made the signal to prepare for action, and keep close
order, which means, to have your flying jib-boom in at the starn windows
of the ship ahead of you; and we did keep close order, for a man might
have walked right round from one ship to the other, either lee or
weather line of the fleet. I sha'n't forget that night, Mr Simple, as
long as I live and breathe. Every now and then we heard the signal guns
of the Spanish fleet booming at a distance to windward of us, and you
may guess how our hearts leaped at the sound, and how we watched with
all our ears for the next gun that was fired, trying to make out their
bearings and distance, as we assembled in little knots upon the booms
and weather-gangway. It was my middle watch, and I was signalman at the
time, so of course I had no time to take a caulk if I was inclined. When
my watch was over I could not go down to my hammock, so I kept the
morning watch too, as did most of the men on board: as for Nelson, he
walked the deck the whole night, quite in a fever. At daylight it was
thick and hazy weather, and we could not make them out; but, about five
bells, the old _Culloden_, who, if she had broke her nose, had not lost
the use of her eyes, made the signal for a part of the Spanish fleet in
sight. Old Jervis repeated the signal to prepare for action, but he
might have saved the wear and tear of the bunting, for we were all
ready, bulk-heads down, screens up, guns shotted, tackles rove, yards
slung, powder filled, shot on deck, and fire out--and what's more, Mr
Simple, I'll be d----d if we weren't all willing too. About six bells
in the forenoon, the fog and haze all cleared away at once, just like
the raising of the foresail that they lower down at the Portsmouth
theatre, and discovered the whole of the Spanish fleet. I counted them
all. 'How many, Swinburne?' cries Nelson. 'Twenty-six sail, sir,'
answered I. Nelson walked the quarter-deck backwards and forwards,
rubbing his hands, and laughing to himself, and then he called for his
glass, and went to the gangway with Captain Miller. 'Swinburne, keep a
good look upon the admiral,' says he. 'Ay, ay, sir,' says I. Now you
see, Mr Simple, twenty-six sail against fifteen were great odds upon
paper; but we didn't think so, because we know'd the difference between
the two fleets. There was our fifteen sail of the line, all in apple-pie
order, packed up as close as dominoes, and every man on board of them
longing to come to the scrat