[185] "In 1805, M. Daru was at Boulogne, intendant general of the army. One morning, Napoleon sent for him into his cabinet: Daru there found him transported with rage, striding rapidly up and down the apartment, and breaking a sullen silence only by abrupt and short exclamations--'What a navy!--What an admiral!--What sacrifices thrown away!--My hope is destroyed!--This Villeneuve! instead of being in the Channel, he is gone into Ferrol! It is all over! he will be blockaded. Daru, sit down, listen, and write!' Napoleon had received early in the morning the news of Villeneuve's arrival in a Spanish port; he saw instantly that the conquest of England was abortive, the immense expense of the fleet and the flotilla lost for a long time, perhaps for ever. At that moment, in the transport of rage, which permits not other men to preserve their judgment, he had taken one of those bold resolutions, and traced out one of the most admirable plans of a campaign, that any other conqueror could have conceived at leisure and with coolness, without hesitation, without stopping: he then dictated the whole plan of the campaign of Austerlitz, the departure of the several corps of the army, from Hanover and Holland, even to the confines of the west and south of France."--DUPIN, _Force Naval_, tom. i., p. 244. [186] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 263. [187] Nelson had not been a month in England when Captain Blackwood, on his way to the Admiralty with despatches, called on him at Merton, at five in the morning, and found him already dressed. Upon seeing him, he exclaimed "I am sure you bring me news of the French and Spanish fleets! I think I shall have yet to beat them!" It was as he had supposed; they had liberated the squadron from Ferrol, and being now thirty-four sail of the line, got safely into Cadiz. "Depend on it, Blackwood," he repeatedly said, "I shall yet give M. Villeneuve a drubbing!"--SOUTHEY. [188] "Napoleon had, no doubt, ordered the minister of the marine to take from Admiral Villeneuve the command of his fleets; for the latter sent Admiral Rosilly to supersede him. He apprised Villeneuve of this by a courier: whether he added any reproaches I know not; but something of the kind must have passed, since Villeneuve quitted Cadiz without occasion, with the French and Spanish fleet, to attack the English squadron commanded by Nelson."--SAVARY, tom. ii., p. 112. [189] "Villeneuve had called a council of war on hearing that Nelson had taken the command; and their determination was not to leave Cadiz unless they had reason to believe themselves one-third stronger than the British force. Many circumstances tended to deceive them into such an opinion, and an American contributed unintentionally to mislead them, by declaring that Nelson could not possibly be with the fleet, for he himself had seen him only a few days before in London."--SOUTHEY.