n once the battle was joined, numbers counted
for little: the English crews, inured to fights on the ocean, might be
trusted to overwhelm the foe by their superior experience and
discipline, hampered as the French now were by the lumbering and
defective warships of Spain.

Napoleon, indeed, amply discounted the chances of failure of his
ultimate design, the command of the Channel. The ostensible aims of
the expedition were colonial. The French fleets were to take on board
11,908 soldiers, of whom three-fourths were destined for the West
Indies; and, in case Gantheaume did not join Villeneuve at Martinique,
the latter was ordered, after waiting forty days, to set sail for the
Canaries, there to intercept the English convoys bound for Brazil and
the East Indies.

In the spring and summer of 1805 Napoleon's correspondence supplies
copious proof of the ideas and plans that passed through his brain.
After firmly founding the new Empire, he journeyed into Piedmont,
thence to Milan for his coronation as King of Italy, and finally to
Genoa. In this absence of three months from Paris (April-July) many
lengthy letters to Decres attest the alternations of his hopes and
fears. He now keeps the possibility of failure always before him: his
letters no longer breathe the crude confidence of 1803: and while
facing the chances of failure in the West Indies, his thoughts swing
back to the Orient:

"According to all the news that I receive, five or six thousand men
in the [East] Indies would ruin the English Company. Supposing that
our [West] Indian expedition is not fully successful, and I cannot
reach the grand end which will demolish all the rest, I think we
must arrange the [East] Indian expedition for September. We have
now greater resources for it than some time ago."[332]

How tenacious is his will! He here recurs to the plan laid down before
Decaen sailed to the East Indies in March, 1803. Even the prospects of
a continental coalition fail to dispel that gorgeous dream. But amid
much that is visionary we may discern this element of practicality: in
case the blow against England misses the mark, Napoleon has provided
himself with a splendid alternative that will banish all thought of
failure.

It is needless to recount here the well-known details of Villeneuve's
voyage and Nelson's pursuit. The Toulon and Cadiz fleets got clear
away to the West Indies, and after a last glance towards the Orient,