For the total loss sustained by the French, in this to them most disastrous engagement, we must trust to conjecture, unless we take the round number which they themselves have published. That number is 3000 for the killed and mortally wounded alone ; * a full half of which loss fell to the share of the seven captured ships. Hence, reckoning the slightly, wounded on board the 19 returned ships at 500, we may estimate the total loss of the French, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, at 7000 men.

As, when the action commenced, the French fleet was, within one ship, numerically equal to the British fleet opposed to it, we shall, without again entering into the particulars of the force on each side, consider the two fleets to have been fairly matched.

Having, to the best of our ability, presented a general view of the collective operations of the two fleets in this celebrated battle, we will now endeavour to give a description of the individual part performed by each British ship engaged in it. Difficult as the task may be, it is yet due to the officers and men, who shared with the gallant chief the fatigue and perils of the day, that the attempt should be made. Our attention will be directed to the ships, according to the order in which they successively ranked in the line.

The Cæsar, as the van or leading ship, claims our first attention. In bearing down to engage, the Cæsar appears to have dropped a little astern, and, as proved by Captain Molloy's own witnesses at the court-martial subsequently held upon him, to have brought to at a greater distance to windward, namely, upwards of 500 yards, than was consistent with the support she owed to her own fleet, and the impression which so formidable a two-decker was calculated to make upon the fleet of the enemy. It may naturally be asked, Why bring to to windward, when his admiral had signalled that he should pass through the enemy's line and engage to leeward? The fact is, the signal was not compulsory on any captain. It contained a qualifying N. B. in the following words: "The different captains and commanders, not being able to effect the specified intention in either case (the signal applying to the passage through a line to windward or to leeward), are at liberty to act as circumstances require :" a negativing, or, at least, neutralizing nota-bene, which, very properly, was omitted in the next new code of signals.

Captain Molloy's preference of the windward to the leeward mode of attack seems to have rested on a belief that had he run down under the stern of the enemy's van-ship, the Cæsar's

* Victoires et Conquétes, tome iii., p. 28.