ABSTRACT
The death of Nelson was felt in England as something more than a public calamity: men started at the intelligence, and turned pale, as if they had heard of the loss of a dear friend. What the country had lost in its great naval hero, the greatest of our own, and of all former times, was scarcely taken into the account of grief. The victory of Trafalgar was celebrated, indeed, with the usual forms of rejoicing, but they were without joy. However, from any selfish reflection upon the magnitude of loss that people mourned for Nelson: the general sorrow was of a higher character. The most triumphant death is that of the martyr; the most awful, that of the martyred patriot; the most splendid, that of the hero in the hour of victory; and if the chariot and the horses of fire had been vouchsafed for Nelson's translation, he could scarcely have departed in a brighter blaze of glory.
