CHAPTER VIII.--Of the Battle of the Nile, on the First of August,

1798.

A few days later, when a breeze, blowing right out of the Great Port, sprang up, as was its wont, in the afternoon, the fleet made all haste to stand out and away after the French, not before the Admiral had read Master Will a sharp lecture for his folly in getting into such a scrape, and suspended him from personal attendance for two weeks--a sentence which was never finished, for in the meantime events happened of such a magnitude that all everyday matters, except such as had regard to the ships being in their best fighting and sailing trim, were forgotten as completely as if they had been swallowed in the Deluge.

I don't believe that Will was half sorry at the prospect of having to spend the two weeks with his fellow-officers in the ward-room. In the case of friendship between a man of forty and a boy of eighteen, it is almost inevitable that the man must like the boy far more strongly than the boy likes him, and that the man should crave for the boy's society while the boy accepts or tolerates the man's. In the long chase after the French, from the time he left Syracuse on July 25th to the time that he sighted their tops in the afternoon of that memorable August 1st, there were tedious hours, when he felt an intense craving for the boy whom he had adopted more completely than his own stepson, Josiah Nisbet, who was also a lieutenant on the ship.

But for Will these were pleasant hours. He had up to that minute not only seen but little of his fellow-officers--he had hardly even been on speaking terms with them outside of professional duties. But they could not help feeling that he had done the ship and the service credit by the way in which he had maintained his quarrel against the Prince. And while they regarded the offence of serenading in jest as a very venial one, they regarded his fortnight's suspension as a purely formal punishment. Will might have been quite a hero if his pride had allowed him to be "hail fellow, well met." But it was as impossible for him to change it as it is for a leopard to change his spots or his skin (I forget how the phrase runs), and so he enjoyed a modified kind of popularity, and a much heightened respect from the ward-room at large, while some of the older men, like the First Lieutenant, Mr. Galwey, who had acted for him, made a friend of one who clearly had exceptional qualities. It produced a most unexpected and notable passage in my life; for the Admiral, having accustomed himself to the keeping of Will at his elbow, ready to perform whatever little duty might present itself, was lost without him, and being accustomed to the sight of me, whom he had often admitted as company for Will, used me as a kind of supernumerary until Will's offence should have been condoned.

I must not be taken to imply that he extended to me the strong personal interest which he felt in Will. I had the duties, not the confidence. But nevertheless I saw much of him during that very critical week of his life, and it was at this time that the change came over him--the black shadow of doubt which had kept him irritable and depressed giving way to one of his irresistible convictions.

Not that he had ever been in doubt as to his principles of action, for he had never had but one principle, and that was to have his cannon within pistol-shot of the French. But he was fearful of not getting there in time; for the French, in his opinion, had two objective points to strike at--the Neapolitan kingdom, which was defenceless without his fleet, and India which was also defenceless if the army in the French fleet should arrive in Egypt with ships of Tippoo Saib waiting at Suez to embark them for India, and no British ships at the mouth of the Nile to prevent their disembarking. I think the greatest ambition in all his life was to destroy Buonaparte and his army of 40,000 men, whom he knew to be in the convoy guarded by the French fleet. We had thirteen ships of the line, but none above seventy-fours--one fifty-gun ship and one brig. Had we had frigates we should have found the French long ere that; for frigates, as even landsmen know, are the eyes of a fleet, and had we possessed frigates they would have been of the highest service in capturing the transports of the convoy. But had we met them I am convinced that the absence of frigates would not have prevented the most terrible calamity which ever befel the French army. The convoy we knew to be immense, to convey such an army and its supplies for a distant expedition; and we knew it to be guarded by a fleet far superior, on paper, to ourselves. I say advisedly on paper, because the presence of our Admiral was of itself sufficient to neutralise the disparity, and because of the disadvantage at which any fleet fights which has not only to defeat an enemy, but also to save its helpless transports.

As far as we could judge from various sources of information, their fleet consisted of sixteen of the line, one of them the tremendous _L'Orient_ of 120 guns, and three or four others of eighty, but three of them Venetian and not French, and therefore not likely to be so well served. Besides which they had frigates and a cloud of small armed vessels, gunboats and the like.

But their superiority of force hardly entered into the Admiral's calculations. His orders were the same for whatever force, and had we fallen in with the French the scene must have been appalling; for recognising the impossibility of rapidly taking possession of so many prizes, especially as they were crowded with armed men and we were without frigates, his orders were to destroy and not to capture.

He may, too, have been urged to this by the belief that the army was commanded by Buonaparte, whom he considered to be the arch-fiend, as he considered all French to be the enemies of the human race.

