slack in the van, and the Ca Ira and the Censeur had
struck, to propose to him leaving our two crippled ships, the two
prizes, and four frigates, to themselves, and to pursue the enemy;
but he, much cooler than myself, said, 'We must be contented, we have
done very well.' Now, had we taken ten sail, and had allowed the
eleventh to escape, when it had been possible to have got at her, I
could never have called it well done. Goodall backed me; I got him to
write to the admiral, but it would not do: we should have had such a
day as I believe the annals of England never produced."

Nelson here evidently assumes that it was possible to have got at the
French fleet. After a man's reputation has been established, there is
always the danger of giving undue weight to his opinions, expressed at
an earlier time, somewhat casually, and not under the sobering sense
of responsibility. Hotham may have questioned the possibility of
getting at the French effectively, having regard to the fickle
lightness of the wind then prevalent, and to the fact that, besides
the two ships partially dismasted and for the moment useless, two
others, the "Captain" and the "Bedford," had suffered severely in
sails and rigging. He would also doubtless consider that the
three-decked ships, of which he had four, were notoriously bad
sailers, and sure to drop behind if the chase lasted long, leaving to
eight ships, including the "Neapolitan," the burden of arresting the
enemy, who had shown very fair offensive powers in the morning. Nelson
was not blind to these facts, and not infrequently alludes to them.
"Had we only a breeze, I have no doubt we should have given a
destructive blow to the enemy's fleet." "Sure I am, that had the
breeze continued, so as to have allowed us to close with the enemy, we
should have destroyed their whole fleet." Whether these remarks apply
to the heat of the engagement, or to the proposed chase, which Hotham
declined to permit, is not perfectly clear; but inasmuch as the second
part of the action of the 14th consisted, actually, in the French
filing by the "Courageux" and the "Illustrious," upon whom their fire
was thus concentrated, while the rest of the British were becalmed
out of gunshot, it is very possible he was thinking of that incident
only, which doubtless would have taken a very different turn had the
main body been able to come down. His wish to pursue is
unquestionable, both from his assertion and from the whole ch