deeming very unusual the comfortable mode in which the French admiral
directed the operations of the sailors.

About two hundred boats, counting gunboats and mortars, barges and
sloops, formed the line of defense, the shore and the forts bristling
with batteries. Some frigates advanced from the hostile line, and,
preceded by two or three brigs, ranged themselves in line of battle
before us and in reach of the cannon of our flotilla; and the combat
began. Balls flew in every direction. Nelson, who had promised the
destruction of the flotilla, re-enforced his line of battle with two
other lines of vessels and frigates; and thus placed en echelon, they
fought with a vastly superior force. For more than seven hours the sea,
covered with fire and smoke, offered to the entire population of Boulogne
the superb and frightful spectacle of a naval combat in which more than
eighteen hundred cannon were fired at the same time; but the genius of
Nelson could not avail against our sailors or soldiers. Admiral Bruix
was at his headquarters near the signal station, and from this position
directed the fight against Nelson, while drinking with his staff and some
ladies of Boulogne whom he had invited to dinner. The guests sang the
early victories of the First Consul, while the admiral, without leaving
the table, maneuvered the flotilla by means of the signals he ordered.
Nelson, eager to conquer, ordered all his naval forces to advance; but
the wind being in favor of the French, he was not able to keep the
promise he had made in London to burn our fleet, while on the contrary
many of his own boats were so greatly damaged, that Admiral Bruix, seeing
the English begin to retire, cried "Victory!" pouring out champagne for
his guests. The French flotilla suffered very little, while the enemy's
squadron was ruined by the steady fire, of our stationary batteries. On
that day the English learned that they could not possibly approach the
shore at Boulogne, which after this they named the Iron Coast (Cote de