is cold,
And that our hearts no longer speak
That clarion note of old;
But let the spear and sword draw near
The sleeping lion's den,
Our island shore shall start once more
To life, with armed men."
--HERMAN CHARLES MERIVALE.

On the night of February 13, 1797, an English fleet of fifteen ships of
the line, in close order and in readiness for instant battle, was under
easy sail off Cape St. Vincent. It was a moonless night, black with
haze, and the great ships moved in silence like gigantic spectres over
the sea. Every now and again there came floating from the south-east
the dull sound of a far-off gun. It was the grand fleet of Spain,
consisting of twenty-seven ships of line, under Admiral Don Josef de
Cordova; one great ship calling to another through the night, little
dreaming that the sound of their guns was so keenly noted by the eager
but silent fleet of their enemies to leeward. The morning of the
14th--a day famous in the naval history of the empire--broke dim and
hazy; grey sea, grey fog, grey dawn, making all things strangely
obscure. At half-past six, however, the keen-sighted British outlooks
caught a glimpse of the huge straggling line of Spaniards, stretching
apparently through miles of sea haze. "They are thumpers!" as the
signal lieutenant of the _Barfleur_ reported with emphasis to his
captain; "they loom like Beachy Head in a fog!" The Spanish fleet was,
indeed, the mightiest ever sent from Spanish ports since "that great
fleet invincible" of 1588 carried into the English waters--but not out
of them!--

"The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain."

The Admiral's flag was borne by the _Santissima Trinidad_, a floating
mountain, the largest ship at that time on the sea, and carrying on her
four decks 130 guns. Next came six three-deckers carrying 112 guns
each, two ships of the line of 80 guns each, and seventeen carrying 74
guns, with no less than twelve 34-gun frigates to act as a flying
cordon of skirmishers. Spain had joined France against England on
September 12, 1796, and Don Cordova, at the head of this immense fleet,
had sailed from Cadiz to execute a daring and splendid strategy. He
was to pick up the Toulon fleet, brush away the English squadron
blockading Brest, add the great French fleet lying imprisoned there to
his forces, and enter the British Channel with above a hundred sail of
the line under his flag, and sweep in triumph