For the purpose of attacking the convoy, he divided our own fleet into three squadrons: the _Vanguard_, the _Minotaur_, the 50-gun ship _Leander_, the _Audacious_, the _Defence_, and the _Zealous_ under himself; the _Orion_, _Goliath_, _Majestic_, and _Bellerophon_ under Captain Saumarez; and the _Culloden_, _Alexander_, _Swiftsure_, and _Theseus_ under Captain Troubridge. Two of these squadrons were to engage the ships of war, no matter what their force, while the third was to dash among the transports and sink and destroy as many as it could. The scene, even to a man-of-war's-man, is awful to picture. Transport after transport settling down by the head or stern, the water covered with their boats and black with struggling men; Buonaparte, if he were not already on the largest warship, fleeing to it; half the British war-ships engaging every French fighting-ship till they sank themselves or had sunk, taken or driven their antagonists to desert the convoy, and the others running in among the transports and thrashing them down like apples off a tree.

But it was not to be so: the Admiral's prophecy was literally fulfilled as far as that convoy, the most momentous which ever left the shores of France, was concerned--"no frigates; to which has been and may again be attributed the loss of the French fleet."

You may imagine how it weighed upon such a mind, to have the _élite_ of my Lord St. Vincent's fleet under his command for some weeks, and with the enemy about to strike some vital blow--and yet no sign of him! He wrote to Troubridge--"Do not fret at anything: I wish I never had; but my return to Syracuse in 1798 broke my heart, which on any extraordinary anxiety now shows itself--be that feeling pain or pleasure"; and again, "On the 18th I had near died with the swellings of some of the vessels of the heart. More people, perhaps, die of broken hearts than we are aware of." And he wrote to his chief, Lord St. Vincent: "Every moment I have to regret the frigates having left me. Your lordship deprived yourself of frigates to make mine certainly the first squadron in the world, and I feel that I have zeal and activity to do credit to your appointment, and yet to be unsuccessful hurts me most sensibly. But if they are above water I will find them out, and if possible bring them to battle. You have done your part in giving me so fine a fleet, and I hope to do mine in making use of them." And added to this he had the mortification of seeing the Neapolitan Government, whose forces were hardly worthy a place in the line of battle, refusing supplies which was the one service they could perform for the allies without whose fleet they felt like children left in the dark to wolves. The loss of frigates by the pusillanimity of the commander, who returned to Gibraltar because he thought that Nelson must give up, being baffled as to the whereabouts of the French fleet, the ingratitude of the Neapolitans, the malignity of Admirals Parker and Orde, who had been passed over because the safety of Europe depended on the fleet's winning a decisive victory, weighed heavily on the Admiral's spirits, and brought on that irritability and sickness which so frequently followed inaction and disappointment in this extraordinary fighter. But for some reason, the fair wind which carried us out of the great harbour of Syracuse blew away these vapours from his brain. He augured that we were on the scent, and the confidence and cheerfulness borne of good omens returned to him. We had a fine stiff sailing breeze, and he crowded on every stitch of canvas we could use, although the flagship, which had never been properly repaired since the gale which had dismasted her off Toulon, was hardly in a condition to bear it. We stood straight for Cerigo, which is the island that lies at the foot of the Morea, as some island lies broken off at the foot of every peninsula. As we neared the Gulf of Koron, having no frigates, the _Culloden_ was detailed to enter it for intelligence; and on her return the next day she brought with her a French brig, and information that the enemy's fleet had been seen steering south-east from Kandia about fourteen days before. And on the same day Captain Ball of the _Alexander_ obtained the like intelligence from a vessel passing close to the fleet. The Admiral immediately bore up under all sail for Alexandria. We left Syracuse on July 25th, and made such an extraordinary passage that on the evening of the 31st the Admiral made the signal for the fleet to close, we being so near Alexandria. Early on the morning of the 1st, we having no frigates, the _Alexander_ and the _Swiftsure_ were sent ahead to look out; and "at ten a.m. the _Alexander_ made a signal supposed for the land, all the fleet in company." At four o'clock the Pharos Tower was visible in that clear atmosphere, from where I was standing by the Admiral on the poop, though it was at the distance of four or five leagues to the south-south-west. The Admiral was by this time extraordinarily anxious in scanning every ship in the fleet, and the whole horizon with the eye of an eagle.

Suddenly I saw what I can only describe as a holy joy beam over his face. The _Zealous_ was signalling, and almost before the signalling began he cried out, "My God! it's the French."

Sure enough it was the French. And as the signal blew out stiff on the north-west wind--"the French fleet, sixteen sail of the line"--a thrill of joy went through every soul in the ship, and, I can swear, in all the other ships. Men laughed and cried; their hearts were too full for them to cheer. There was but one thought in every breast, that the Lord had delivered the French into the hands of Gideon--Gideon, the little man with only one arm and one eye, and half a constitution, over whom I, the midshipman, standing by his side to take orders, towered.

