, which now lay between the contestants as the
prize to the victor.

Apparently, in these manoeuvres, the leading British ships ran again
into the belt of southerly wind,--which the French kept
throughout,--while part of the centre and rear were left becalmed, and
had little or no share in the cannonade that followed. Under these
conditions the resolution of the French admiral seems to have
faltered, for instead of passing to leeward--north--of his endangered
ships, which was quite in his power, and so covering them from the
enemy, he allowed the latter to cut them off, thus insuring their
surrender. His fleet kept to windward of the British, passing fairly
near the two leading ships, the "Illustrious" and the "Courageux," who
thus underwent a "concentration by defiling," that took the main and
mizzen masts out of both, besides killing and wounding many of their
people. The "Princess Royal" and "Agamemnon," which came next, could
only engage at long range. "The enemy's fleet kept the southerly
wind," wrote Nelson in his journal, "which enabled them to keep their
distance, which was very great. At 8 A.M. they began to pass our line
to windward, and the Ca Ira and Le Censeur were on our lee side;
therefore the Illustrious, Courageux, Princess Royal, and Agamemnon
were obliged to fight on both sides of the ship." At five minutes past
ten A.M. both the French vessels struck, the "Ca Ira" having lost her
three masts, and the "Censeur" her mainmast. It was past one P.M. when
firing wholly ceased; and the enemy then crowded all possible sail to
the westward, the British fleet lying with their heads to the
southeast.

When the British line was forming, between seven and eight in the
morning, Nelson was directed by Vice-Admiral Goodall, the second in
command, to take his station astern of his flagship, the "Princess
Royal," of ninety guns. Immediately behind the "Agamemnon" came the
"Britannia," carrying Hotham's flag. This position, and the lightness
of the wind, serve to explain how Nelson came to take the step he
mentions in several letters; going on board the "Britannia," after the
two French vessels struck, and urging the commander-in-chief to leave
the prizes in charge of the British frigates and crippled
ships-of-the-line, and vigorously to pursue the French, who having
lost four ships out of their fleet, by casualty or capture, were now
reduced to eleven sail. "I went on board Admiral Hotham as soon as our
firing grew