their great leader, and with anxious impatience to follow him to the
approaching battle. The signal to prepare for action had been made
early in the evening. All the captains retired to their respective
ships, Riou excepted, who with Lord Nelson and Foley arranged the
Order of Battle, and those instructions that were to be issued to each
ship on the succeeding day. These three officers retired between nine
and ten to the after-cabin, and drew up those Orders that have been
generally published, and which ought to be referred to as the best
proof of the arduous nature of the enterprise in which the fleet was
about to be engaged.

"From the previous fatigue of this day, and of the two preceding, Lord
Nelson was so much exhausted while dictating his instructions, that it
was recommended to him by us all, and, indeed, insisted upon by his
old servant, Allen, who assumed much command on these occasions, that
he should go to his cot. It was placed on the floor, but from it he
still continued to dictate. Captain Hardy returned about eleven. He
had rowed as far as the leading ship of the enemy; sounding round her,
and using a pole when he was apprehensive of being heard. He reported
the practicability of the Channel, and the depth of water up to the
ships of the enemy's line. Had we abided by this report, in lieu of
confiding in our Masters and Pilots, we should have acted better. The
Orders were completed about one o'clock, when half a dozen clerks in
the foremost cabin proceeded to transcribe them. Lord Nelson's
impatience again showed itself; for instead of sleeping undisturbedly,
as he might have done, he was every half hour calling from his cot to
these clerks to hasten their work, for that the wind was becoming
fair: he was constantly receiving a report of this during the night."
It was characteristic of the fortune of the "heaven-born" admiral,
that the wind which had been fair the day before to take him south,