the Redoutable, with a diminished quantity of powder and three round shot; the officers on the middle and lower-decks taking every precaution, by the depression of their guns, to avoid injuring the Temeraire, as she lay on the opposite side of the enemy. While the Victory was thus occupied with the Redoutable on her starboard side, she engaged for a considerable time the Santissima Trinidad and the Bucentaure, who were to windward of her on the larboard side.

The firemen of the Victory stood ready with their buckets, and at every discharge of a gun dashed a quantity of water into the holes which the shot had made in the side of the Redoutable. This ship was crushed under the weight of her opponents, her artillery silenced, her gallant Captain lay mortally wounded on her deck, with between three and four hundred of her crew; still a few men in her tops were doing, at every moment, the most fatal execution with their small arms. It was unfortunately a fixed opinion with the hero of the Nile, that small arms aloft were worse than useless, that there was danger of setting fire to the sails, and perhaps he thought, that the duties aloft of trimming the sails were unattended to, while the enemy offered a mark for musketry. Certain it is, that the Victory had no small-arm men in her tops, nor do there appear to have been any in those of the Temeraire ; so that as long as the masts of the Redoutable stood, the upper decks of the British ships were

exposed to a cool and well-directed fire, which continued for one hour and a half, and presented the singular spectacle of a French seventy-four gun ship engaging a British first and second rate with small arms only. About half past one, the Admiral was standing on the middle of the quarter-deck, and had just turned to walk aft, when a musket-ball, from the mizen-top of the French ship, struck him on the left shoulder, passed through the strap of the epaulette, and grazing the collar-bone, entered his chest, and lodged in one of the dorsal vertebræ. The lamented chief fell with his face upon the deck. Serjeant-major Secker, of the Royal Marines, and two seamen, flew to his assistance, and were raising him up when Captain Hardy, who was on the larboard side, turned round and saw that the Admiral was wounded. In answer to the anxious inquiries of the Captain, the gallant chief replied, "They have done for me at last, Hardy." "I hope not," said Hardy. Yes," answered the dying hero, my back bone is shot through." From the situation whence the shot was fired, Dr. Beatty calculates the distance to have been about fifteen yards; the mizen-top of the Redoutable being just abaft, and below the Victory's mainyard. The spot where he fell is now marked with a dark piece of wood, about an inch square, inlaid in the deck.

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While the attendants conveyed the wounded Admiral to the cockpit, the hero was still mindful of the great duty he had to perform, and not

regardless of minor cares, even in the agonies of death. As he passed the gun-room he saw that the tiller ropes, which had been shot away early in the action, were not replaced, and commanded that it should be instantly done; and having delivered this order, he covered his face with his pocket handkerchief, that he might not be noticed by his crew. The cockpit was fast filling with the dead and the dying. Lieutenant Ram and Mr. Whipple, the captain's clerk, had just expired, when the surgeon, turning from them, was called to the Admiral. Mr. Burke and Dr. Beatty received the feeble fainting frame of their beloved chief from the arms of those who had conveyed him to the cockpit, and placed him in one of the midshipmen's births. The Admiral observed to the Doctor, "You can do nothing for me; I have but a short time to live, my back-bone is shot through." The surgeon soon discovered that the hero was indeed mortally wounded, but except from the Captain and one or two surrounding friends, cautiously concealed the mournful secret until the day was decided. Nelson, now in the agonies of death, constantly and impatiently called for Hardy; but it was long before the Captain could quit the deck, the duty of the Commander-in-chief, during the action, having devolved upon him by the rules of the service. At length Hardy came, and Nelson inquired, How the day went?" Very well, my Lord," replied the Captain, "we have got twelve or fourteen of the enemy's ships

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in our possession; but their van has tacked and shews an intention of bearing down on the Victory; I have therefore called two or three of our best ships about us, and have no doubt of giving them a drubbing." The symptoms of approaching dissolution crept on with resistless power, as the hero lay surrounded by many brave officers and men, similarly situated. The surgeon could do no more, and quitted him to afford his professional aid to less desperate cases. In fifty minutes after his first visit to the cockpit, Hardy returned, and congratulated the Admiral on the capture of fourteen or fifteen sail of the line. "That is well," said Nelson, "but I bargained for twenty;" and then he earnestly exclaimed, " Anchor, Hardy, anchor." To this Hardy replied, “I "I suppose my Lord, Admiral Collingwood will now take upon himself the direction of affairs." "Not while I live, I hope,"

said Nelson, as he ineffectually endeavoured to raise himself from his bed: " No, Hardy, do you anchor." "Shall I make the signal, Sir?" said Hardy, "Yes," answered Nelson, “ for if I live, I will anchor." Shortly after this interesting dialogue, the Captain returned to the quarter-deck, and Nelson, with his last breath, thanked God he had done his duty, and expired in the cockpit of the Victory, at thirty-five minutes past four o'clock, in the afternoon; at the very moment the British and combined fleets were in the position described in the plate.

The sad tidings of his being wounded and without the hope of recovery, had been conveyed to Admiral Collingwood, by Lieutenant Hills of the

Key to the annexed Plate.

Note of the Draftsman." This is a rough sketch of the action, taken after the firing had ceased in the rear, and the enemy's van had wore to recover the prizes, but were so warmly received, that they were obliged to stand on, and with difficulty got away, leaving the Spanish Neptuno to her fate; she struck to the Spartiate and Minotaur. The St. Augustin, one that belonged to the van, bore up and was taken by the Leviathan to leeward.

"The ships not numbered are those whose names I could not find out."

N.B. The author is indebted to an officer of the Neptune for this sketch; it was done by a young gentleman, a midshipman, on board of her, of the name of Herbert, and whom the author thanks for this invaluable meniorandum of that battle.

The ships of Dumauoir's squadron.