The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.
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Source, in full
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, Volume 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1897, p. 52; attributed by Mahan to Locker's Greenwich Gallery article "Torrington".