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and one fifty gun-ship, carrying 1012 guns, and 8068 men. The English ships were all seventy-fours; the French had three eighty gun-ships and one three-decker of 120 guns.

Nelson's officers were fully acquainted with his principles of tactics; and such was his confidence in their ability, that the only thing determined upon, in case they should find the French at anchor, was for the ships to form as most convenient to their mutual support, and to anchor by the stern. First gain your victory, he said, and then make the best use of it you can. The moment he perceived the position of the French, that intuitive genius with which Nelson was endowed displayed itself; and it instantly struck him, that where there was room for an enemy's ship to swing, there was room for one of ours to anchor. The plan which he intended to pursue, was to keep on the outer side of the French line, and station his ships, as far as he was able, one on the outer bow, and another off the outer quarter of each of the enemy's.

Captain Foley led the way in the "Goliath;" and intending to fix himself on the inner bow of the "Guerrier," kept as near the edge of the bank as the depth of water would admit; but his anchor hung, and having opened his fire he drifted to the second ship, the Conquerant," before it was cleared; then anchored by the stern inside of her, and in ten minutes shot away her masts. Hood, in the "Zealous," perceiving this, took the station which the "Goliath" should have occupied, and disabled the "Guerrier" in twelve minutes. The third ship which doubled the enemy's van was the "Orion," Sir J. Saumarez; she passed to windward of the “Zealous,” and opened her larboard guns as long as they bore on the “Guerrier;” then passing inside the “Goliath,” sunk a frigate which annoyed her, hauled toward the French line, and anchoring inside between the fifth and sixth ships from the "Guerrier," took her station on the larboard bow of the "Franklin" and the quarter of the "Peuple Souverain," receiving and returning the fire of both. The "Audacious," Captain Gould, pouring a

heavy fire into the "Guerrier" and the "Conquerant,” fixed itself on the larboard bow of the latter, and when that ship struck, passed on to the "Peuple Souverain." The "Theseus," Captain Miller, followed, brought down the "Guerrier's" remaining main and mizzen mast, and anchored inside the "Spartiale," the third in the French line.

While these doubled the French line, the “Vanguard” Iwas the first that anchored on the outer side of the enemy, within half pistol shot of the "Spartiale." Nelson veered half a cable and instantly poured a tremendous fire, under cover of which the other four ships of his division, the "Minotaur," "Bellerophon," "Defence," and "Majestic" sailed on ahead of the admiral. In a few minutes, every man stationed at the first six guns in the fore part of the “ Vanguard's" deck was killed or wounded; these guns were three times cleared. Captain Louis, in the "Minotaur," anchored next ahead, and took the fire of the "Aquilon," the fourth on the enemy's line. The "Bellerophon," Captain Darby, passed ahead, and dropped her stern anchor on the starboard bow of the " Orient," seventh in the line, Brueys' own ship, of one hundred and twenty guns, whose difference in force was in proportion of more than seven to three, and whose weight of ball from the lower deck alone, exceeded that of the whole broadside of the "Bellerophon." Captain Peyton, in the "Defence," took his station ahead of the "Minotaur," and engaged the "Franklin," the sixth in the line, by which judicious movement the British line was unbroken. The "Majestic," Captain Westcott, got entangled with the main rigging of one of the French ships astern of the “Orient," and suffered dreadfully from that three-decker's fire; but she swung clear, and closely engaging the "Heureux," the ninth ship on the starboard bow, received also the fire of the "Tonnant," which was the eighth in the line.

Troubridge, in the " Culloden," then foremost of the remaining ships, was two leagues astern. He came on sounding as the others had done; but the increasing dark

ness increased the difficulty of navigation, and suddenly, after having found eleven fathoms water, before the lead could be hove again, he was fast aground. His ship, however, served as a beacon to the "Alexander” and "Swiftsure," which would also, from the course they were holding, have gone considerably further on the reef, and must have inevitably been lost.

