Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug 1911-Jan 1912)

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THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 89 PLANNING THE BATTLE mine, maybe, steered by indomitable bronzed men, yet guided in dreams by the same sweet picture, which he had grasped to hold a while and I had thrown away. ' * You must know, ' ' he had resumed, "that the great events to which we are now come upon, were the outcome directly of those that had gone before. The First Consul's fleets, tho outnumbering ours, were assembled in the ports of Toulon, Brest and Rochefort. The crafty fox, however, had quartered his grand army at Boulogne, where he held it in leash until the decisive moment should come — whether by luck or cunning — to ferry it across the Straits and so overwhelm England. Everything was primed and right as a trivet; the stores drawn up on the shore, the transports in readiness, the troops drilled to quick embarkment. Only two things stood in his way, our ceaseless patrolling of the channel and the vice-admiral's muzzling of his fleet in Toulon. Had we given him control of the Straits for a few brief days his horde would have been upon us. Bonaparte had contemptuously called these protecting waters 'the wet ditch that lay around England.' "It was given to no man to foresee the wiles and machinations of the Frenchman: his cunning movements were worked out with the skill of a subtle player at chess. So thought our Admiral of the White, as he ploughed ever and again the waters before Toulon. His one unerring thought was some day — God willing — to come upon the French fleet and to destroy it. His counter moves were ever a simple attempt to close and grapple with his elusive antagonist. "On a certain night in March, the nor 'east wind being favorable, the French fleet slipped out of Toulon to make a start of that long, misleading voyage to the West Indies, which so baffled our strategists. ' ' What with changing winds, Villeneuve had shook off our scouting frigates in the darkness, and, not knowing his destination, Nelson was in many minds as to his whereabouts.