Hornblower has just finished his tour blockading Brest in command of the Royal Navy sloop
Hotspur. As he travels back to England for his next assignment (and his promised elevation to post rank), he is asked to participate in the
court martial of ''Hotspur's
new captain. Hotspur'' ran aground and was lost the day after Hornblower turned over command. Following the court martial, the ''Hotspur's'' officers, now without a ship, travel back to England with Hornblower in a supply ship. On the way, they are pursued by a French brig, which they board and disable. During the battle, Hornblower finds important papers in the French captain's cabin. Back in England, he travels to the Admiralty with the documents. He arrives at the same time as the disappointing news that the French fleet under Admiral
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve has escaped into
Ferrol, Spain after an
indecisive engagement. Hornblower presents a daring plan to the first and second secretaries to the Admiralty -
William Marsden and
John Barrow. He proposes sending agents to Spain, posing as messengers, to deliver false orders from
Napoleon Bonaparte to Villeneuve. These will command Villeneuve to take his fleet out of their safe harbour of Ferrol and so bring about a decisive engagement with
Admiral Nelson. This plan has been made possible because the papers captured by Hornblower include a routine letter from Napoleon, whose form can be copied. The plan is authorized. The Reverent Doctor Claudius - a disgraced clergyman and expert forger - is recruited to create the false letter from Napoleon. He was in prison awaiting execution for fraud and agrees to assist in exchange for a reprieve. The unfinished book stops at the point where Hornblower is persuaded to attempt the mission himself. Notes left by Forester indicate that Hornblower would carry out the mission accompanied by South American revolutionary
Francisco de Miranda, with Hornblower posing as his servant. They deliver the false orders to Villeneuve without arousing suspicion, prompting him to take his fleet to sea; this ultimately leads the destruction of the Franco–Spanish fleet at the
Battle of Trafalgar. This book also includes two short-stories, "
Hornblower and the Widow McCool" (a.k.a. "Hornblower’s Temptation"), set early in Hornblower's career, and "
The Last Encounter", set in 1848 when he is living on his country estate in old age and retirement. == Continuation ==