The age-herald., 1898-05-30

l the battle at Trafalgar. These special
 operations Of the great Corsican won lengthy if not eulogistic mention from Sir Archibald Alison in his History of Flu
 rope" and 1t is from the Scottish author s
 first volume that the facts here appended l are condensed.
 Napoleon's military genius was largely
 displayed in the organization of his forces.
 With their extension and the multiplica-
 tion of their wants his powers appeared to
 expand in an almost miraculous proper
 ton, and the active superintendence of all, i which secured the utmost limit of human exertion when only 50,OOO. was not sensibly diminished when 5OO,0o0 were assembled. In 1895 Bonaparte's mind was filled with the idea of invading England He arrang-
 ed at Bouogne @ pretended dotlla of in- vasion armed with cannon (never intended
 for use) with such marverous skill that 25,- 900 soldiers could be put on it-and were for practice-in ten minutes. He merely in tended this f1otilla to serve as transports for 150,OOO men when the right time had come That would not be until he had gained a vast fleet in the English chanIel
 while the English fleets were decoyed to destroy parts of the world.
 
 Napoleon carried out this scheme with such consummate skill that but for couple of curious mshaps it would have succeeded His real armada was to as- semble at Martinique and was to return suddenly to Europe, while the British squadrons were dist ! he'd to distant points to succor their menaced colonial possessions. The ctrategem thus ablyl con- eeived was completely successful. Not one person in the British dominions, ex- cept the sagacious Admiral ollingwood, penetrated the real design. The French decoy fleets returned in safety from tn Wst Indies to the European attitudes, leaving Nelson three weeks sail in the rear, and when the emperor was at Bou- logne in August, 1895, at the head of 130 900 men, fifty ships of the line were as- sembled in the Bay of Biscay, when the united British squadron did not amount to much more than half that force. The following valuable note, written by Napoleon at the time of his leavirS the camp at Boulogne in September, Ss05, ex- plains further the particulars of this great project:
 What was my design in creating the f1o- tilla of Boulogne? I wished to assemble forty or fifty ships of the line in the har- Dor of Martinique, by operations combined in the harbors of Toulon, Cadiz, Ferrol and Brest; to bring them back suddenly to Boulogne, to find myself in this way dur ing fifteen days the master of the sea, to have 1500O0 men encamped on the coast, 5000 or 4,000 vessels in the fiotlia, and to set sail the moment the signal was given of the arrival of the combined fleet. The project has failed. If Admiral Villeneuve, instead of entering the harbor of Ferrol. had contented himself with joining the Spanish squadron, and instantly made sail for Brest and joined Admiral Gantehaume. my army would have embarked, and 1t was alr over with England By constructing praams and gunboats I appeared to be op- posing cannon with cannon, and the enemy were in this manner deceived. They con- ceived that I intended to attempt the pas- sage by main force, by means of my flo- tilla.
 By @ previous treaty with Spain the latter was bound to add thirty ships of the line to the thirty-eight of Fra t,e, and In all lI0,O0O men were to invade England Napoleon had been preparing for years for this great blow.
 At the appointed time the French fleets started on their decoy business across the Atlantic and pretended to make a great racket in the British West Indies when they got there. They bombarded some small places and plundered others and got back safely to Rcchefort' without meeting any British warships. It frightened the English to see such safe blockade running But the next ruse was on a large sc le On March 30 Admiral villeneuve started from Toulon. and combining with a Span- ish fleet-makng in all eighteen ships of the line and ten frigatesApushed again across the Atlantic.
 In April Admiral Gantheaume, with twenty-two ships of the line, tried to leave Brest on the same errand. But providence seemed now to begin to spoil the work of the new armada, for an extraordinary calm lasting all through April and May kept him cooped there. So Napoleon told him to stay there till the other fleet re- crossed the Atlantic.
 Meanwhile Nelson was In the most cruel state of anxiety. He was bearing up from the gulf of Palma for his old position off Toulon, when, on April 4, he met the brig Phoebe with the long-wished-for intelli- gence that villeneuve had again put to sea and when last seen was steering for the coast of Africa. Upon this Nelson set sail for Palermo under the impression that they had gone to Egypt, but feeling assured by the 11th, from the information brought by his cruisers, he instantly turned and beat up with the utmost difficulty against strong westerly winds to Gibraltar, devoured all the while by the utmost anxiety lest, be- fore he could reach them, the enemy night menace Ireland and Jamaica. In spite of every exertion he could not reach the straits till April s0 At length on May he received certain information that the combined fleet had made for the West In- dies.
 Nelson had only tn sail of the line and three frigates; the crews were worn out with fatigue and watching, and the ad- mral was sick with care, but he set ev- cry sail for the West Indies He calcu- lated to gain ten days by superior activity 1r. a1,1I arff