Pleased with the information which they had received, though still unable implicitly to rely on the fact, after such repeated disappointments, not a moment was lost in carrying all possible sail for Alexandria.

On the 1st of August, at noon, they had the happiness to descry the port of Alexandria; with an aspect, however, far different from what it had before presented to their disappointed view.  They perceived, with delight, that it now appeared filled with ships; and had, soon, the undescribable transport to behold the French flag flying on board several of them.  A tumult of joy animated every bosom in the British squadron, at sight of the enemy.  The humblest individual felt himself a hero; and had a great right so to feel, since every individual was eagerly prepared to risque his life for the safety and glory of his king and country.  The brave admiral was calm, but no mortal can convey to another the sense of ineffable delight which glowed in every fibre of his frame.  The bliss of his bosom, at this impressive moment, was that of extatic perfection; for, it admitted not the smallest doubt of success.  His calmness was the result of his piety; for his noble heart was pouring forth to Heaven the sacred effusions of gratitude, anticipatory of the glorious conquest which he was about to prove the honoured medium of atchieving.  This perfection of bliss is felt but by a few favoured mortals, and with none will it consent to abide.  That it was, for a moment, felt by the immortal Nelson, when he first beheld the French fleet, a due consideration of his entire character, so powerfully presses on the mind of his biographer, that he cannot resist the temptation to tender it as an assumed fact.

In a narrative, formed from the minutes of an officer of rank, reported to be the present Sir Edward Berry, then captain of the Vanguard, first published in the Naval Chronicle, it is observed, that the pleasure which the admiral himself felt was perhaps more heightened than that of any other man, as he had now a certainty by which he could regulate his future operations.  “The admiral had,” continues this narrative, and, as it subsequently appeared, most justly, “the highest opinion of, and placed the firmest reliance on, the valour and conduct of every captain in his squadron.  It had been his practice, during the whole of his cruise, whenever the weather and circumstances would permit, to have his captains on board the Vanguard:  where he would fully develope to them his own ideas of the different and best modes of attack; and such plans as he proposed to execute, on falling in with the enemy, whatever their position or situation might be, by night or by day.  There was no possible position in which they could be found, that he did not take into his calculation, and for the most advantageous attack of which he had not digested and arranged the best possible disposition of the force which he commanded.  With the masterly ideas of their admiral, therefore,