icle; yet one wonders to see no recognition of the
necessity of using your opportunity as you find it, of the moral effect
of an approaching reserve, which Lestock's division would have
constituted, of the part it may take in improving or repairing the
results of an action--taking the place of injured friends, preventing
injured foes escaping, turning doubtful battle into victory. But no;
these commonplaces of to-day and of all time were swamped by the
Fighting Instructions. It will be seen in the sequel what a disastrous
moral influence Lestock's aloofness exercised upon a few timid captains,
and not improbably upon the entire subsequent course and worst errors of
his unfortunate superior.

One of the witnesses in the ensuing Courts-Martial testified that the
commander-in-chief, under these perplexing circumstances, went into the
stern gallery of the flag-ship _Namur_, and called to Captain Cornwall
of the _Marlborough_, next astern, asking what he thought. Cornwall
replied he "believed they would lose the glory of the day, if they did
not attack the Spaniards,"--_i.e._, the allied rear-centre and
rear,--"the Vice-Admiral--Lestock--being so far astern." To which the
admiral said, "If you'll bear down and attack the _Real_,"--the _Real
Felipe_, Spanish flag-ship,--"I'll be your second." This was about one
o'clock, and the signal to engage had been made two hours earlier,
probably with the double object of indicating the ultimate intention of
the movements in hand, and the immediate urgency of forming the line.
The admiral's words betray the indecision of an irresolute nature and of
professional rustiness, but not of timidity, and Cornwall's words turned
the scale. The course of the flag-ship _Namur_ had hitherto been but a
little off the wind, "lasking" down, to use the contemporary but long
obsolete expression, in such manner as to show the admiral's desire to
engage himself with the enemy's centre, according to the Fighting
Instructions; but now, in hopelessness of that result, she kept broad
off, directly for the nearest enemy, accompanied closely by the
_Norfolk_, her next ahead, and by the _Marlborough_. Rear-Admiral
Rowley, commanding the van, imitated the admiral's example, bringing the
French ship abreast him to close action. He also was thoroughly
supported by the two captains next astern of him, the second of whom was
Edward Hawke,--afterwards the brilliant admiral,--in the _Berwick_. Two
British groups, each