"Ne sera-t-il donc pas possible de trouver dans la marine un homme entreprenant, qui voit de sang froid, et comme il faut voir, soit dans le combat, soit dans les différentes combinaisons des escadres?"*

The French emperor's sentiments will be found fully developed in the following set of charges which he is represented to have drawn up with his own hand: "First ; he (Villeneuve) did not disembark at Martinique and Guadaloupe the 67th regiment and the troops that Admiral Magon had on board. Secondly ; he placed these colonies in jeopardy by sending back to them, by four frigates, 1200 men only of the pick of the garrisons. Thirdly ; he conducted himself ill in the battle of the 23d of July, in not re-engaging a disabled fleet which had two ships in tow. Fourthly ; that, having arrived at Ferrol, he left the sea to Admiral Calder, while he waited to be joined by five sail of the line, and did not cruise off Ferrol until that squadron arrived. Fifthly ; he (Villeneuve) was informed that the fleet saw some enemy's ships having the Didon frigate in tow, but he did not chase those ships and oblige them to cast off the frigate. Sixthly ; he departed from Ferrol the 14th of August, † and, instead of going to Brest, proceeded to Cadiz, thereby violating his positive instructions. Seventhly and finally ; he knew that the squadron of M. Allemand was to go to Vigo for orders, and yet he sailed from Ferrol without giving that officer any new orders, having, on the contrary, sent him (by the Didon, it is probable) instructions quite opposite, and such as endangered the squadron, which received orders to repair to Brest, while Villeneuve himself steered for Cadiz. " ‡ In these charges two important facts disclose themselves : one, that M. Villeneuve, in spite of all the nonsense published in the Moniteur, did not, on the 23d of July, attempt to bring to action Sir Robert Calder's fleet ; the other, that something unexpected, and which, by a fair inference, was the false intelligence received through the Danish ship from the Dragon 74, caused the Franco-Spanish fleet to run from an English ship of the line and two disabled frigates, and subsequently to change its destination from Brest to Cadiz.

A part of Napoléon's vexation with M. Villeneuve arose, no doubt, from the dissatisfaction with which the Spaniards viewed the loss of their two ships. This was augmented by the apparent unwillingness of the French admiral, even though he had under him so powerful a fleet, to sail out, in the face of 11 English sail, of the line cruising off Cadiz, and enable the Carthagena squadron to form a junction with Admiral Gravina. In a letter of September 17, Napoléon complains of M. Villeneuve for this,

*  Precis des Evènemens, tome xii., p. 253

†  As to this and other dates, see p. 18.

‡  This extract is of too important a character not to be given in the original; it will therefore be found in the Appendix, at No. 5.

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