It should accord, as I have ventured to amend it, with that of the previous paragraph.
[4] Signal 109, 'To close nearer the ship or ships indicated.' [5] Sir Charles Elkin adds, 'In the same work he has also a signal (No.

785) under the head "Enemy" to "Lay on board," with the following observation:-- '"N.B .-- This signal is not meant that your people should board the enemy unless you should find advantage by so doing; but it is that you should run your ship on board the enemy, so as to disable her from getting away."' [6] Mathieu-Dumas, _Precis des Evenements Militaires: Pieces Justificatives_, vol.xiv.p.

408.
[7] Fernandez Duro, _Armada Espanola_, viii.

353.
[8] The anonymous veteran of the old French navy, cited by Mathieu-Dumas, explains exactly how Villeneuve might have turned the tables on Nelson by forming two lines himself.

'There is,' he concludes, 'no known precedent of a defensive formation in two lines; but I will venture to assert that if Admiral Villeneuve had doubled his line at the moment he saw Nelson meant to attack him in two lines, that admiral would never have had the imprudence of making such an attack.'-- _Evenements Militaires_, xiv.