canvas above, a double line of curving batteries below, hugged the Middle Ground too closely, and grounded too; and the "Russell," following close after her, went ashore in the same manner, with its jibboom almost touching the "Bellona's" taffrail. Onefourth of Nelson's force was thus practically out of the fight before a British gun was fired. These were the ships, too, intended to sail past the whole Danish line and engage the Three-Crown Batteries. As they were hors de combat, the frigates of the squadron, under Riou-"the gallant, good Riou" of Campbell's noble lineshad to take the place of the seventy-fours.

Meanwhile, Nelson, in the "Elephant," came following hard on the ill-fated "Russell." Nelson's orders were that each ship should pass her leader on the starboard side, and had he acted on his own orders, Nelson too would have grounded, with every ship that followed him. The interval betwixt each ship was so narrow that decision had to be instant; and Nelson, judging the water to the larboard of the "Russell" to be deeper, put his helm a-starboard, and so shot past the "Russell" on its larboard beam into the true channel, the whole line following his example. That sudden whirl to starboard of the flagship's helm-a flash of brilliant seamanship saved the battle.

Ship after ship shot past, and anchored, by a cable astern, in its assigned position. The sullen thunder of the guns rolled from end to end of the long line, the flash of the artillery ran in a dance of flame along the mile and a half of batteries, and some two thousand pieces of artillery, most of them of the heaviest caliber, filled the long Sound with the roar of battle. Nelson loved close fighting, and he anchored within a cable's length of the Danish flagship, the pilots refusing to carry the ship nearer on account of the shallow depth, and the average distance of the hostile lines was less than a hundred fathoms. The cannonade raged, deep-voiced, unbroken, and terrible, for three hours. "Warm work," said Nelson, as it seemed to deepen in fury and volume, "but, mark you, I would not be elsewhere for thousands." The carnage was terrific. Twice the Danish flagship took fire, and out of a crew of three hundred and thirty-six no fewer than two hundred and seventy were dead or wounded. Two of the Danish prams drifted

from the line, mere wrecks, with cordage in rags, bulwarks riddled, guns dismounted, and decks veritable shambles.

The battle, it must be remembered, raged within easy sight of the city, and roofs and church towers were crowded with spectators. They could see nothing but a low-lying continent of whirling smoke, shaken with the tumult of battle, and scored perpetually, in crimson bars, with the flame of the guns. Above the drifting smoke towered the tops of the British seventy-fours, stately and threatening. The southeast wind presently drove the smoke over the city, and beneath that inky roof, as under the gloom of an eclipse, the crowds of Copenhagen, white-faced with excitement, watched the Homeric fight, in which their sons, and brothers, and husbands were perishing.

Nothing could surpass the courage of the Danes. Fresh crews marched fiercely to the floating batteries as these threatened to grow silent by mere slaughter, and, on decks crimson and slippery with the blood of their predecessors, took up the fight. Again and again, after a Danish ship had struck from mere exhaustion, it was manned afresh from the shore, and the fight renewed. The very youngest officer in the Danish navy was a lad of seventeen named Villemoes. He commanded a tiny floating battery of six guns, manned by twenty-four men, and he managed to bring it under the very counter of Nelson's flagship, and fired his guns pointblank into its huge wooden sides. He stuck to his work until the British marines shot down every man of his tiny crew except four. After the battle Nelson begged that young Villemoes might be introduced to him, and told the Danish Crown Prince that a boy so gallant ought to be made an admiral. "If I were to make all my brave officers admirals," was the reply, "I should have no captains or lieutenants left."

The terrific nature of the British fire, as well as the stubborn- { ness of Danish courage, may be judged from the fact that most of the prizes taken in the fight were so absolutely riddled with shot as to have to be destroyed. Foley, who led the van at the battle of the Nile, was Nelson's flag-captain in the "Elephant," and he declared he burned fifty more barrels of powder in the four hours' furious cannonade at Copenhagen than he did during the long

night struggle at the Nile! The fire of the Danes, it may be added, was almost as obstinate and deadly. The "Monarch," for example, had no fewer than two hundred and ten of its crew lying dead or wounded on its decks. At one o'clock Sir Hyde Parker, who was watching the struggle with a squadron of eight of his heaviest ships from the offing, hoisted a signal to discontinue the engagement. Then came the incident which every boy remembers.

