to them by this or that person, impress upon a man's career the stamp
of "fortunate." An errand purely of evasion, not in itself of prime
importance, but for an object essentially secondary, it results in a
night combat of unusual brilliancy, which would probably not have been
fought at all could the British have seen the overwhelming force ready
to descend upon conqueror and conquered alike. With every spar
wounded, and a hostile fleet in sight, the "Minerve" nevertheless
makes good her retreat. Solitary, in an enemy's sea, she roams it with
premeditated deliberateness, escaping molestation, and, except in the
first instance, even detection. She carries the fortunes of a Caesar
yet unknown, who is ready to stake them at any moment for adequate
cause; but everything works together, not merely for his preservation,
but to bring him up just in time for the exceptional action, which
showed there was more to him than even his untiring energy and
fearlessness had so far demonstrated. As when, in later years, burning
anxiety pressed him to hasten after Villeneuve, yet failed so to
discompose him as to cause the neglect of any preparation essential to
due provision for the abandoned Mediterranean; so now, with every
power at highest tension to rejoin the admiral, eager not to waste a
moment, he mars his diligence by no precipitancy, he grudges no hour
necessary to the rounded completion of the present task,--to see, and
know, and do, all that can be seen and done. He might almost have used
again, literally, the expression before quoted: "I have not a thought
on any subject separated from the immediate object of my command."

Leaving the "Romulus" in Gibraltar, the "Minerve" sailed again on the
11th. The Spanish ships-of-the-line followed her at once. The east
wind blows in wild and irregular puffs upon the anchorages immediately
under the lofty Rock, where the frigate lay. Farther up, where the
Spaniards were, it crosses the low neck joining the peninsula to the
mainland, and is there more equable and more constant. The "Minerve"
was consequently at a disadvantage until she got fairly from under its
lee, and the chase through the Straits became close enough to draw the
idlers of the town and garrison in crowds to the hillsides. It soon
became evident that the leading ship-of-the-line was gaining upon the
frigate, and the latter cleared for action. Nelson had but a poor
opinion of the Spanish navy of his day, and doubtless chos