"Choose yourself, my lord," was his reply: "the same spirit actuates the whole profession: you cannot choose wrong." Lord Barham then desired him to say what ships, and how many, he would wish, in addition to the fleet which he was going to command, and said they should follow him as soon as each was ready.

No appointment was ever more in unison with the feelings and judgment of the whole nation.

They, like Lady Hamilton, thought that the destruction of the combined fleets ought properly to be Nelson's work; that he who had been "Half around the sea-girt ball, The hunter of the recreant Gaul," ought to reap the spoils of the chase which he had watched so long, and so perseveringly pursued.
Unremitting exertions were made to equip the ships which he had chosen, and especially to refit the VICTORY, which was once more to bear his flag.

Before he left London he called at his upholsterer's, where the coffin which Captain Hallowell had given him was deposited; and desired that its history might be engraven upon the lid, saying that it was highly probable he might want it on his return.

He seemed, indeed, to have been impressed with an expectation that he should fall in the battle.