The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-01-25
A OF
ADVENTURE
Copyright BIZ BobbsNerru Company
By ROGER POCOCK

-LStt f
and returned t. notify that the ship
had surrendered. However. as part
of our crew, commanded by two off,
GERS, were ready TO spring upon the
enemy's deck, the fire recommended
with a fury 1t had never had from the
beginning OF the action. In less
than half an hour our vessel, without
fact surrendere" Her fire had gradu-
ally slackened and then had ceased al
together. Not more than one hun
bred fifty men survived out of a crew
of about eight hundred, and almost all
those were more or less severely
wounded"
When these were taken on board the
Victory, Guillemard learned how the
bullet which struck down through
Lord Nelson's shoulder and shattered
the spine below, had come from the
fighting tops of the RedOubtable,
where he had been the only living soul.
He speaks Of his grief as a man, his
triumph as a soldier of France, who
had delivered his country from her
great enemy.
1t seemed at the time that the very
winds sang Nelson's requiem, for with
the night came a storm putting the
English shattered fleet in mortal peril,
while OF the nineteen captured battle
ships not one was fit to brave the ele-
ments. For, save some few vessels
that basely ran away before the ac-
ton, both French and S~paniards had
fought with sublime desperation, and
when the English priZe-crews took pos
session, they and their prisoners were
together drowned. The Aigle was cast
away, and not one man escaped; the
Santissima Trinidad, the largest ship
in the world. foundered the Indomita-
BILE sank with fifteen hundred wound
ed; the Achille, with her officers shoot
ing themselves, her sailors drunk,
went blazing through the storm until
the fire caught her magazine. And so
with the rest of eighteen blood-soaked
wrecks, burned, foundered, or cast
away, while only one outlived that
night Of horror.
When the day broke Admiral Vile
neuve was brought on board the Vic
tory, where Nelson lay in state, for the
voyage TO England. Villeneuve, wound
ed in the hand, was unable to write,
and sent among the French prisoners
for a clerk. For this service, Guile
mard volunteered, as the only unin-
iu ed soldier who could write. So
Guillemard attended the admiral all
through the months of their residence
at Arlesford, in Devon, where they
were at large on parole. The old man
was treated with respect and SYM
pathy.
Prisoners of war are generally re-
leased by exchange between fighting
powers, rank for rank, man for man
but after FIVE months ViIleneuve was
allowed TO return TO France. He
pledged his honor that unless duly ex-
changed he would surrender again on
the English coast at the end of ninety
days. So, attended by GuiIlemard and
his servant, he crossed the channel,
and from the town of Rennes he wrote
dispatches to the government in Paris.
He was coming, he said in a private
letter, TO arraign most of his suryiv-
ing captains on the charge of cow
ardice at Trafalgar.
OF this it seems the captains got
some warning, and decided that, for
the sake Of their own health, Vile
neuve should not reach Paris alive.
Anyway, Guillemard says that while
the admiral lay In the Hotel de Bresil,
ar Rennes. five strangers appeared
men in civilian dress, who asked him
many questions about Villeneuve. The
secretary was proud OF his master,
glad to talk about so distinguished a
man. and thought no evil when he
gave his The leader OF the
five was a southern Frenchman, the
others foreigners, deeply tanned, who
usual ornament.
That night the admiral had gone to
bed in his room on the first floor Of
the inn, and the secretary was asleep
on the floor above. A cry disturbed
him and. taking his sword and candle,
lie TAI uOWuStdiI III iii " q IAC
five strangers sneak by him hurriedly.
Guillemard rushed to the admiral'S
room land saw the unfortunate man.
whom the balls of Trafalgar had re-
| spected, stretched pale and bloody on
his bed. He -. breathed hard, and
struggled with the agonies Of death.
-. Five deep wounds pierced his
breast"
So it was the fate Of the slayer of
Nelson TO be alone with Vflleneuve
at his death.
When he reached Paris the young
and the Emperor Napoleon made him
tell the whole story of the admiral's
assassination. Yet officially the death
was announced as suicide, and Guile
mard mel the leader OF the five assas-
sins walking in broad daylight On the
b~oulevards.
The lad kept his mouth shut.
Guillemard lived TO fight in many OF
the emperor's battles, to be one Of the
ten thousand prisoners of the Span
iards on the desert island Of the Ca
brera, whence he made a gallant es-
cape to be a prisoner Of the Russians
In Siberia; TO assist in King Murat's
flight from France; and, finally, after
twenty years OF adventure, e return
with many wounds to his native vii
| Iage.
! But to make the measurements mean