To the general reader these details of manœuvres, (which precede any great battle, whether on sea or land), may appear tedious, but it is absolutely necessary to a description of this great event, and could not be omitted by any one who tried to give an account of the battle. At six in the morning the flag-ship Victory had a view of the combined fleet, bearing about east by south, distant, as has been said in the account of the manœuvres of the Franco-Spanish fleet, about ten or twelve miles. At this time Nelson was about twenty miles from Cape Trafalgar, which bore east by south. Soon after this the English fleet, by signal, formed in two columns, in the order of sailing, and bore up to the eastward, under all sail. This was according to Nelson’s previous orders; to avoid delay and inconvenience of forming line-of-battle in the usual manner. THE BATTLE. The near approach of the British fleet rendering an action unavoidable, the French Admiral, at 8.30 in the morning, made signal for his ships to wear together, and form line, in close order, on the port tack. This brought the port of Cadiz on his lee bow. It was fully ten in the morning before this manœuvre, involving so many great ships, and such a long line, was completed; and even then, from the light and flawy wind, the line was not very regularly formed. Accounts differ as to how the ships were disposed in the Allied line. Lord Collingwood said that the French ships had an unusual arrangement. They formed a crescent, convexing to leeward, “so that, in leading down their centre, I had both their van and rear abaft the beam. Before the fire opened, every alternate ship was about a cable’s length to windward of her second ahead and astern, forming a kind of double line, and appeared, when on their beam, to leave very little interval between them, and this without crowding their ships.” The French and English accounts and plans of the battle are all rather incompatible with the facts of the action, as developed; and were all, most probably, drawn from memory and influenced by impressions. Lord Collingwood’s is, probably, the only simple and straightforward one. Owing to the lightness of the wind, the English fleet, after bearing up, made very slow progress toward their enemy. These great two and three-deckers were ponderous affairs, and required a strong breeze to move them. At the joint suggestion of Captains Hardy and Blackwood, Nelson reluctantly consented that the Téméraire and Leviathan should precede the Victory in going into action; and he himself gave orders to that effect to the first-named ship, which was then just abreast of the Victory, but, it was thought, at too great a distance to understand perfectly the purport of Lord Nelson’s hail.