Battle off Cape Finisterre.
But here the good fortune of the French ended, and a combination of chance and skill saved England. So slow was the Franco-Spanish fleet, and so bad its seamanship, that Nelson gained many days upon them. He luckily chanced upon a ship that had seen them turn back, hastily shifted his own course to follow, and sent to England to warn the Lords of the Admiralty that Villeneuve might be expected off Brest. With most commendable haste, a squadron under Admiral Calder was organized, to encounter Villeneuve before he could reach Europe. It sailed out just in time to meet him as he got into the Bay of Biscay, and fought him off Cape Finisterre. Villeneuve was not a man of nerve, and though Calder's squadron was far inferior to his own, he turned aside after an indecisive battle. So Napoleon heard in August, 1805, to his disgust and wild anger, that the fleet which was to enable him to cross the Channel, had not appeared off Brest, but had dropped into Ferrol to refit after the fight with Calder.
Villeneuve retires to Cadiz.—Return of Nelson.
Then to make things yet worse, Villeneuve sailed from Ferrol not for Brest, but for Cadiz, to strengthen himself yet further, with Spanish reinforcements. This delay enabled the eager Nelson to arrive in European waters, and at the critical moment he and Calder, with twenty-eight ships, lay outside Cadiz, while the thirty-five Franco-Spanish vessels were within its harbour. The Emperor's plan was therefore wrecked, and no chance remained of the longed-for fleet sailing up the Channel to meet the 150,000 men who sat idly waiting for it at Boulogne.
Napoleon abandons the plan of invasion.
Seeing his scheme shattered, while at the same time rumours of the Austro-Russian coalition had reached him, Napoleon dropped his long-cherished invasion scheme. He suddenly turned his back on the sea, and, declaring war on his continental enemies before they were ready for him, came rushing across France toward Germany with incredible speed. But before he started he sent his unfortunate admiral at Cadiz a bitter letter, in which he taunted him with cowardice for having turned away from Brest, and ruined the plan for invading England. Stung to the heart by the imputation of want of courage, Villeneuve came out of Cadiz to fight Nelson, in order to show that he was not afraid, not in order to secure any useful end, for the time for that was over.
Battle of Trafalgar.
Off Cape Trafalgar twenty-seven English ships met the thirty-three allied vessels, and at the great battle of that name completely destroyed Villeneuve's fleet. Nelson's splendid naval tactics easily compensated for the disparity of numbers. Seeing the enemy lying before him in a long line, he formed his own ships into two columns and swooped down on the centre of the Franco-Spanish Armada. He cut the enemy in two, and destroyed their midmost ships ere the wings could come up. Of the thirty-three hostile vessels nineteen were taken and one burnt, but in the moment of success, the great admiral fell; he had led the attacking column in his own ship, the Victory, and, pushing into the thickest of the enemy, was laid low by a musket-ball ere the fight was half over. But he lived long enough to hear that the day was won, and died contented (October 21, 1805). In her grief for Nelson, England half forgot her joy at the most decisive naval triumph that we had ever gained, for Napoleon was driven to own himself impotent at sea, and the spirits of the French seamen were so broken that they never dared again to put out to sea, save in small numbers for secret and hurried cruises. For the future the Emperor determined to strike at English commerce by decrees and embargos, not to attack England herself by armed force.
Ulm and Austerlitz.—End of the "Holy Roman Empire."