Captain Hallowell, in the "Swiftsure," as he was bearing down, fell on what seemed to be a strange sail. Nelson had directed his ships to hoist four lights horizontally at the mizzen peak as soon as it became dark, but this vessel had no such distinction. Hallowell, however, with great judgment, ordered his men not to fire; if she was an enemy, he said, she was in too disabled a state to escape. It was the "Bellerophon," overpowered by the huge "Orient." Her lights had gone overboard, two hundred of her crew were killed or wounded, all her masts and cables had been shot away, and she was drifting out of the line towards the leeside of the bay. Her station at this important time was occupied by the "Swiftsure," which opened a steady fire on the quarter of the “Franklin," and the bows of the French admiral. At the same time Captain Ball, with the "Alexander," passed under the Frenchman's stern, and anchored on his larboard quarter, raking him and keeping up a severe fire of musketry upon his decks. The last ship which arrived to complete the destruction of the enemy, was the "Leander." Captain Thomson advanced with the intention of anchoring athwart-hawse of the "Orient;" but the "Franklin" was so near ahead that there was not room to pass clear of the two; he therefore took his station athwart-hawse of the latter, in such a position to rake both.

The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted within a quarter of an hour after the commencement of the action (half-past six o'clock), and the others in a short time suffered so severely that victory was already certain. The third, fourth, and fifth were taken possession of at half-past eight; and soon after nine the

fire on board the "Orient" broke out. Admiral Brueys was dead; he had received three wounds, yet would not leave his post; a fourth cut him almost in two. He desired not to be carried below, but to be left to die on deck. The flames soon mastered the ship: her sides had just been painted, and the oil jars and paint buckets were lying on deck. By the light of the conflagration, the situation of the two fleets could now be perceived, the colours of both being clearly distinguishable. About ten o'clock the ship blew up, with a shock which was felt to the bottom of every vessel. Many of her officers and men jumped overboard, some clinging to the spars and pieces of wreck with which the sea was strewn, others swimming to escape from the explosion which they momentarily dreaded. Some were picked up by our boats; and some even in the heat and fury of the action, were dragged into the lower ports of the nearest British ships by the British sailors. The greater part of the crew, however, stood the danger to the last, and even continued to fire from the lower deck. The tremendous explosion

was followed by a silence not less awful; the firing ceased on both sides, and the first sound which broke the silence, was the dash of her shattered yards falling into the water from the vast height to which they had been exploded. It is upon record that a battle between two armies was once broken off by an earthquake—such an event would be felt like a miracle; but no incident in human war, produced by human means, has ever equalled the sublimity of this consentaneous pause and all its circumstances.

The firing recommenced with the ships to leeward of the centre, and continued till about three. At daybreak, the "Guillaume Tell" and the "Genereuse," the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only ships of the French line which had their colours flying; they cut their cables, not having been engaged, and stood out to sea, and two frigates with them. The "Zealous" pursued them; but as there was no other ship in a condition to support Captain Hood, he was recalled. These four were all that

escaped, and the victory was the most complete and glorious in the annals of naval history. Victory, said Nelson, is not a name strong enough for such a scene; he called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken and two burnt; of the four frigates one was sunk, another burnt in a villainous manner by her captain, after he had struck his colours. The British loss in killed and wounded amounted to 955; Westcott was the only captain killed; 3105 of the French were sent on shore by cartel, and 5225 perished.

WALTER SCOTT.

WALTER SCOTT was born at Edinburgh, A.D. 1771, and educated for the bar; he never practised, but for many years held the offices of Sheriff of Selkirkshire and Principal Clerk in the Court of Session. His earliest literary efforts were translations from the German, republication of the Minstrelsy of the Border, and imitations of the old national ballads; but his claim to be one of the great "makers" was first vindicated by The Lay of the Last Minstrel, confirmed by Marmion, and finally established by The Lady of the Lake. While his star was still in the ascendant, it appeared, at least to his own eyes, to be somewhat dimmed by the bright and lurid glare which marked the upward procession of Byron; so he dismissed the "Genius of the Ring," and invoked the "Genius of the Lamp," giving a wider range to the "novel," and finding a richer field for the exercise of his inventive imagination, and the utilization of his antiquarian lore in the "historical romance." More than twenty original works of the highest interest and value, abounding in stirring incidents, accurate and sprightly descriptions of localities, objects, and scenes, and life-like portraiture of characters, both real and fictitious, were given to the world under the title of the Waverley Novels. The pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, which necessitated the rapid production of other works, marred also their excellence, and brought on the paralytic affections, to which he succumbed in 1832.

STORM IN KNOCKWINNOCK BAY.

As Sir Arthur and Miss Wardour paced along, enjoying the pleasant footing accorded by the cool, moist, hard

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