VIII. WELLINGTON AND NELSON'S INTERVIEW. "The news of Sir Robert Calder's action had just been received, and this naturally formed a principal topic of their discourse. Sir A. Wellesley said to Lord Nelson, This measure of success wont do nowa-days, for your Lordship has taught the public to expect something more brilliant. Shortly after this Lord Nelson left the waiting-room, evidently to find out who his new friend was, and, returning in a minute, renewed the conversation on a fresh footing. Nelson had at that time some project of occupying Sardinia, and he wished Sir Arthur to take charge of the troops on the occasion. But he replied that he would rather not-that he had just returned from India—in short, he did not enter into that view." I IX. SPANISH AND FRENCH ACCOUNTS OF THE FLEETS AT TRAFALGAR. SPANISH ACCOUNT. Victory, entirely dismasted in act of cutting the line; taken in tow by frigate; foundered off Gibraltar. Prince of Wales 98, sunk in action. (Not in the battle.) Britannia 98, sunk in action. Dreadnought 98, hull riddled with balls. Temeraire 98, without any masts. Neptune 98, and Prince 98, both sunk, and masts of the first and rudder off; found on the Playa de Conil. Queen 98, in Gibraltar; much damaged. (Not in the battle.) Donegal 80, dismasted on the coast of Barbary. (Not in the battle.) Canopus 80, dismasted; alongside of pontoons in Gibraltar. (Not in the battle.) Tigre 80, dismasted; sank on the Playa of Santa Maria. (Not in the battle.) Tonant 80, burnt by fleet five or six leagues off Cadiz. Spencer 74, towed by frigate into Gibraltar. (Not in the battle.) Review of Barrow's "Howe," Edinburgh Review, July, 1838, p. 322. Wellington may have so spoken, but if he did it is strange that he never mentioned it to Mr. Croker, to whom he related the incident at Strathfieldsaye, March 25, 1834. See author's "Life of Wellington," p. 8. APPENDICES. Le Spartiate 74, sunk after action. Defence 74, without mainmast in Gibraltar. Swiftsure 74, without mainmast at Gibraltar. Leviathan, under sail; lost topmast. Zealous 74, hull damaged; in Gibraltar. (Not in the battle.) 453 Revenge 74, and Achille 74, in Gibraltar; second without topsailyard. Minotaur 74, and Colossus 74, ran ashore on coast of Conil and Santa Maria. Mars 74, and Bellerophon 74, under sail. Polypheme 74, under sail, without mizenmast. Esparciata 74, sunk after battle on coast of Rota. Carnatic 74, with jury masts; under sail. (Not in the battle.) Ships that joined the Fleet at 5 p.m. The Duke of York 90, under sail. (No such ship in the navy.) Admiral Beckerton was wounded at the beginning of the action, and died three hours after it was ended. A one-hundred-gun ship, three frigates, and one sloop have sailed from Gibraltar to the westward, to protect the vessels which have grounded or were dismasted. This account is taken from the despatch from Gibraltar of Admiral Collingwood, and from those given by those ships who have come into port. It is to be expected that the English would not exaggerate their losses, but they are much greater than they chose to represent. But it is sufficiently evident that their fleet is destroyed, and some accounts from Cadiz state their loss to be seven or eight thousand men -a loss which England can with difficulty repair. FRENCH LIST OF BRITISH SHIPS IN ACTION. Victory, Le Prince de Galles,* Le Britannia, Le Neptune et Le Prince, Le Driognaute, Le Temeraire, Le Queen,* Le Canopus, Le Donegal,* Le Tigre,* Le Tonant, Le Spencer,* Le Spartiate, Le Defens, Le Swiftsure, La Reine, Le Leviathan, Le Zele,* Le Conquerant, La Revanche et L'Achille, Le Colossus et Le Minotore, Le Mars, Bellerophon et Le Polyphemus, Le Carne (query Carnatic), Hardron, L'Effronte (query Defiance). Joined at 5 p.m. Le Duc de York,† Le Royal Souverain, Le Legar,† Le Relampayo,+ L'Achille (query Eagle"). The ships marked were not in the action. No such ships as those in the British navy. A FURTHER SPANISH ACCOUNT OF THE LOSSES OF THE BRITISH FIRST DIVISION.-Admiral Nelson. Victory-killed: 2 captains, I rear-admiral, 11 officers; wounded, 7 officers. Seamen-killed 500, drowned 96, wounded 209. Britannia, dismasted and sunk by Santissima Trinadada-killed: 7 officers, wounded 11. Sailors killed 359, drowned 200, wounded, 132. Prince 98, sunk in action by Spanish ship Argonaute and the French L'Aigle – killed 5 officers, wounded 2. : Seamen killed 125, drowned 121, wounded 321. Total in First Division-killed and wounded: Admirals 2, captains 9; officers killed 53, wounded 48. Seamen-killed 2,020, drowned 637, wounded 1,573. SECOND DIVISION.-Admiral Collingwood. Total-killed: captains5, officers 26, seamen 607, drowned 285. Wounded officers 27, seamen 740. : THIRD DIVISION. Vice-Admiral Calder. Killed: captains 5, officers 26; wounded: officers 12. Seamen killed 1,044, wounded 278. FOURTH DIVISION. Rear-Admiral Killed captains 5, officers 29, seamen 1,705, drowned 242. Wounded: seamen and soldiers 452. FIFTH DIVISION (arrived in afternoon). Rear-Admiral Louis. Killed captains 3, officers 6, seamen 158. Wounded: seamen 176, officers 9. SIXTH DIVISION.