Hero Tales from History — Nelson, The Hero of Trafalgar

NELSON, THE HERO OF TRAFALGAR

A small English boy strayed away from his grandmother’s house after she had warned him that gypsies encamped near by might carry him off.

When the old lady found the little fellow sitting beside a stream too wide for him to cross, she exclaimed: “Why did you run away, Horatio?

I was half dead with fear--” “Fear!

” demanded the little lad, still in petticoats.

“What is that?

I

never saw a fear.

” The boy’s father’s name was Nelson.

He was a clergyman of the Church of England.

His wife had died when this boy was a baby, leaving eight children for the invalid father to care for.

Once while the father was away for his health, young Horatio heard that his mother’s brother had been appointed to the command of a British man-of-war.

Horatio said to an older brother: “Do, William, write to my father and tell him that I should like to go to sea with Uncle Maurice.

” Thinking the navy might be a good place for the boy and a benefit to his health, Doctor Nelson wrote to his brother-in-law.

The bluff sea-captain wrote right back: “What has poor Horatio done, who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent to rough it out at sea?

But let him come, and the first time we go into action a cannon-ball may knock off his head and provide for him at once.

” Thus young Horatio Nelson entered the Royal Navy.

One of his first trips was as coxswain on a voyage to the Arctic regions.

While dragging the ship’s boats over the ice, the sailors had to fight with walruses and polar bears.

Coxswain Nelson killed a big white bear and carried home the skin for his father.

When Horatio was fifteen he made a voyage on the warship _Seahorse_ to the East Indies.

A year and a half in that hot climate made the frail lad so ill that he had to go home.

Of his thoughts while sailing home on sick leave he once said: “After a long and gloomy revery in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me and presented my king and country as my patrons.

My mind exulted in the idea.

‘Well then,’ I exclaimed, ‘I will be a hero, and trusting in God, I will brave every danger.

’” Young Nelson had too much pluck to be sick long.

England was then at war with France and Spain, and he fought his country’s enemies in malarial regions where hundreds of his fellows died from the poisoned air and serpent bites.

When Horatio was twenty-two his health again failed, and he had to spend months in Brighton to recover it.

When peace was signed between England and France, in 1783, Nelson was twenty-five.

He was presented at court in that year, as he was a favorite with the Duke of Clarence who afterward became King William the Fourth.

The next year Captain Nelson was placed in command of the battle-ship _Boreas_.

He was very kind to the thirty midshipmen on board.

When a boy was afraid to climb a mast, Nelson would say to him with a winning smile: “I am going to race to the masthead and beg that I may meet you there.

” Once when he was invited to dinner with the governor of Barbadoes, Nelson said, “Your Excellency must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen.

I make it a rule to introduce them to all the good company I can, as they have few to look up to besides myself while they are at sea.

” [Illustration: NELSON RECEIVING THE SWORD OF THE SPANISH ADMIRAL SURRENDERED AFTER A NAVAL BATTLE IN THE WAR OF 1797.

_From the painting by David Neal_] It is not surprising that men under his command exclaimed, in comparing him with other men, “_Nelson_ was the man to _love!

_” The wars of Great Britain with Napoleon kept the young navy officer in active service.

During a siege a shell burst and destroyed the sight of his right eye.

In another attack he was wounded in the arm.

He shouted to those who wished to remove him from the fray, “Let me alone; I have yet my legs and one arm.

Tell the surgeon to make haste and get the instruments.

I know I must lose my right arm; so the sooner it is off, the better.

” In 1798, when Napoleon started out with the French fleet for an unknown port, to surprise and lay waste the countries of people friendly to Great Britain, these instructions were issued to Admiral Nelson: “Take, sink, burn, and destroy the French fleet.

” With his battleships Nelson set out to search the Mediterranean, but for a long time he was unable to find the French fleet.

At last it was found at anchor in Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile.

The French were caught in a trap.

Though Nelson had not eaten or slept much for many days and nights, he invited his officers to dinner on his flagship, the _Vanguard_, to discuss the coming battle.

“If we succeed, what will the world say?

” asked one of the officers.

“There is no ‘_if_’ in the case,” replied the admiral sharply.

“We are sure to succeed, but who may live to tell the story is a very different question.

” Admiral Nelson had the colors flying from six different places on his flagship when they went into battle that very night.

That engagement, now known as the battle of the Nile, was one of the greatest naval combats in history.

The French flagship, _L’Orient_, on which Napoleon had sailed to carry war into Egypt, was blown up and the French admiral killed with all on board.

The battle raged from seven in the evening until three in the morning.

Though the French had thousands more men than the British, most of them were killed.

Nelson sent boats to rescue them from the burning French ships, but they preferred to go on fighting through the flames, amidst bursting shells and exploding powder magazines.

Napoleon’s fleet was utterly destroyed.

Nelson wrote of that night’s work: “Victory is not a name strong enough for such a scene; it is a conquest.

” The whole world, which had suffered in dread of “that monster, Napoleon,” went wild over the news.

England made Nelson a baron and voted him a pension of ten thousand dollars a year.

Other nations, rulers, and corporations showered upon him great sums of money, gold boxes filled with diamonds, jeweled swords, and gem-incrusted souvenirs.

The Queen of Naples, a sister of Queen Marie Antoinette, who had lately been beheaded by the French people, was beside herself with joy.

The poor people of Italy expressed their gratitude when Nelson’s fleet was anchored in the bay of Naples.

Bringing cages of birds to the shore, they opened the doors and let the birds out to fly about the flagship and light on the beloved admiral’s shoulders.

Three years later the conquering hero was called to strike another blow against Napoleon near Copenhagen, Denmark.

Admiral Nelson opened the attack on the allied fleet, but the admiral higher in command, thinking it might be well to give Nelson a chance to withdraw a little, signaled him to retire to repair several disabled ships.

Nelson, hearing of this, put his spyglass to his blind eye and winked as he said: “I really do not see the signal.

Keep on flying mine for ‘closer battle.

’ That’s the way _I_ answer such signals!

” The men of both fleets fought with undaunted courage for five long, terrible hours.

The enemy lost 1800 men and 6000 prisoners, but the British had only 250 killed, and 680 wounded.

Of the Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson wrote: “I have been in one hundred and five engagements, but this has been the most terrible of all.

” For the victory at Copenhagen Nelson was made a viscount.

But there was no time for celebrations after this, for Napoleon was now waging war to the death.

Lord Nelson seemed to realize that the next fight must be the end either of France or of England.

At last the great day came, off Cape Trafalgar, Spain, on the 21st of October, 1805. It is told of Admiral Lord Nelson that as he walked the deck of his flagship, _Victory_, that morning, his knees trembled more with excitement than fear.

The one-eyed, one-armed hero looked down and shook his fist at his legs, saying: “Shake away, there!

You would shake worse than that if you knew where I’m going to take you to-day.

” Then he gave the order for that immortal signal: “ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY.

” Trafalgar was the greatest of all Nelson’s victories.

It broke the power of Napoleon and paved the way for Wellington at Waterloo.

At a shot from the mizzenmast of a French ship, the Lord Admiral fell.

Captain Hardy of the _Victory_ knelt beside him.

“They have done for me at last, Hardy,” he gasped.

Nelson lived for hours, giving his last directions, then died in the moment of his greatest triumph.

“Now I am satisfied,” were his last words.

“Thank God, I have done my duty.

”