beating up nearer and nearer to the port, though with the light winds he
could only make slow progress. Unless the enemy scuttled back into the
harbour a battle was inevitable.

On the Sunday morning (20 October) the wind freshened and enabled
Villeneuve to bring out the last of his ships. They were hardly out when
the wind changed and blew strong from the south-west, with squalls of rain.
The French admiral signalled the order to tack to the southward under
shortened sail. The fleet had been directed to sail in five parallel
divisions, each in line ahead, but for want of training in the crews the
ships lost station, and the formation was very irregular. At four in the
afternoon the wind changed again to the north-west, but it was very light
and the fleet moved slowly. To the westward all day the "Euryalus" and
"Sirius" frigates were seen watching Villeneuve's progress, and just as
darkness was closing in one of the French frigates signalled that there
were twenty sail coming in from the Atlantic.

If there had been more wind, Villeneuve might have crowded all sail for the
Straits, but he could only creep slowly along. Flashes and flares of light
to seaward showed him the British were exchanging night signals in the
darkness. He felt he was closely watched, and he was haunted by the memory
of the disastrous night battle in Aboukir Bay. Though the wind had gone
down the sea was rough, with a heavy swell rolling in from the westward,
the well-known sign of an Atlantic storm that might break on the Spanish
coast before many hours. The flickering signals of the British fleet seemed
to come nearer as the darkness of the moonless autumn night deepened, and
about nine a shadowy mass of sails was seen not far off. It was the
"Euryalus" that had closed in with every light shaded to have a near look
at the enemy.

There was an alarm that the British were about to attack, and Villeneuve
signalled to clear for action and form the prescribed double line of
battle. The sharp drumbeats from the French ships, the lighting up of open
ports, the burning of blue lights, showed Blackwood what was in progress.
It was nearly two hours before the lines were formed, and there was much
confusion, ships slipping into stations not assigned to them; and Gravina,
who had been directed to keep twelve of the best ships as an independent
reserve, or "squadron of observation," placing them in the line instead of
forming independently. Then the fleet