present, not one of the enemy's fleet would have left Aboukir Bay. These four vessels, however, were all that escaped; and the victory was the most complete and glorious in the annals of naval history. Victory," said Nelson, "is not a name strong enough for such a scene;" he called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the line nine were taken and two burnt of the four frigates one was sunk, another, the Artemise, was burnt in a villanous manner by her captain, M. Estandlet, who having 10 fired a broadside at the Theseus, struck his colours, then set fire to the ship, and escaped with most of his crew to shore. The British loss, in killed and wounded, amounted to eight hundred and ninety-five. Westcott was the only captain who fell; three thousand one hundred and five of the French, including the wounded, were sent on shore by cartel, and five thousand two hundred and twenty-five perished.

As soon as the conquest was completed, Nelson 20 sent orders through the fleet, to return thanksgiving in every ship for the victory with which Almighty God had blessed his majesty's arms. The French at Rosetta, who with miserable fear beheld the engagement, were at a loss to understand the stillness of the fleet during the performance of this solemn duty; but it seemed to affect many of the prisoners, officers as well as men and graceless and godless as the officers were, some of them remarked, that it was no 30 wonder such order was preserved in the British

C

navy, when the minds of our men could be impressed with such sentiments after so great a victory, and at a moment of such confusion.-The French at Rosetta, seeing their four ships sail out of the bay unmolested, endeavoured to persuade themselves that they were in possession of the place of battle. But it was in vain thus to attempt, against their own secret and certain conviction, to deceive themselves: and even if 10 they could have succeeded in this, the bonfires which the Arabs kindled along the whole coast, and over the country, for the three following nights, would soon have undeceived them. Thousands of Arabs and Egyptians lined the shore, and covered the house tops during the action, rejoicing in the destruction which had overtaken their invaders. Long after the battle, innumerable bodies were seen floating about the bay, in spite of all the exertions which were made 20 to sink them, as well from fear of pestilence, as from the loathing and horror which the sight occasioned. Great numbers were cast up upon the Isle of Bekier, (Nelson's Island, as it has since been called,) and our sailors raised mounds of sand over them. Even after an interval of nearly three years Dr. Clarke saw them, and assisted in interring heaps of human bodies, which, having been thrown up by the sea, where there were no jackals to devour them, presented a 30 sight loathsome to humanity. The shore, for an extent of four leagues, was covered with wreck;

and the Arabs found employment for many days in burning on the beach the fragments which were cast up, for the sake of the iron.1 Part of the Orient's main-mast was picked up by the Swiftsure. Capt. Hallowell ordered his carpenter to make a coffin of it; the iron, as well as the wood, was taken from the wreck of the same ship: it was finished as well and handsomely as the workman's skill and materials would permit ; and Hallowell then sent it to the admiral with 10 the following letter." Sir, I have taken the liberty of presenting you a coffin made from the main-mast of l'Orient, that when you have finished your military career in this world, you may be buried in one of your trophies. But that that period may be far distant is the earnest wish of your sincere friend, Benjamin Hallowell."-An offering so strange, and yet so suited to the occasion, was received by Nelson in the spirit with which it was sent. As if he felt it good for 20 him, now that he was at the summit of his wishes, to have death before his eyes, he ordered the coffin to be placed upright in his cabin. Such a piece of furniture, however, was more suitable to his own feelings than to those of his guests and attendants; and an old favourite servant entreated him so earnestly to let it be removed, that at

1 During his long subsequent cruise off Alexandria, Capt. Hallowell kept his crew employed and amused in fishing up the small anchors in the road, which, with the iron found on the masts, was afterwards sold at Rhodes, and the produce applied to purchase vegetables and tobacco for the ship's company.

length he consented to have the coffin carried below; but he gave strict orders that it should be safely stowed, and reserved for the purpose for which its brave and worthy donor had designed it.

The victory was complete; but Nelson could not pursue it as he would have done, for want of means. Had he been provided with small craft, nothing could have prevented the destruction of the storeships and transports in the port of 10 Alexandria: four bomb-vessels would at that time have burnt the whole in a few hours. "Were I to die this moment," said he in his despatches to the admiralty, "want of frigates would be found stamped on my heart! No words of mine can express what I have suffered, and am suffering, for want of them." He had also to bear up against great bodily suffering: the blow had so shaken his head, that from its constant and violent aching, and the perpetual 20 sickness which accompanied the pain, he could scarcely persuade himself that the skull was not fractured. Had it not been for Trowbridge, Ball, Hood, and Hallowell, he declared that he should have sunk under the fatigue of refitting the squadron. "All," he said, "had done well; but these officers were his supporters."

III.

COPENHAGEN.

FOR his great victory in Egypt Nelson was made Baron Nelson of the Nile, and by the King of Naples Duke of Bronté in Sicily. In March, 1801, he was sent under the command of Sir Hyde Parker to break up the Northern League, which the three Baltic powers, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, were forming against England. This he succeeded in doing by his victory at Copenhagen.

REAT actions, whether military or naval, have generally given celebrity to the scenes from whence they are denominated; and thus 10 petty villages, and capes and bays, known only to the coasting trader, become associated with mighty deeds, and their names are made conspicuous in the history of the world. Here, however, the scene was every way worthy of the drama. The political importance of the Sound is such, that grand objects are not needed there to impress the imagination; yet is the channel full of grand and interesting objects, both of art and nature. This passage, which 20 Denmark had so long considered as the key of