His first order was a most characteristic one: "Send for Mr. Hardres--this is a moment at which no fighting man should be in disgrace." His next was to order dinner to be prepared. That we should fight, every one in the fleet took for granted. It was not the Admiral's habit to leave the enemy time to prepare. To force them to risk he would take any risk himself. In those latitudes, where there is no twilight, day drops dead into night, even on an August day, before seven of the clock. It would be as much as we could do to lay alongside of them before nightfall. We should have to fight them in absolute darkness. But the Admiral reckoned every difficulty in his favour. He had some opinion of French gunnery, but none of their courage as seamen; while of his own captains he had the highest opinion, and placed the firmest reliance on them for valour and conduct. It had been his practice during the whole of the cruise, whenever the weather and circumstances would permit, to have his captains on board the _Vanguard_, where he would fully develop to them his own ideas as to the different and best modes of attack, and such plans as he proposed to execute upon falling in with the enemy, whatever their position or situation might be, by day or by night. There was no possible position which could be found that he did not take into his calculation, and for the most advantageous attack of which he had not digested or arranged the best possible disposition of the force which he commanded. With the masterly ideas of the Admiral, therefore, on the subject of naval tactics every one of the captains was most thoroughly acquainted; and upon surveying the situation of the enemy they could ascertain with precision what were his ideas and intentions without the aid of any further instructions, by which means signals became almost unnecessary, much time was saved, and the attention of every captain could almost undistractedly be paid to the conduct of his particular ship--a circumstance from which upon this occasion the advantages to the general service were almost incalculable.

We found the enemy laying at anchor in line of battle in a bay upon the larboard, which we afterwards knew to be Aboukir Bay. Having given his orders about Will and the dinner with apparent unconcern, of which I doubt not, now, he had judged the moral effect, he turned to the Captain--"Haul on the wind, Berry!"

A top-gallant breeze was blowing, and the Captain gave orders to take in the royals as we hauled upon the wind. The whole squadron followed suit except the _Alexander_ and _Swiftsure_, which were some miles to the eastward, scouting; and the _Culloden_, which was some miles to the westward, towing a prize of which the whole fleet had been talking till it saw the tall masts of the French--a vessel loaded with wine.

"Signal the _Alexander_ and _Swiftsure_," said the Admiral; his quick eye had seen that Troubridge had already divined and cast off the wine brig. "Signal, 'Prepare for battle--attack the van and centre.'"

Every captain knew that the Admiral's idea was to crush the enemy's van and centre as they lay at anchor, according to the oft-discussed plan, and then make the best use he could of the victory. Each ship got a bower cable out abaft and bent it forward. We stood in close line of battle, every ship sounding all the time carefully. There was not a chart of the Bay in the whole fleet, except a rude sketch taken by Captain Hallowell in a prize. The French were lying under the shelter of the cape, and with the head of their van up to the island, which had a battery of guns and mortars, and they were flanked by numerous gunboats and four frigates.

"Stiff work, sir," said the Captain, eyeing the formidable array with its communications to the land secured at either end.

"Might be worse, Berry," replied the Admiral, looking at them with the eye of a seaman determined on attack. And as ideas began to chase through his eager and penetrating mind, he jerked out, "They can't get away anyhow, they're anchored,--and where there's room for an enemy's ship to swing there is room for one of ours to anchor."

"Are you going to force the passage, sir, and take them on the inside?"

"Of course: they're so strongly secured on the outside that the guns won't be manned on the inside. If I know the French they won't even be cleared for action, for they didn't expect us, Berry. You can wager that they felt sure of having till to-morrow, even after they saw us coming in. Who leads, Berry?"

"The _Goliath_."

"Foley won't want any telling. It was this plan which took his imagination so that night, in case we had an enemy supported by the shore. See, there he goes, brave fellow!" he shouted, as Foley, coming up to the leading French vessel, the _Guerrier_, and receiving her fire at considerable disadvantage while half her men were aloft preparing to furl sail, swung round her, and to the vast astonishment of her company tried to bring up on her inner side. In this he failed, in spite of all his precautions: the anchor hung, and he found himself on the inner quarter of the _Conquérant_, the second ship. The _Zealous_, which was close behind him, anchored abreast of the _Guerrier_; and the _Orion_, _Theseus_, and _Audacious_, the next three ships, followed them inside; the _Audacious_ bringing up on the bow of the _Conquérant_; the _Theseus_ abreast of the _Spartiate_, but dividing her fire between the hapless _Conquérant_ and the _Aquilon_; and the _Orion_ dividing hers between the _Peuple Souverain_ and the _Franklin_.

