It might well have been done, so far as he could see, without any more loss of time than actually occurred in getting the bulk of the fleet into action.

Loss of time was the only excuse for attacking in line ahead, and the only reason he could suppose for the change of plan.

If they had all gone down together in line abreast, he is sure the victory would have been more quickly decided and the brunt of the fight more equally borne.

Nothing, he thinks, could have been better than the plan of the memorandum if it had only been properly executed.

An attack in two great divisions with a squadron of observation--so he summarises the 'Nelson touch'-- seemed to him to combine every precaution under all circumstances.