[Footnote 88: Says the _Observer_ for the 18th of December: 'The motto of Admiral Cornwallis seems to be that from Dryden: "Endure and Conquer." We could dwell upon this theme for ever. Others have simply taught the British Navy (apt scholars enough) to triumph. He has first instructed them in manly perseverance and endurance so opposite to the impetuosity of their natures. We could name the periods, and these too frequently occurring, when a damaged yard or topmast was a sufficient excuse for a good fortnight in port, and this with officers of acknowledged gallantry. What a contrast have we now! The hardy veteran deserves an Order of Merit to be invented on purpose for him.' Without detracting from the admiral's merits this is a little hard on some of Cornwallis's predecessors--on Hawke, for instance, who in the Seven Years' War blockaded Brest throughout 'one of the worst winters on record.' Says Horace Walpole, writing on the 14th of January 1760: 'What milksops the Marlboroughs and Turennes, the Blakes and the Van Tromps appear now, who whipped into winter quarters the moment their noses looked blue. There is Hawke in the Bay weathering _this_ winter, after conquering in a storm.'] [Footnote 89: The capture of Admiral Villeneuve's frigate the _Didon_, sent out on a mission of the highest importance, by the British frigate _Phoenix_, prevented Villeneuve's junction with another French fleet cruising in the Bay of Biscay. Hearing nothing of his colleague, Villeneuve, after leaving Ferrol, became nervous and turned south, instead of pushing on across the Bay for Brest as Napoleon expected him to do.] [Footnote 90: Wrote Collingwood to his wife on the 21st of August: 'I have very little time to write to you, but must tell you what a squeeze we were like to have got yesterday. While we were cruising off the town, down came the combined fleet of thirty-three sail of men-of-war: we were only three poor things, with a frigate and a bomb, and drew off towards the Straits, not very ambitious, as you may suppose, to try our strength against such odds. They followed us as we retired, with sixteen large ships; but on our approaching the Straits they left us, and joined their friends in Cadiz, where they are fitting and replenishing their provisions. We, in our turn, followed them back, and to-day have been looking into Cadiz, where their fleet is now as thick as a wood' (_Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Collingwood_, by G.L. Newnham Collingwood, p. 109).] [Footnote 91: Rear-Admiral Hercules Robinson's _Sea Drift_, p. 209.] [Footnote 92: Narrative by Lieut. P. Harris Nicolas, Royal Marines, of the _Belleisle_, quoted in the _Memoir of Admiral Sir William Hargood, G.C.B._, Appendix E, p. 279.] [Footnote 93: The 'Combined Fleet' was the everyday term in the Navy for the fleets of France and Spain while acting together. It was used also by the French and Spaniards themselves.]