The French Admiral Villeneuve’s orders as to his proceedings in the West Indies are interesting, as well as the events which followed his arrival there, but he was ordered to return soon, and to carry out a project, as the ultimate object of the assembling of his allied fleet, which was, in the eyes of Napoleon, infinitely more important than the capture and pillage of the English West India Islands. In returning to Europe Villeneuve was only obeying the Emperor’s orders, although the latter blamed Villeneuve for not carrying out his orders in full, attributing his hasty leaving the islands, to fright. Afterwards, at St. Helena, he acknowledged that Villeneuve was a brave man. On the way to Europe the French fleet made one or two important captures and re-captures, and came off Cape Finisterre about the latter part of July. And now let us follow Lord Nelson for a time. He quitted Antigua on June 13th, having received information that the enemy’s fleet was seen steering north, but he had no very definite information, and had to rely on his own intuition. On July 17th he sighted Cape St. Vincent, having sailed about 3500 miles on this one passage. There seems to be no doubt that Napoleon intended to attack Ireland, or at least effect a landing there, and the best military and naval minds considered that Villeneuve’s voyage to the West Indies was principally intended to draw off the British naval force from the Channel, to admit of an attack upon Ireland, a preliminary step in Napoleon’s plan. [Illustration: NELSON’S VICTORY AT TRAFALGAR.] On July 19th, 1805, the English fleet anchored in Gibraltar, and on the 20th Lord Nelson says, in his diary, “I went on shore for the first time since June 16th, 1803, and, from having my foot out of the Victory, two years, wanting ten days.” He remained only three days on shore at Gibraltar, and then received information that the allied fleet had been seen, five weeks before, steering N. N. west, in latitude 33°, longitude 58° west. This was stale news, but the earliest, of a positive nature, which he had received. He, therefore, passed the Straits of Gibraltar, and at first went to the westward, but afterwards he went off Cape St. Vincent, to be ready to steer in any direction that circumstances might direct. On the third day of August the English fleet was in 39° north, and 16° west longitude. Here Lord Nelson got some information from an American merchant ship, which had taken the log of a vessel which had been set on fire and abandoned, but not destroyed, and, from a scrap of paper containing a reckoning, he derived the fact that the vessel had been taken by the French fleet. Nelson then proceeded north, but finding no news, either from Admiral Cornwallis, off Ushant, or the Channel fleet, proceeded, with the Victory, and another ship, to Portsmouth, leaving the rest of his fleet as a reinforcement to the Channel fleet.