While they were taking up their positions, and had the best part of their ships' companies engaged in navigating the ships, they should have been very severely handled by the French. But the Admiral's instinct was, as ever, correct: the larboard guns which trained on the land were neither manned nor ready. The French, of course, did all they could in the time to reply to the English fire; but their hurried attempts were unavailing, and in three minutes' time every mast of the _Guerrier_ and _Conquérant_ was overboard, though they were bare sticks without a sail set. We were the sixth ship--you must bear in mind that our fleet at this moment only consisted of ten ships, because the _Alexander_ and _Swiftsure_ were away to leeward, and the _Culloden_ away to windward, and the _Leander_, which was but a fifty-gun ship, was a long way behind. I suppose the Admiral had chosen this place, sixth in the line, because it was doubtful whether the vessel in this place should follow the other five or lead on the outside. You can imagine that we, who had never seen a shot fired from the ship, were in a fine state of excitement. I suppose I must have winced as a round shot went through the mizzen-stay close to where I was in attendance on the Admiral, for he patted me on the shoulder and said to me, "How do you like that music?" he having on his own face his fighting smile of serene superiority. Indeed, he had not long since come up from his dinner, which was being served when we came into range of the French guns. We did not reply for some time: we had to pay so much attention to navigating; and I own that, though I became as indifferent to fire as becomes an English sailor, I was a little startled at finding the shot whizzing over us steadily when I followed the Admiral up on deck. He had been good-naturedly allowing me to eat at his table.

"Never you mind, youngster," he said, as he patted me. "D'ye know that Charles XII. ran away from the first shot he heard, though afterwards called the Great because of his bravery. I therefore hope much of you in future."

This put me on my mettle, especially as Will was there with his proud fair face flushed with the fighting fever, and helping to carry a man, who was pouring out blood, to the companion; for, mind you, it is one thing to have round shot coming close enough to hear them whistle, and another thing to see a man, who has been your shipmate for months, bleeding to death in your arms in the first quarter of an hour of your first battle.

"Where shall I lay the ship, sir?" asked the Captain.

"Alongside of the first ship that has any fight in her."

"There is no one engaged with number three, sir, though she is getting a few shot from the _Goliath_ and the _Theseus_. She's in line with them, sir: I'm afraid some of our shot may hit them."

"Not if you lay her at the right distance, Berry. Half a pistol shot is a very good distance for fighting; you can be sure of your shot not going wild then."

"How would it do, sir, if we reduced our sail to working order and passed under her stern, and laid ourselves on the inside of the next? We shall be a bit awkwardly placed if we lay ourselves alongside of the third of their line, because we shall be raked by the fourth."

"No, Berry; it would never do for the Admiral to be afraid of a broadside."

This was very fine and completely in the spirit of our Admiral; but I can tell you that we had to pay for it, for while we had been coming up the _Aquilon_ was double shotting her guns for us.

"Shorten sail," was the order, and "Back the main topsail." As we laid ourselves alongside of the third ship--that was the _Spartiate_, the fourth--that was the _Aquilon_, raked us with double-shotted guns. The concussion was awful; the crashing of masts and yards, and the yells and death groans which arose from our bows, attested the precision of their aim. The men in the forecastle would have been fairly staggered if it had not been for Will. I could see St. Vincent's men looking as if they had received their death-warrant; and I am sure I felt quite sick, as I was covered with human blood spouting from the quivering limbs and mangled bodies all round. But Will, who was scarce nineteen, with colour unchanged and eyes flashing brighter, exposed himself in the most reckless and daring manner, and this in spite not only of the cannonade but of a tremendous fire of musketry. Time after time our forward guns were cleared for a minute and re-manned.

There was the usual serio-comedy which creeps into the most awful moments of our lives; for there in the midst of it all was a marine lying, apparently dead, on the deck. Not being able to see how he came by his death, Will turned him over to examine, and found that he was not only alive but uninjured. Drawing his sword Will obliged the man to rise under pain of immediate death; and, you would not believe it, the poor wretch had scarcely stood upright, when a bar that connects grape shot passed through both thigh-bones and could not be extricated. After two days of torture death relieved his sufferings. While Will himself stood upright and uninjured, and while he was attending to this one, the marine who stood on his other side, waiting to take his order, had his head carried off by a thirty-two pounder, while a large splinter from the foremast stripped the right thigh-bone of the midshipman who was with him from the knee-pan to the hip. He lived to the next day, and then sank under his sufferings.

By this we were nearly unmanageable, and cracking masts and yards in close contact with the _Spartiate_.

