is whole army. Then
were revived the old misgivings as to invasion. 'Instead of having to
cope with him weary with waiting, we shall have to encounter This Man
fresh from the fields of victory,' ran the newspaper article.

But the week which had led off with such a dreary piping was to end in
another key. On the very day when Mack's army was piling arms at the
feet of its conqueror, a blow had been struck by Bob Loveday and his
comrades which eternally shattered the enemy's force by sea. Four days
after the receipt of the Austrian news Corporal Tullidge ran into the
miller's house to inform him that on the previous Monday, at eleven in
the morning, the Pickle schooner, Lieutenant Lapenotiere, had arrived at
Falmouth with despatches from the fleet; that the stage-coaches on the
highway through Wessex to London were chalked with the words 'Great
Victory!' 'Glorious Triumph!' and so on; and that all the country people
were wild to know particulars.

On Friday afternoon John arrived with authentic news of the battle off
Cape Trafalgar, and the death of Nelson. Captain Hardy was alive, though
his escape had been narrow enough, his shoe-buckle having been carried
away by a shot. It was feared that the Victory had been the scene of the
heaviest slaughter among all the ships engaged, but as yet no returns of
killed and wounded had been issued, beyond a rough list of the numbers in
some of the ships.

The suspense of the little household in Overcombe Mill was great in the
extreme. John came thither daily for more than a week; but no further
particulars reached England till the end of that time, and then only the
meagre intelligence that there had been a gale immediately after the
battle, and that many of the prizes had been lost. Anne said little to
all these things, and preserved a superstratum of calmness on her
countenance; but some inner voice seemed to whisper to her that Bob was
no more. Miller Loveday drove to Pos'ham several times to learn if the
Captain's sisters had received any more definite tidings than these
flying reports; but that family had heard nothing which could in any way
relieve the miller's anxiety. When at last, at the end of November,
there appeared a final and revised list of killed and wounded as issued
by Admiral Collingwood, it was a useless sheet to the Lovedays. To their
great pain it contained no names but those of officers, the friends of
ordinary seamen and marines being in those go