AN UNLUCKY ADMIRAL.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2788, 11 October 1910, Page 7

AN UNLUCKY ADMIRAL.

The fate of Admiral Villeneuve, whom Nelson defeated at Trafalgar, was a sad one. Hesitating and unwilling he had gone forth to the battle. He and his fellow-commanders knew what Napoleon could never understand, that skill had more weight at sea. They knew "that the French and Spanish vessels were for the most part badly manned ; that a portion of their «rews had never been exercised at sea ; and that, in fine, they were not in such a state as to render the services expected of them."

"I cannot believe," wrote the unhappy man to Napoleon's Minister of Marine, "that it is the intention of His Imperial Majesty to risk the greater part of his naval forces upon a chance so desperate, and one which affords so little prospect of glory." In vain : the terrible word, "coward,* was his reward ; the reply of Na-

poleon : "Villeneuve has not character enough to command a frigate. . . he will sacrifice all if only he can save his skin." There were no grounds for this cruel charge, but Napoleon was not generous to the unfortunate. "Let my squadrons leave ! let nothing stop them ! " he wrote again in furious passion at Villeneuve's delays. But the die had already been cast, the adventure made, and the French fleet, even before the words were written, had ceased to exist.

At Trafalgar, Villeneuve's flag was carried by the 80-gun Bucentaure. As the Victory h«ad?d for the French

line, the Bucentaure's fire did her much harm, and at the Bucentaure the Victory i fired her first broadside, double and trebly shotted, when the British three-decker passed under the stem of the French Admiral. That single broadside is said to have killed or wounded 400 men, and to have dismounted 20 guns. The shot, striking the French ship's stern, beat it almost in, and tossed splinters and dust over the deck of the Victory, covering Nelson and Hardy, For all the gallantry of Villeneuve—and, notwithstanding Napoleon's jeers, he was a brave man—all the fight was gone out of the Bucentaure. Some time after one she received the broadside ; somewhere about two she surrendered to the Conqueror. Both main and mizen masts had been shot away, and her decks were shambles. To Captain Atcherley of the Marines, Villeneuve handed his sword, but the gallant cantain refused to receive it. The beaten Admiral was rowed to the Mars, and there remained to witness th* completion of the French discomfiture.

He was conveyed to England, and treated with a kindness which his master refused to accord him. In April 1806, he was released on parole, and landed at Morlaix. Prom Morlaix he went to Rennes, there to await the French Minister of Marine's reply to a letter which he had sent, and in which he had expressed his intention to appeal to the Emperor for justice. A few days later he was found in his room, lifeless, with six wounds in the heart. "Our Bonaparte is really lucky ; all his enemies die," said the Parisian gossips. And there is little doubt that they ascribed Villenuve's death to the same hand which had so mysteriously struck down Pichegru and Wright, which had openly slain the Due d'Enghien. Were they right, and was Napoleon guilty of this further crime in his anxiety to rid himself of all the traces of Trafalgar ? Merciless and unseniplous as Napoleon was, we think he was for once falsely accused. For in Villeneuve's deathchamber was found a letter written with his dying hand, which bears witness to an intention to take his own life. "Alone, overwhelmed by the Emperor's curses, repulsed by the Minister who was his friend, charged with the responsibility of a disaster to which fate has led me, I must die." he wrote to his wife ; : "what I wish is to end, but I cannot. What a source of happiness that I have no child doomed to in- ' herit my disgrace, to be overwhelm- '■ ed with the weight of my name ! : Ah ! T was not born for such a lot. j I did not seek it myself : I was driven to it in spite of myself. Goodbye! Good-bye !" They are j the words of a weak man, perhaps, but in the depth of their sorrow and the passion of their patriotism they are the words of a gallant man. He had not shrunk from taking upon his shoulders the blame which really was Napoleon's ; he had been made the scapegoat of the Emperor, and j he bowed his head beneath the blow of ingratitude. Dishonoured and forgotten, on the night of April 21st, six months from the day when his disgrace came upon him, he cast

from him that lift which the roundshot of the Bnglish bad spared. VilleneuTe did not lack impulsive courage. But fate brought him face to faee with a master in the art of war at sea, a man as superior to himself, whether in seamanship or tactical skill, as Napoleon was superior to Mack and the old school of Austrian Generals in warfare on land. There is no wonder that he went down. The audacity, the insight, the lightning brows of Nelson could only have been foiled by the ablest of commanders with a perfectly drilled fleet behind him. The English policy of blockade denied the French the sea, and prevented them from gaining that experience on storm-swept waters which had made the English sailor what he was. At every point Nelson was too much for Villeneuve. It was not the French Admiral's fault that he was not a genius. He did his best, but, a dwarf, pitted against a giant, he knew that he could not succeed. The stars in,their courses fought against him, and how should he conquer ? "Weekly Telegraph."