Presently the Admiral came along, cool as an orange; and though I was getting a little accustomed now to the awful scene that was going on round me, I was not particularly sorry when he called to me:

"Youngster, get the number of wounded from the surgeon."

But when I entered the cockpit, stumbling over the wounded, and came to the surgeon's assistants, I own I was unnerved a little, for I found them busily employed taking our old Quartermaster's right arm out of the socket, whose only son, well known to me, I had just seen broken to pieces by a round shot which dashed him into the gun he was serving.

"Is my boy doing well, sir?" he gasped in a low agonised voice.

"I hope so," I answered reverently, and I felt fit to choke, and the old man groaned heavily. He suspected the truth from the tone of my voice.

"Pour a glass of Madeira down his throat," said the surgeon: "he is sinking fast."

The complication of noises in this den of misery, from the shrill cry from agonised youth to the deep and hollow groan of death, the imprecations of some and the prayers of others, the roaring of the guns, and the hopes and fears that pervaded the wounded, formed a very shocking scene, and is still deeply impressed on my memory. But nothing shocked me so much as the cold hard voice of the surgeon: "I am too busy to count the wounded--say the cockpit is full, and some bad cases."

I took this to the Admiral, who was back on the poop, with men and spars dropping all round him. He took no notice of me: all he said was, "I think their fire slackens, Mr. Vassall," addressing one of our lieutenants.

"I am sure of it, sir: many of the crew have deserted their guns."

He was not, it must be observed, talking of the _Aquilon_, the ship which had dealt us such awful mischief, but of the _Spartiate_, which we were engaging. He took no notice of the _Aquilon_: we hardly returned a gun to her.

"Louis will see to that," he said (Captain Louis was of the _Minotaur_, the next in our line): "I am engaging the _Spartiate_ till she strikes."

Down came the tricoloured flag, and "Cease firing" resounded all along our decks.

Our Captain himself had but half a cocked hat, the other half having been carried off by a round shot that entered his cabin when he had gone to serve out something to a couple of seamen, and drenched it with their blood. Mr. Galwey, our First, and a party of marines, were sent to take possession.

Before this the fire of the _Aquilon_ had slackened off, for the _Minotaur_, which had engaged her, gave her such a terrible yard-to-yard gruelling that the heart was taken out of her fighting. This was fortunate, for we had to send for her captain to receive a dying message from the Admiral, who wished to thank him for the way he had saved our ship by laying himself alongside of the _Aquilon_. We could not have stood that raking many minutes longer.

I have not described the mighty exploits of our captains who conquered the French centre as such should be chronicled, for we of the flagship were confronted with an event before which any other incident of the battle seemed but of small importance, for the Admiral was struck down, as we feared, mortally wounded.

He was walking on the deck, exposing himself like the commonest sailor, as was his wont, when a flying piece of iron from a charge of langridge struck him upon the upper part of the forehead, and cut a great piece of skin at right angles. This hung down over his face, covering his seeing eye, and further blinding him with the terrific stream of blood. He was at the time, though it may scarcely be credited in the midst of such a terrible cannonade, calmly examining the rough sketch map of the Bay which had been found in a French ship by Captain Hallowell; and he afterwards made a jest of the French taking a mean advantage of him, and hitting him when he was not looking. But he did not jest at the time; he just reeled and fell into the arms of the Captain. I was by him, of course, for I was still on this duty, and distinctly heard him say, "I am killed! Remember me to my wife!"--a circumstance which I always did remember, contrasting it with what he said at Trafalgar about Lady Hamilton.

I will not pretend to judge Lady Nelson: indeed, I have not seen her above once or twice, when she seemed to me the ordinary Admiral's wife, whom one would meet in such a place as this in which I live, in times of peace. What faults she had were just the faults such a woman would have, and they included the fault of being totally unable to satisfy such an intense, imaginative, romantic temperament as the Admiral's. I was in service under that great man for years, and I think that the whole episode of his unhappy marriage, and his much reprobated relation with Lady Hamilton, may be summed up in the fact that his was a nature that demanded to be monopolised by a woman. How to monopolise, Lady Nelson neither knew nor cared, and there was ready to step into her place one of the most remarkable and companionable women of history.

"I am killed! Remember me to my wife," cried our beloved Admiral; and instantly Will and I and two or three others--the hard, cold Will, with tears streaming down his face--ran to Captain Berry's assistance, and carried him down to the cockpit.

The surgeon, hearing who it was, flew to him; but he cried out, "No, I will take my turn with my brave fellows," and immediately afterwards he added--"Do not waste your time over me. I am a dying man. Tend those who can be saved, and call me the chaplain." And when the chaplain came he told him twice over to carry his dying remembrance to Lady Nelson, and to summon Captain Louis from the _Minotaur_, which was just ahead of us, and had saved us from the tremendous raking of the _Aquilon_. Captain Louis came very quickly, and the Admiral thanked him as the saviour of his ship. The captain could only hold out his hand in silent sorrow. The Admiral bade him an affectionate farewell. "And now," said he, "whatever may become of me, my mind is at peace."

