He approached
near enough to sink two of their floating batteries, and to destroy a
few gun-boats which were without the pier. What damage was done within
could not be ascertained. "Boulogne," he said, "was certainly not a
very pleasant place that morning; but," he added, "it is not my wish
to injure the poor inhabitants; and the town is spared as much as the
nature of the service will admit." Enough was done to show the enemy
that they could not, with impunity, come outside their own ports. Nelson
was satisfied by what he saw, that they meant to make an attempt from
this place, but that it was impracticable; for the least wind at W.N.W.
and they were lost. The ports of Flushing and Flanders were better
points: there we could not tell by our eyes what means of transport
were provided. From thence, therefore, if it came forth at all, the
expedition would come. "And what a forlorn undertaking!" said he:
"consider cross tides, &c. As for rowing, that is impossible. It Is
perfectly right to be prepared for a mad government; but with the active
force which has been given me, I may pronounce it almost impracticable."

That force had been got together with an alacrity which has seldom been
equalled. On the 28th of July, we were, in Nelson's own words, literally
at the foundation of our fabric of defence, and twelve days afterwards
we were so prepared on the enemy's coast that he did not believe they
could get three miles from their ports. The MEDUSA, returning to our
own shores, anchored in the rolling ground off Harwich; and when Nelson
wished to get to the Nore in her, the wind rendered it impossible
to proceed there by the usual channel. In haste to be at the Nore,
remembering that he had been a tolerable pilot for the mouth of the
Thames in his younger days, and thinking it necessary that he should
know all that could be known of the navigation, he requested the
maritime surveyor of the coast, Mr. Spence, to get him into the Swin
by any channel; for neither the pilots which he had on board, nor the
Harwich ones, would take charge of the ship. No vessel drawing more
than fourteen feet had ever before ventured over the Naze. Mr. Spence,
however, who had surveyed the channel, carried her safely through. The
channel has since been called Nelson's, though he himself wished it to
be named after the MEDUSA: his name needed no new memorial.

Nelson's eye was upon Flushing. "To take possession of that place," he
said, "would be a