directed, on the mole: and, in consequence, they were stove, by running ashore through a raging surf; the ammunition in the men's pouches got wet; and the scaling ladders were either lost, or forgotten in the confusion of the scene. Even those who landed with Captain Troubridge, and whose valour instantly got entire possession of the town, lost the only chance there seems to have remained for successfully storming the citadel, by waiting so long in expectation of the rear-admiral, who had been fatally prevented from landing, and other aids and augmentations, that the Spanish troops gained time to collect, and approach them, from the vicinity, in such force as nothing but the matchless address and intrepidity of British officers, and British men, could possibly have braved and surmounted. That they were extricated, by a daring resolution and determined valour, in Captain Troubridge and Captain Hood, which would have done honour even to Rear-Admiral Nelson himself, is as certain, as that no want of courage prevented, in the smallest degree, the success of the enterprise. There can be no such possible imputation. By bravery, alone, it was wholly unaccomplishable; it might, possibly, have been effected, but even that is by no means certain, if they had not been deprived of the chief hero's most fertile mental resources, ever rising with the exigency, which his fatal wound had effectually prevented--and which no other man must be censured for not possessing; because, perhaps, no other man ever did possess them in so eminent a degree. Besides, justice demands a due acknowledgment, that those who may rank among the greatest of men, having others at hand whom they consider as still greater than themselves, are to be excused for not hastily relying on their own judgment; though delay should, as it generally does in the operations of war, prove ultimately dangerous. The same persons, left under the necessity of acting for themselves, might be inspired with more confidence in their own ability, and proceed very differently in their operations. In lamenting that the several trials were not instantly made, which have been suggested as remaining at all practicable, during the critical periods alluded to, due regard must be paid to the opinions of those who had better opportunities of judging from intervening circumstances. Not, indeed, that it is by any means unusual for the most exalted characters to discover, themselves, after the event, opportunities which might have been seized, and which they have for ever lost, of performing some peculiarly brilliant achievement. This is no disgrace. Of much regret, it may often constitute a subject; of just reproach, never.