The surgeon then insisted on examining his wound, which he found, except for the concussion, to be of a trifling nature, though it was some time before he could convince the Admiral of this. But as soon as he had done so, the Admiral sought for some means to allay the tremendous excitement under which he was naturally labouring, while winning so glorious a victory, so he began to write a despatch to the Admiralty. The secretary, who was himself wounded, was so affected by the Admiral's condition that he was unable to guide his pen, so the Admiral sent for the chaplain, and though he came almost immediately he grew so impatient of waiting for him that he commenced to write himself, with his trembling left hand:--

"My Lord,--Almighty God has blest His Majesty's arms----." He had written but little when Captain Berry came down to report that the French Admiral's flagship, the tremendous _Orient_ of 120 guns, was on fire; and, severely wounded as he was, the Admiral instantly staggered up on deck, where the first consideration that struck his mind was concern for the danger of so many lives.

But now I must return to the progress of the battle. And here I may remark that in only one instance did a British ship fail to get a signal advantage of the Frenchman engaged, and that, oddly enough, was the _Bellerophon_, which afterwards became so historical. And she paid for her temerity in engaging a ship so tremendously her superior in number of guns as the _Orient_, which mounted 120 to her 74, the disparity in weight of metal being almost double as great. But she held on to the _Orient_ like the British bull-dog that she was, till her masts and cables having been entirely shot away, she drifted out of line to the lee side of the Bay, and was saved in spite of herself.

The five ships which engaged the French on the outside, where they had concentrated their force, should naturally have suffered the most severely, as indeed the _Bellerophon_, the _Majestic_, our ship, and the _Minotaur_ did; but the _Defence_, like the _Zealous_, bore charmed lives. She had but four men killed and eleven men wounded, though she laid herself alongside of the _Peuple Souverain_, almost as close as we lay to the _Spartiate_. Her immunity illustrated the value of the Admiral's theory of concentrating your force on part of the enemy and risking the rest. Instead of having the fire of a second Frenchman raking her bows, as we had, she was engaged with the Frenchman which had a second English ship, the _Orion_, pouring broadsides into her almost undefended larboard side. The _Majestic_, too, which was the only ship that lost her captain, owed her great loss to fouling the _Heureux_ as she passed on to her duel with the _Mercure_, which resulted in the latter's capture.

The _Zealous_ was wonderful. She had but one man killed and seven wounded, and preserved even her rigging so uninjured that she alone of all the fleet was in a position to chase the two unengaged French ships of the line, and the two frigates which made their escape the next morning, and yet she had been in the first of the fight.

The battle was practically won in the first few minutes. The action did not begin till forty minutes past six, and by fifty minutes past the _Guerrier_ had been dismasted and captured, and ten minutes after that the _Spartiate_ and the _Conquérant_ were almost dismasted and ready to be taken possession of, while the _Aquilon_ and the _Peuple Souverain_ were taken possession of at half-past eight.

By the overpowering of the first three ships the fleets were ten to ten when night closed in at seven o'clock. This was partly neutralised by the _Bellerophon's_ drifting out of action, shortly before the _Orient_ blew up, a good deal owing to her fire, though she was blown out of action herself.

But this in turn was neutralised by a fortunate accident. As I have mentioned, the _Culloden_, _Alexander_ and _Swiftsure_ were some miles from the rest of the fleet when the action commenced, but the former saw and at once abandoned her prize, and the latter, too, were signalled to return. The _Culloden_, running down the wind, naturally had the advantage of the others, which were beating up, but it was dark before any of them could approach. Now, there was not a man in all our fleet, saving the Admiral, with such a stomach for fighting as Captain Troubridge; and in his anxiety to support his chief, he did not proceed with quite the coolness of Captain Foley, of the _Goliath_, who led our van in rounding the shoal, and shared with the Admiral the credit of keeping such a steady and seamanlike course when every minute reduced our chance of taking up our anchorage by daylight. Captain Foley of course had daylight, and Captain Troubridge had not; but Troubridge was essentially a fighter, willing to take any number of risks in the face of an enemy. The result was that the _Culloden_ stuck on the tail of the shoal, and lay there bumping heavily. The loss of such a formidable fighter as Captain Troubridge probably saved the _Généreux_ and the _Guillaume Tell_, the two French ships of the line which got away on the following day; but he himself generously said that he believed it helped to win the battle, by letting such good men as Captain Ball and Captain Hallowell, who were certainly two of the finest captains in the fleet, sail straight on into the battle without having to feel their way--which they did, for the _Culloden_, hanging on the edge of the shoal and exhibiting lanterns and other signals, served as a kind of lighthouse.

