"'It goes over her.'

"'Beat to quarters, and fire coolly and deliberately at her masts and
yards.'

"Le Généreux at this moment opened her fire on us; and, as a shot
passed through the mizen stay-sail, Lord Nelson, patting one of the
youngsters on the head, asked him jocularly how he relished the music;
and observing something like alarm depicted on his countenance,
consoled him with the information, that Charles XII. ran away from the
first shot he heard, though afterwards he was called 'The Great,' and
deservedly, from his bravery. 'I, therefore,' said Lord Nelson, 'hope
much from you in future.'

"Here the Northumberland opened her fire, and down came the
tri-colored ensign, amidst the thunder of our united cannon."[4]

According to Keith, Nelson "on this occasion, as on all others,
conducted himself with skill, and great address, in comprehending my
signals, which the state of the weather led me greatly to suspect."
Nelson's account to Hamilton was, "By leaving my admiral without
signal, for which _I may be broke_, I took these French villains." "I
have wrote to Lord Spencer," he tells his eldest brother, "and have
sent him my journal, to show that the Généreux was taken by me, and my
plan--that my quitting Lord Keith was at my own risk, and for which,
if I had not succeeded, I might have been broke. The way he went, the
Généreux never could have been taken." In a letter to Lord Minto he
attributed his success to his knowledge of all the local conditions,
acquired by seven years' experience. In his anxiety to make this