ew of the military
situation strengthened him in taking the fearless resolution and
bearing the immense responsibility of abandoning his station in
order to follow "his fleet." Determined thus on a pursuit the
undeniable wisdom of which should not obscure the greatness of
mind that undertook it, he followed so vigorously as to reach
Cadiz on his return a week before Villeneuve entered Ferrol,
despite unavoidable delays arising from false information and
uncertainty as to the enemy's movements. The same untiring ardor
enabled him to bring up his own ships from Cadiz to Brest in
time to make the fleet there superior to Villeneuve's, had the
latter persisted in his attempt to reach the neighborhood. The
English, very inferior in aggregate number of vessels to the
allied fleets, were by this seasonable reinforcement of eight
veteran ships put into the best possible position strategically,
as will be pointed out in dealing with similar conditions in the
war of the American Revolution. Their forces were united in one
great fleet in the Bay of Biscay, interposed between the two
divisions of the enemy in Brest and Ferrol, superior in number
to either singly, and with a strong probability of being able to
deal with one before the other could come up. This was due to
able action all round on the part of the English authorities;
but above all other factors in the result stands Nelson's
single-minded pursuit of "his fleet."

This interesting series of strategic movements ended on the 14th
of August, when Villeneuve, in despair of reaching Brest, headed
for Cadiz, where he anchored on the 20th. As soon as Napoleon
heard of this, after an outburst of rage against the admiral, he
at once dictated the series of movements which resulted in Ulm
and Austerlitz, abandoning his purposes against England. The
battle of Trafalgar, fought October 21, was therefore separated
by a space of two months from the extensive movements of which
it was nevertheless the outcome. Isolated from them in point of
time, it was none the less the seal of Nelson's genius, affixed
later to the record he had made in the near past. With equal
truth it is said that England was saved at Trafalgar, though the
Emperor had then given up his intended invasion; the destruction
there emphasized and sealed the strategic triumph