It must not be supposed that men like Captain Ball and Captain Hallowell passed their stranded consort without the endeavour to tow her off, on which the little _Leander_ of fifty guns had already been engaged for some time; but Captain Troubridge was soon convinced of the hopelessness of the task, and rightly judged that the instant arrival of three ships in the battle was of more consequence than trying to deliver his own ship. They therefore, though very unwillingly, cast off and proceeded to take their places in the line.

As I have said, the fortunate accident of their deferred arrival crushed the French centre. For when the _Orient_, although she had blown the _Bellerophon_ out of action, discovered that her poop was on fire, up came two of the best ships and the stoutest captains of our Navy, not to mention the little _Leander_, which did yeoman's service on that day. The _Swiftsure_, Captain Hallowell, at once anchored on the _Orient's_ starboard bow, while the _Alexander_, taking advantage of the defective ordering of Admiral Brueys which left five hundred yards between each pair of ships, passed under the stern of the _Orient_, and raking her with a terrific broadside, reserved after the English fashion till she was within a few feet, took up her position on the great ship's inner quarter. Both English captains noted the fire on the French flagship, and training their upper guns on the spot where it was raging, effectually prevented any attempt to save the ship. With their flagship as helpless as a bee in the meshes of a couple of spiders, the misfortunes of the French did not cease, for the cables of the _Peuple Souverain_ being shot away, she drifted from her position to the quarter of the _Franklin_, where she was raked by the _Orion_. Her drifting also left a gap of a thousand feet in front of the _Franklin_, of which the fifty-gun _Leander_ took advantage with the utmost coolness, calmly anchoring across the bows of the French eighty-gun ship, and raking her with broadside after broadside. And thus the battle raged till just about ten o'clock, when the _Orient_, which like the _Heureux_ and _Tonnant_ had been completely in our power for some time, blew up.

The French ships who were on her lee had slipped their cables and drifted some minutes before this, but Captain Ball resolutely refused to budge before the destruction of the _Orient_ was made inevitable, as a result of which portions of the burning ship fell upon the _Alexander_, and indeed ignited one of her 'tops,' which was happily extinguished.

The crew of the _Orient_ themselves, except such as were engaged in trying to extinguish it, had not noticed it until a dense volume of black smoke suddenly burst up from below, and with it a great flare of flame, which rose from the quarter-deck, giving the ship the appearance of a volcano, and reached the mainsail. Those who were on the _Alexander_, which hung on to the _Orient_ up to that minute, say they never saw anything more awful than the faces of the doomed hundreds on which the glare was reflected.

"What boats have we, Berry?" inquired the Admiral, when he staggered up in the midst of his own agony. Now that his execrated French were helpless, the prey of the fire or the deep, he had only one thought and that was to save them.

"We have only a cutter, sir."

"Lower away, first Lieutenant in charge; and you, Trinder, go with him and steer."

Oh God! it was a sickening sight. The sea was covered with struggling sailors; our boats under a tremendous fire, which the guns, that had been left loaded as the men scrambled up for their lives, sent forth, were full to sinking. At length we came to the point when we could not take one more; and it was all we could do, by putting on a racing stroke, with the sharp fall of the oars rendering it unsafe to approach, to keep ourselves from being pulled under.

Under the stern of the burning ship, to get away from the shot of the 120 guns, were to be seen hundreds of men swimming and floating on spars: the other French ships had all gone too far off to help, giving a wide berth to the expected explosion of the magazines; but as fast as they could come, the boats from the English ships, regardless of all danger, loading with the swimmers, dashed into the very mouth of destruction to receive those who were unable to swim, and hung on to the blazing ship to the last. The flames now shot high above the masthead, reminding me of the picture of Vesuvio worked in silk by one of the foretopmen, which hung in the Admiral's state-room. It was very terrible, joined to the cries of the young, the groans of the wounded, and the shouts and yelling of the burning. I think the shrieks will ring in my ears for ever; and the darting of the forked flames from yard to yard and mast to mast, until they soared above the clouds and illuminated the most minute object, making all as distinct as the meridian sun, and the numberless sinking and struggling sailors, made up a veritable pandemonium.

