be such.

Nelson at once started north again. A report reached him that a second
squadron, of fourteen French and Spanish ships from Ferrol, had
arrived at Martinique. He said frankly that he thought this very
doubtful, but added proudly: "Powerful as their force may be, they
shall not with impunity make any great attacks. Mine is compact,
theirs must be unwieldy, and although a very pretty fiddle, I don't
believe that either Gravina or Villeneuve know how to play upon it."
On the 9th he for the first time got accurate information. An official
letter from Dominica[102] announced that eighteen ships-of-the-line,
with smaller vessels, had passed there on the 6th of June. But for the
false tidings which on the 4th had led him, first to pause, and then
to take a wrong direction, Nelson argued, and not unjustly, that he
would have overtaken them at this point, a bare hundred miles from
Barbadoes. "But for wrong information, I should have fought the battle
on June 6th where Rodney fought his." The famous victory of the latter
was immediately north of Dominica, by which name it is known in French
naval history. "There would have been no occasion for opinions," wrote
Nelson wrathfully, as he thought of his long anxieties, and the narrow
margin by which he failed, "had not General Brereton sent his damned
intelligence from St. Lucia; nor would I have received it to have
acted by it, but that I was assured that his information was very
correct. It has almost broke my heart, but I must not despair." It was
hard to have borne so much, and then to miss success from such a
cause. "Brereton's wrong information could not be doubted," he told
his intimates, "and by following it, I lost the opportunity of
fighting the enemy." "What a race I have run after these fellows; but
God is just, and I may be repaid for all my moments of anxiety."

When Villeneuve, with his ill-trained and sickly[103] fleet, left
Martinique on the 4th of June, he had, of course, no knowledge of
Nelson's approach. Nearly up to that date it was not known, even in
London, where the latter had gone. A frigate had reached the French
admiral on the 29th of May, with orders from Napoleon to make some
attempts against the British islands during the time he was awaiting
the Brest squadron. For this reason he sailed, and just outside the
harbor was joined by two ships from France, raising his force to
twenty of the line. He steered north, intending t