apparent object in
their steering in that direction at all. We had no possessions in that
quarter to tempt them, unless it might be Barbados; and even that island
lay considerably to leeward of the course that Monsieur Villeneuve was
said to be steering. At length, however, a possible explanation
suggested itself. It occurred to me that the schooner, which was
supposed to have brought the information leading to the precipitate
departure of Monsieur Villeneuve, might have fallen in with and
succeeded in eluding the British pursuing fleet, of the existence of
which the admiral at Jamaica had felt so certain; and if she had, and
had brought news to Martinique of the approach of such a fleet, I could
understand Monsieur Villeneuve's anxiety to be off; for we were all
fully persuaded that there was nothing the French admiral desired so
little as to encounter Nelson. And, upon considering the matter
further, the conviction forced itself irresistibly upon me that, if
Monsieur Villeneuve had been given good reason to believe that he was
pursued, his chief anxiety would be to get back to Europe as quickly as
possible. Such a desire would fully account for everything in his
movements that I had found difficult to understand, and it would also
account for the course that he was said to be steering; that course
being the only one that would at once lead him homeward and at the same
time enable him to avoid a meeting with the suppositious British fleet.
So thoroughly at length did I convince myself that this represented the
actual state of the case that I unhesitatingly set the _Sword Fish's_
head in the same direction that I believed the combined fleet to be
steering; and then, having issued orders that the schooner was to be
driven at the highest speed consistent with safety to her spars, I went
below and turned in.

During the remainder of that night and the whole of the next day we
carried on, without sighting anything in the shape of a sail; but at
dawn of the second day my persistence was rewarded by the sight of a
large fleet of ships strung out along the horizon, and by mid-day we had
approached them near enough to enable us to identify them as the fleet
of which we were in search. There was a big fleet of merchantmen in
company, which I assumed to be the captured Antigua convoy; and by and
by one of these--a fine full-rigged ship--wore round, in response to a
signal, and headed for us. I allowed her to approach with