About ten o'clock the great ship, that gave an idea of a world in conflagration, blew up. There was an awful pause and deathlike silence for about three minutes, when the wreck of the masts, yards, and so on, which had been carried to a vast height, fell down into the water and on board the surrounding ships. A port-fire fell into the main-royal of the _Alexander_, but the fire occasioned by it was extinguished in about two minutes by the active exertions of Captain Ball, who, meaning all along to stand by, had been sluicing his decks and rigging. After this awful scene the firing was recommenced with the ships to leeward of the centre till twenty minutes past ten, when there was a total cessation of firing for about ten minutes; after which it was revived till about three in the morning, when it again ceased. After the victory had been secured in the van, such British ships as were in a condition to move had gone down upon the fresh ships of the enemy, which occasioned these renewals of the fight, all of which terminated with the same happy success in favour of our flag.

At five minutes past five in the morning the two rear ships of the enemy, _Le Guillaume Tell_ and _Le Généreux_, were the only French ships of the line that had their colours flying. At fifty-four minutes past five a French frigate, _L'Artemise_, fired a broadside and struck her colours; but such was the unwarrantable and infamous conduct of the French captain that, after having thus surrendered, he set fire to his ship, and with part of his crew made his escape on shore. Another of the French frigates, _La Sérieuse_, had been sunk by the fire from some of our ships; but as her poop remained above water, her men were saved upon it, and were taken off by our boats in the morning. The _Bellerophon_, whose masts and cables had been entirely shot away, could not retain her situation abreast of the _Orient_, but had drifted out of the line to the leeside of the bay a little before that ship blew up. The _Audacious_ was in the morning detached to her assistance. At eleven o'clock _Le Généreux_ and _Le Guillaume Tell_, with the two frigates _La Justice_ and _La Diane_, cut their cables and stood out to sea, pursued by the _Zealous_, Captain Hood, who, as the Admiral himself has stated, handsomely endeavoured to prevent their escape; but as there was no other ship in a condition to support the _Zealous_ she was recalled. The whole day of the 2nd was employed in securing the French ships that had struck, and which were now all completely in our possession, _Le Tonnant_ and _Le Timoléon_ excepted; as these were both dismasted, and consequently could not escape, they were naturally the last of which we thought of taking possession.

On the morning of the 2nd, although the time and attention of the Admiral and all the officers of his squadron were very fully employed in repairing the damages sustained by their own ships and in securing those of the enemy which their valour had subdued, yet the mind of that great and good man felt the strongest emotion of the most pious gratitude to the Supreme Being for the signal success which by His Divine favour had crowned his endeavours in the cause of his country; and, in consequence, he issued the following memorandum to the respective captains of the squadron:--

"_Vanguard_, off the Mouth of the Nile, "_2nd August, 1798_.

"Almighty God, having blessed His Majesty's arms with victory, the Admiral intends returning public thanksgiving for the same at two o'clock this day; and he recommends every ship doing the same as soon as convenient."

[Handwriting: Horatio Nelson]

At two o'clock accordingly on that day, public service was performed on the quarter-deck of the _Vanguard_ by the Rev. Mr. Comyn, the other ships following the example of the Admiral, though perhaps not all at the same time. This solemn act of gratitude to heaven seemed to make a very deep impression upon several prisoners, both officers and men; some of the former of whom remarked, "that it was no wonder we could preserve such order and discipline, when we could impress the minds of our men with such sentiments after a victory so great, and at a moment of such seeming confusion." On the same day the following memorandum was issued to all the ships, expressive of the Admiral's sentiments of the noble exertions of the different officers and men of his squadron:--

"_Vanguard_, off the Mouth of the Nile, "_2nd August, 1798_.

"The Admiral most heartily congratulates the Captains, Officers, Seamen, and Marines of the Squadron he has the honour to command, on the event of the late Action; and he desires they will accept his most sincere and cordial Thanks for their very gallant behaviour in this glorious Battle. It must strike forcibly every British Seaman, how superior their conduct is, when in discipline and good order, to the riotous behaviour of lawless Frenchmen.

"The Squadron may be assured the Admiral will not fail, with his Dispatches, to represent their truly meritorious conduct in the strongest terms to the Commander-in-Chief.

"HORATIO NELSON."

On the morning of the 3rd, the _Timoléon_ was set fire to, and _Le Tonnant_ had cut her cable, and drifted on shore; but that active officer, Captain Miller, of the _Theseus_, soon got her off again, and secured her in the British line. The British force engaged consisted of twelve ships of seventy-four guns, and the _Leander_ of fifty.

I have often wondered if Buonaparte, who was with the army landed from that fleet, witnessed the battle from the shore. I cannot recall that he makes mention anywhere of having done so; but I cannot conceive a general who took such minute note of every little incident in his own battles resting content without seeing a battle which he knew to be in progress, and certain to affect his fortunes in such a wonderful way. If he did, he must have been impressed by the knowledge that there was one element which he could not command, and which might always mar his fondest schemes.