As opposing fleets of British and French-allied ships of war lined up for battle off the Cape of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson ordered a signal to be raised from his flag-ship, H.M.S. Victory: “England expects that every man will do his duty.”

Britons expect similar devotion to duty from their elected representatives. Given the choice in 2016 whether to remain or leave the European Union, a clear majority voted to exit and restore Britain’s independence. More than three years later, they are still waiting, as MPs and elites enthralled by the allure of the EU super-state frustrate the voice of democracy.

Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned from Brussels with a much-heralded UK-EU withdrawal deal. Yet when it was brought before the House of Commons on Saturday for approval, Remainer MPs decided instead to postpone the vote, opting for Sir Oliver Letwin’s amendment to forgo judgement until enabling legislation was passed (MPs fearing the Government had constructed a Trojan Horse by which to abandon its own legislation and “crash out” of the EU).

This procedure clearly put the cart before the horse — ensuring the workings of a law that does not yet exist— as anti-Brexiteers will resort to any tactic to frustrate British independence.

Not that adherents of independence should take undue umbrage. For Boris’s deal is nothing more than “Brino” — Brexit in name only — Brexit under false colors, as Admiral Nelson would assess it. Brexiteers are tired of living under the “affected” authority of the EU’s gold-stars-on-a-field-of-blue pennant. They yearn to restore sovereignty to a nation over which proudly flies the historic Union Jack.

How are we to account for the Government’s act of perfidy to the Brexit cause? In Mr. Johnson and his political lieutenants, Britain was assured it enjoyed the perfect team of no-nonsense “Spartan” defenders of UK independence. Instead they have returned from Europe with an agreement arguably worse than the one Prime Minister May sought to foist upon the British people.

At best, given the intransigence of the EU negotiating team and their enviable ability to wear-down the resistance of UK counterparts, the Government has returned with an agreement whose flaws are conspicuous. No one can say they were misled when Britain’s continued vassalage to the Continent is clear for all to see.

We can be less charitable to les saboteurs on the freedom-seeking side of the English Channel. Their aim is to keep the European Union supreme, regardless of the democratic wishes of the British people. Deflecting Boris’s deal is merely a smokescreen to run out the clock and importune for more time to overturn democracy.

Their strategy is to force Brussels to another extension, under the pretense that a “people’s referendum” is required, rigged to a binary choice between Boris’s agreement or remaining within the EU and nullifying the 2016 exit decision. The very idea of a WTO “no deal” Brexit is an affront to their servile sensibilities.

With such Brexit foes aligned against it, the Government needs friends. Great Britain collaborated with many countries hostile to Napoleon’s agenda of French hegemony before finally stopping his march across Europe. Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party are natural allies for the Tories, provided Boris’s bad deal goes down to defeat; otherwise, Nigel joins the list of Bojo’s nemeses.

But the two parties don’t need to love each other. Like the alliance against Napoleon, there need only be one objective: a “clean break” Brexit on October 31 and a restoration of British sovereignty from any EU entanglements.

Nor does this require much of a climb-down for earnest but momentarily sidelined Conservatives. “No-deal is the only route to a clean and true Brexit,” Melanie Phillips reasons, “that a half-in, half-out Brexit would leave the UK worse off than remaining in the EU, and that therefore no Brexit is better than a bad deal.”

Brexiteers can take heart from the Trafalgar experience. When prime minister William Pitt heard the news, he exclaimed prophetically at a Guildhall gathering that “Let us hope that England, having saved herself by her energy, may save Europe by her example.”

Yet although Lord Nelson’s victory secured the seas for Britain and safety, ultimate success in the Napoleonic wars was not won until June 1815, when the Duke of Wellington finally defeated the French Emperor at Waterloo.

James Delingpole senses a shift in the public mood, with defiance displacing doom. “The longer Brexit has been delayed by the corrupt, failing Establishment,” he writes, “the more we Brexiteers have become aware that we are the majority, that we’re the ones with both justice and common sense on our side, and that we’re not going to take no for an answer.”

Brexiteers then, be patient, but nevertheless resolute. Shakespeare exhorts them it is “once more unto the breach” for Brexit and British independence. And there is only one appropriate anthem for Trafalgar Day:

The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free
The dread and envy of them all.