-Joined the fleet on the morning of the 22nd, and after manning part of it, directed its course to Malta, having vessels under convoy. Killed: captains 2, officers 12, seamen 900; these all in the Royal Sovereign, wrecked off Cadiz. Grand total. Killed admirals 2, captains 26, seamen 4,394, drowned 2,064. Wounded officers 109, seamen 3,244; total, :: 10,471. Among the not engaged must be reckoned the Aboukir, which did not leave Gibraltar until after the battle, 13 frigates, 5 brigs, and 2 sloops also formed part of the fleet. Result sank 7, shipwrecked 3, burnt 1, condemned 8, repairable II, not engaged 5-35.1 X. WHO KILLED NELSON ? That in the confusion of such a battle as that of Trafalgar it is not surprising that it should not have been known who fired the fatal shot from which Nelson died. Some time after the battle, however, a French conscript, of the name of Guillemard, put forth his claim to have been the party, and this was his story, as told by himself :— "He was on board Admiral Villeneuve's ship, the Redoubtable, which directly faced the Victory. All the topmen of the Redoubtable had been killed, and two sailors and four soldiers-of whom Guillemard was one-were ordered to occupy the posts of those who had fallen in the tops. While they were going aloft the ball and grape showered around them striking the masts and yards and cutting the rigging to pieces." Omitting his imaginative description of the close conflict which he says was carried on between the English and French marksmen from the tops of their respective ships (a very unlikely act on the part of the English, as Nelson was always against having marksmen in the tops for fear of setting fire to the sails), we continue his narrative : "It was at this juncture," said Guillemard, "that he perceived the officer covered with orders on the poop of the English vessel. Guillemard observed that the officer had only one arm, and having often heard Nelson's personal appearance described he concluded that this must be the English admiral. At the moment when his attention was directed towards the officer several of the English sailors lay dead upon the poop, the heat of the conflict not allowing even time to throw them overboard. Nelson cast a pitying glance on the brave men under him, who with their life-blood were procuring glory for Old England. The French soldier on the tops of the Redoubtable took aim and fired; then through the cloud of smoke Guillemard saw a group of persons gathering anxiously round the officer who had fallen. But the death of Nelson did not stop the fighting, indeed, after the hero had breathed his last it waxed hotter and more furious. Twenty thousand prisoners were taken, and by this victory, which cost Nelson his life, Napoleon's projects against England were blown to the winds." If there is any truth in this story, it is curious that Guillemard was not decorated by Napoleon, or, as far as is known, ever obtained any promotion or distinction in the French service. His countrymen evidently did not believe in it. It is a tradition in the service that after Nelson was shot, the man who fired the fatal shot was marked out by a midshipman of the Victory as he put his head over the barricade of the top, fired at by him, and seen to fall back dead. XI. STIGAND TO THE REPORT OF CONSUL WILLIAM (PALERMO, Dec. 14, 1889.) After briefly relating the early history of the estate of Bronte and its descent to the present possessor, and describing the Castello de Maniace and its Nelsonian treasures, Mr. Stigand gives the following account of the past condition of the property : "When the estate was erected into a duchy and handed over to Nelson, it was in a bare and wretched plight. It was forty miles distant from any carriageable road, and no proprietor had lived on it for two hundred years. After the flight of the last monastic proprietors, from 1693 to 1799, the property was in the hands of caretakers. Reforms and improvements were commenced on the estate soon after Nelson received it, but little was done on a grand scale until the succession of the present duke in 1868. No members of the family had then visited the place for forty years. Roads were immediately commenced, and Mr. Hood had the satisfaction of being the first to drive to Maniace in 1873, and the mileage of roads on the property has now increased to twelve miles. Farmhouses have been repaired and built, several bridges over torrents at times impassable erected, and the Castello itself restored and enlarged, not only to make a suitable dwelling-house, according to English notions, but also to allow for storage of grain and wine, and for stabling, while the |