advocate as he is, shows greater impartiality. It maybe that Bonaparte miscalculated the naval power of England in the Mediterranean as much as Mr. Seeley believes, but the grand audacity of that six weeks' voyage with transports, in the presence of Nelson, deserves warmer recognition. An almost imperceptible confusion of dates would make it appear that the invasion of England failed through the terror that went before the face of Calder, rather than through the combinations of continental Powers. "In the last days of August, Admiral Villeneuve, issuing from Ferrol, took alarm at the news of the approach of an English fleet, and instead of sailing northward faced about and retired to Cadiz. Then for the first time Napoleon admitted the idea of failure, and saw the necessity of screening it by some great achievement in another quarter." Villeneuve issued from Ferrol, not in the last days of August, but on the 14th. At that time Napoleon was quite unable to avoid war with Austria, and was already preparing for it. On the 13th he had written: "Cette puissance arme. Je veux qu'elle desarme ; si elle ne le fait pas, j'irai avec 200,000 hommes lui faire une bonne visite. Mon parti est pris ; je veux attaquer l'Autriche, et étre à Vienne avant le mois de novembre." Talleyrand was to inform the Austrian ambassador that he had abandoned his design : "Il a compris qu'il ne pouvait se porter en Angleterre avec 150,000 hommes lorsque ses frontières du midi étaient menacées." Whilst he was turning his back on England and facing Austria he continued to entertain hopes of his fleet : "J'ai de bonnes nouvelles de mes escadres du Ferrol et de celle de Rochefort." On 22nd August he writes to Talleyrand : "Une fois que j'aurai levé mon camp de l'océan, je ne puis plus m'arréter ; mon projet de guerre maritime est tout-à-fait manqué. Du 20 au 25 Fructidor, je suis oblige de faire une contre-marche pour m'opposer aux progrès des armements de l'Autriche." This was ten days before he knew that his fleet had retired to Cadiz. The sudden change of front was caused by the forward policy of Mack and
