The remainder of the English fleet were to be left to the management of the Commander-in-chief; who, as he rather modestly expressed himself, would endeavor to take care that the movements of the second in command were as little as possible interrupted. This plan and instructions have been given rather at length, because they have always been looked upon as models, and have been copied into foreign historical works, and adopted upon several other occasions. Cadiz became much straightened for provisions, in consequence of having so large a fleet to victual. To remedy this evil, especially in regard to his own fleet, Napoleon had ordered shipments to be made to Nantes, Bordeaux, and other ports in the Bay of Biscay. The carriers were vessels under the Danish flag, that landed their cargoes at small ports in the south of Spain, whence they were easily conveyed to Cadiz. As some check to this, a vigorous blockade had been adopted by Collingwood, and maintained by his successor who considered it a more likely way of driving the combined fleets to sea than a bombardment of Congreve rockets, as had at one time been contemplated. The arrival of a number of frigates enabled Nelson to prosecute this blockade of the coasting trade more successfully. On the 10th of October two line-of-battle ships, and on the 13th two more, joined Nelson; and he had now twenty-nine sail-of-the-line off Cadiz, and five at Gibraltar. This was the highest number his fleet reached. On the 10th the allied fleet had moved out to the entrance of the harbor, and evinced a disposition to put to sea at the first opportunity. Four days after, Lord Nelson was obliged, owing to orders from England, to send there Sir Robert Calder, in the Prince of Wales; and on the 17th was obliged to send the Donegal to Gibraltar, for water. This done, he had twenty-seven sail-of-the-line (not all in very good order, or well manned), four frigates, a schooner, and a cutter. There were in his fleet three 100-gun ships; the Victory, his own flag-ship; the Royal Sovereign, Vice-Admiral Collingwood; and the Britannia, Rear-Admiral the Earl of Northesk. Then came four 98-gun ships; one 80, sixteen 74s, and three 64s, which formed the line-of-battle. On the very day on which Lord Nelson took command of the fleet a courier had arrived at Cadiz, with the order of the French Emperor for Villeneuve to put to sea. These orders had been issued about the middle of September, and required that the French ships should pass the Straits of Gibraltar, land the troops on the Neapolitan coast, sweep the Mediterranean of all British commerce and cruisers, and then enter Toulon, to re-fit and re-victual.