LORD HORATIO NELSON 281 ployed in the blockade of Cadiz. He was afterward despatched on an expedition against Teneriffe, which was defeated with considerable loss to the assailants. The admiral himself lost his right arm, and was obliged to return to England, where he languished more than four months before the cure of his wound was completed. His services were rewarded by a pension of ;^ 1,000. On this occa- sion he was" required by official forms to present a memorial of the services in which he had been engaged ; and as our brief account can convey no notion of the constant activity of his early life, we quote the abstract of this paper given by Mr. Southey. " It stated that he had been in four actions with the fleets of the enemy, and in three actions with boats employed in cutting out of harbor, in destroying vessels, and in taking three towns ; he had served on shore with the army four months, and commanded the batteries at the sieges of Bastia and Calvi ; he had assisted at the capture of seven sail of the line, six frigates, foui corvettes, and eleven privateers ; taken and destroyed near fifty sail of merchant vessels, and actually been engaged against the enemy upward of a hundred and twenty times.; in which service he had lost his right eye and right arm, and been severely wounded and bruised in his body." Early in 1 798 Nelson went out in the Vanguard to rejoin Lord St. Vincent off Cadiz. He was immediately despatched with a squadron into the Mediter- ranean, to watch an armament known to be fitting out at Toulon, the destination of which excited much anxiety. It sailed May 20th, attacked and took Malta, and then proceeded, as Nelson supposed, to Egypt. Strengthened by a power- ful reinforcement, he made all sail for Alexandria ; but there no enemy had been seen or heard of. He returned in haste along the north coast of the Mediter- ranean to Sicily, refreshed the fleet, and again sailed to the eastward. On near- ing Alexandria the second time, August ist, he had the pleasure of seeing the object of his toilsome cruise moored in Aboukir Bay, in line of battla. It ap- peared afterward that the two fleets must have crossed each other on the night of June 22d. The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates ; the British of the same number of ships of the line, and one fifty-gun ship. In num- ber of guns and men the French had a decided superiority. It was evening be- fore the British fleet came up. The battle began at half-past six; night closed in at seven, and the struggle was continued through the darkness a magnificent and awful spectacle to thousands who watched the engagement with eager anxi- ety. Victory was not long doubtful. The first two ships of the French line were dismasted in a quarter of an hour ; the third, fourth, and fifth were taken by half-past eight ; about ten, the L'Orient, Admiral Bruey's flagship, blew up. By daybreak the two rear ships, which had not been engaged, cut their cables and stood out to sea, in company with two frigates, leaving nine ships of the line in the hands of the British, who were too much crippled to engage in pursuit. Two ships of the line and two frigates were burnt or sunk. Three out of the four ships which escaped were subsequently taken ; and thus, of the whole armament, only a single frigate returned to France.
