But the Spaniards seem to have been apprehensive of delivering up their ships thus entirely into the power of such allies, and refused to come out.

The fleet from Cadiz, however, consisting of from seventeen to twenty sail of the line, got out, under Masaredo, a man who then bore an honourable name, which he has since rendered infamous by betraying his country.

They met with a violent storm off the coast of Oran, which dismasted many of their ships, and so effectually disabled them as to prevent the junction, and frustrate a well-planned expedition.
Before this occurred, and while the junction was as probable as it would have been formidable, Nelson was in a state of the greatest anxiety.
"What a state am I in!" said he to Earl St.Vincent.

"If I go, I risk, and more than risk, Sicily; for we know, from experience, that more depends upon opinion than upon acts themselves; and, as I stay, my heart is breaking." His first business was to summon Troubridge to join him, with all the ships of the line under his command, and a frigate, if possible.

Then hearing that the French had entered the Mediterranean, and expecting them at Palermo, where he had only his own ship--with that single ship he prepared to make all the resistance possible.