"
Hewson withdrew to a neighboring alehouse, boasting of the character the
admiral had given him. Month after month passed away, but Hewson
returned not--his shop-tools were abandoned, and no one could account
for his absence. At length a stripling, in a sailor's jacket, entered
the manufactory and said, "he was come to settle his father's affairs."
This was no other than Hewson's son, from whose account it appeared,
that when Hewson, somewhat elevated with liquor, but more with the
praise the admiral had bestowed on him, quitted Birmingham, he walked
his way down to Portsmouth, entered once more on board Lord Nelson's
ship, and fell with him in the battle of Trafalgar.
At the battle of Trafalgar, Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, led the
lee-line of fourteen ships, Nelson, in the Victory, was at the head of
the weather-line, consisting of fourteen ships. Besides these there were
four frigates.
The ships of France and Spain, opposed to the British, were in number
thirty-three, with seven large frigates. The odds were great against the
English, but the superior tactics, and well-known bravery of Nelson,
clothed him with power, that more than made up the difference.
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