on's act was like
that of a single stockman who undertakes to "head off" a drove of angry
bulls as they break away from the herd; but the "bulls" in this case
were a group of the mightiest battleships then afloat. Nelson's sudden
movement was a breach of orders; it left a gap in the British line; to
dash unsupported into the Spanish van seemed mere madness, and the
spectacle, as the Captain opened fire on the huge _Santissima
Trinidad_, was simply amazing. Nelson was in action at once with the
flagship of 130 guns, two ships of 112 guns, one of 80 guns, and two of
74 guns! To the spectators who watched the sight the sides of the
_Captain_ seemed to throb with quick-following pulses of flame as its
crew poured their shot into the huge hulks on every side of them. The
Spaniards formed a mass so tangled that they could scarcely fire at the
little _Captain_ without injuring each other; yet the English ship
seemed to shrivel beneath even the imperfect fire that did reach her.
Her foremast was shot away, her wheel-post shattered, her rigging torn,
some of her guns dismantled, and the ship was practically incapable of
further service either in the line or in chase. But Nelson had
accomplished his purpose: he had stopped the rush of the Spanish van.

At this moment the _Excellent_, under Collingwood, swept into the storm
of battle that raged round the _Captain_, and poured three tremendous
broadsides into the Spanish three-decker the _Salvador del Mundo_ that
practically disabled her. "We were not further from her," the domestic
but hard-fighting Collingwood wrote to his wife, "than the length of
our garden." Then, with a fine feat of seamanship, the _Excellent_
passed between the _Captain_ and the _San Nicolas_, scourging that
unfortunate ship with flame at a distance of ten yards, and then passed
on to bestow its favours on the _Santissima Trinidad_--"such a ship,"
Collingwood afterwards confided to his wife, "as I never saw before!"
Collingwood tormented that monster with his fire so vehemently that she
actually struck, though possession of her was not taken before the
other Spanish ships, coming up, rescued her, and she survived to carry
the Spanish flag in the great fight of Trafalgar.

Meanwhile the crippled _Captain_, though actually disabled, had
performed one of the most dramatic and brilliant feats in the history
of naval warfare. Nelson put his helm to starboard, and ran, or rather
drifted, on the quarter-ga