Brueyes himself lived not to give his testimony; but Gantheaume, the vice-admiral, always persisted in stating, in direct contradiction to Buonaparte, that the fleet remained by the General's express desire.

The testimonies being thus balanced, it is necessary to consult other materials of judgment; and it appears extremely difficult to doubt that the French admiral,--who, it is acknowledged on all hands, dreaded the encounter of Nelson--remained off Alexandria for the sole purpose of aiding the motions of the army, and in consequence of what he at least conceived to be the wish of its general.

However this might have been, the results of his delay were terrible.
The French fleet were moored in a semicircle in the bay of Aboukir, so near the shore, that, as their admiral believed, it was impossible for the enemy to come between him and the land.

He expected, therefore, to be attacked on one side only, and thought himself sure that the English could not renew their favourite manoeuvre of breaking the line,[25] and so at once dividing the opposed fleet, and placing the ships individually between two fires.

But Nelson daringly judged that his ships might force a passage between the French and the land, and succeeding in this attempt, instantly brought on the conflict, in the same dreaded form which Brueyes had believed impossible.