Hardy knelt down and kissed his cheek, and Nelson said, 'Now I am satisfied! Thank God I have done my duty.' These words he kept faintly repeating again and again until he died—just four hours and three-quarters after he had received his wound.
The victory of Trafalgar was complete. The fleets of France and Spain were not merely defeated, but completely shattered, and England had no longer any cause to dread a foreign invasion.
But great as were the rejoicings over this victory, the death of Nelson cast such gloom over the whole country that the rejoicings were said to be 'without joy.'
A fitting monument to Britain's greatest Admiral was erected some years later in Trafalgar Square, London. A statue of Nelson, in cocked hat and with empty right sleeve, stands towering aloft at a height of one hundred and forty-five feet; at the base crouch Landseer's four majestic lions, watchful as he who for so many years maintained for Britain the supremacy of the sea.
WELCOME TO THE FIRST FIRE.
he north wind is sighing,
The daylight is dying,
The sun has gone down, and the night shadows fall;
But see, lightly dancing,
And peeping, and glancing,
The firelight is climbing our nursery wall.
Then greet this new-comer
Who left us all summer,
To hide in old cinders while weather was warm;
Yet must have been near us,
For now, just to cheer us,
He comes back at once with the winter and storm.
Oh, ruddy flames leaping,
Say, where were you sleeping?
In some land of faery where fires never die,
And wind always freezes?
Or heard you the breezes
That fanned our sweet roses through June and July?