The signal-lieutenant of the "Elephant" reported that the admiral had thrown out No. 39, the signal to discontinue the fight. Nelson was pacing his quarter-deck fiercely, and took no notice of the report. The signal-officer met him at the next turn, and asked if he should repeat the signal. Nelson's reply was to ask if his own signal for close action was still hoisted. "Yes," said the officer. "Mind you keep it so," said Nelson. Nelson continued to tramp his quarter-deck, the thunder of the battle all about him, his ship reeling to the recoil of its own guns. The stump of his lost arm jerked angrily to and fro, a sure sign of excitement with him. "Leave off action!" he said to his lieutenant; "I'm hanged if I do." "You know, Foley," he said, turning to his captain, "I've only one eye; I've a right to be blind sometimes." And then putting the glass to his blind eye, he exclaimed, "I really do not see the signal!" He dismissed the incident by saying, "D—the signal! Keep mine for closer action flying!"

As a matter of fact, Parker had hoisted the signal only to give Nelson the opportunity for withdrawing from the fight if he wished. The signal had one disastrous result-the little cluster of frigates and sloops engaged with the Three-Crown Batteries obeyed it and hauled off. As the "Amazon," Riou's ship, ceased to fire, the smoke lifted, and the Danish battery got her in full sight, and smote her with deadly effect. Riou himself, heartbroken with having to abandon the fight, had just exclaimed, "What will Nelson think of us!" when a chain-shot cut him in two, and with him a sailor with something of Nelson's own genius for battle perished.

By two o'clock the Danish fire began to slacken. One-half the line was a mere chain of wrecks; some of the floating batteries had sunk; the flagship was a mass of flames. Nelson at this point sent his boat ashore with a flag of truce, and a letter to the Prince

Regent. The letter was addressed, "To the Danes, the brothers of Englishmen." If the fire continued from the Danish side, Nelson said he would be compelled to set on fire all the floating batteries he had taken, "without being able to save the brave Danes who had defended them." Somebody offered Nelson, when he ad written the letter, a wafer with which to close it. "This,” said Nelson, "is no time to appear hurried or informal," and he insisted on the letter being carefully sealed with wax. The Crown Prince proposed an armistice. Nelson, with great shrewdness, referred the proposal to his admiral lying four miles off in the "London," foreseeing that the long pull out and back would give him time to get his own crippled ships clear of the shoals, and past the Three-Crown Batteries into the open channel beyond-the only course the wind made possible; and this was exactly what happened. Nelson, it is clear, was a shrewd diplomatist as well as a great sailor:

The night was coming on black with the threat of tempest; the Danish flagship had just blown up; but the white flag of truce was flying, and the British toiled, as fiercely as they had fought, to float their stranded ships and take possession of their shattered prizes. Of these, only one was found capable of being sufficiently repaired to be taken to Portsmouth. On the 4th Nelson himself landed and visited the Crown Prince, and a four months' truce was agreed upon. News came at that moment of the assassination of Paul I., and the League of Armed Neutrality-the device by which Napoleon hoped to overthrow the naval power of Great Britain-vanished into space.

THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ

THE DEFEAT OF THE EMPERORS OF AUSTRIA AND OF RUSSIA BY THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE

B

A. D. 1805

ETWEEN this great battle and that of Marengo several

things occurred. Out of General Bonaparte had emerged Napoleon, out of the First Consul the Emperor of France. From the eminence of his high throne he surveyed England and prepared to attack her. The result, which was Trafalgar, is told in the next chapter. But, meanwhile, Austria, supported by Russia, renewed the war which it had lost. Thereupon Napoleon marched into Germany, took Vienna, and vanquished not only the Austrians, but the Russians too.

The battle of Austerlitz took place on the 2d of December, 1805. Just previously-after the entry and occupation of Vienna-Napoleon had drawn back to Brünn, into a position admirably well chosen for fighting. This movement was misunderstood by the Russians. About the czar there was but one cry. Napoleon is falling back, it is said; he is in full retreat; we must rush upon him and overwhelm him!

The French soldiers, who were not-says Thiers-deficient in intelligence, perceived, on their part, clearly enough that they should have to do with the Russians, and their joy was extreme. Preparations were made on both sides for a decisive engagement. Thiers continues:

Napoleon, with that military tact which he had received from Nature, and which he had so greatly improved by experience, had Q-VOL. II. (507)