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A tremendous crash followed his words, and the Vanguard was seen to pour a broadside into the Spartiate as before related. The men of the Majestic gazed eagerly at the Admiral's ship, which was almost enveloped in thick smoke as they passed ahead, but an order from Captain Westcott to be ready for action called the attention of every man on his duty.
WRANGEL. It was the doing of the element With which you fought, my lord! and not my merit, The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom: The sea and land, it seemed were not to serve One and the same. WALLENSTEIN You plucked the admiral's hat from off my head. WRANGEL. I come to place a diadem thereon. And where are your credentials Come you provided with full powers, sir general?
Vincent on the thirtieth day of the month, and despatched his secretary to Cadiz, with a letter to colonel Stanhope, the British minister at Madrid, desiring him to inform his most catholic majesty of the admiral's arrival in those parts, and lay before him this article of his instructions: "You are to make instances with both parties to cease from using any further acts of hostility: but in case the Spaniards do still insist, with their ships of war and forces, to attack the kingdom of Naples, or other the territories of the emperor in Italy, or to land in any part of Italy, which can only be with a design to invade the emperor's dominions, against whom only they have declared war by invading Sardinia; or, if they should endeavour to make themselves masters of the kingdom of Sicily, which must be with a design to invade the kingdom of Naples; in which case you are, with all your power, to hinder and obstruct the same.
"However, I hope that the son of my family solicitor would think it only proper to pay a certain amount of attention to the Admiral's niece, were she ever so obnoxious to him." Miss Smeardon made no audible reply, but her thoughts were to the effect that never was an obnoxious duty performed by any man with a better grace.
And yet she was the strongest supporter of the popular Pietro Zuccari the wealthy man by whose efforts the finances of Italy had been reëstablished after the war. After a long conference it was arranged that Madame and Lola should go to Rome and there watch the Admiral's movements, while I remained in Naples ever on the alert. Sometimes I became obsessed by the feeling that I was off the track.
In less than an hour the French were utterly defeated and cut to pieces. Bouillon escaped to Amiens with five hundred men; this was all that was left of the expedition. The horse of Villars was shot under him and the admiral's leg was broken as he fell.
In two minutes there is no longer any doubt; in three minutes the shapes of a squadron of battleships can be clearly seen; in five minutes Smith's practised eyes, now that he has descended, can distinguish the Imperturbable, flying the admiral's flag, among what to a landsman would appear to be a dozen exactly similar vessels.
In the Admiral's barge that took him to the "Northumberland" the ex-Emperor "appeared to be in perfect good humour," says Keith, "talking of Egypt, St. Helena, of my former name being Elphinstone, and many other subjects, and joking with the ladies about being seasick." In this firm matter-of-fact way did Napoleon accept the extraordinary change in his fortunes.
The admiral's brave words restored new life to the well-nigh exhausted crew; once more the pumps were worked vigorously, and the buckets were passed rapidly from below. At dawn the admiral himself was seen ascending the rigging. For a few minutes he remained at the masthead; then he waved his hat, and shouted, "Land! land!"
He then turned to where the admiral's ship lay aground and found that, to all appearance, she was in even a worse plight, as the rocks to leeward of her were above the water, and she was much more exposed, should bad weather come on.
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