remember it. Captain Hallowell, in the SWIFTSURE, as he was bearing
down, fell in with what seemed to be a strange sail. Nelson had directed

his ships to hoist four lights horizontally at the mizzen peak as soon
as it became dark; and this vessel had no such distinction. Hallowell,

however, with great judgment, ordered his men not to fire: if she was an
enemy, he said, she was in too disabled a state to escape; but from her

sails being loose, and the way in which her head was, it was probable
she might be an English ship. It was the BELLEROPHON, overpowered by the

huge ORIENT: her lights had gone overboard, nearly 200 of her crew were
killed or wounded, all her masts and cables had been shot away; and she

was drifting out of the line toward the leeside of the bay. Her station,
at this important time, was occupied by the SWIFTSURE, which opened a

steady fire on the quarter of the FRANKLIN and the bows of the French
admiral. At the same instant, Captain Ball, with the ALEXANDER, passed

under his stern, and anchored within-side on his larboard quarter,
raking; him, and keeping up a severe fire of musketry upon his decks.

The last ship which arrived to complete the destruction of the enemy was
the LEANDER. Captain Thompson, finding that nothing could be done that

night to get off the CULLODEN, advanced with the intention of anchoring
athwart-hawse of the ORIENT. The FRANKLIN was so near her ahead that

there was not room for him to pass clear of the two; he therefore took
his station athwart-hawse of the latter in such a position as to rake

both.
The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted within a

quarter of an hour after the commencement of the action; and the others
had in that time suffered so severely that victory was already certain.

The third, fourth, and fifth were taken possession of at half-past
eight.

Meantime Nelson received a severe wound on the head from a piece of
langridge shot. Captain Berry caught him in his arms as he was falling.

The great effusion of blood occasioned an apprehension that the wound
was mortal: Nelson himself thought so; a large flap of the skin of the

forehead, cut from the bone, had fallen over one eye; and the other
being blind, he was in total darkness. When he was carried down, the

surgeon--in the midst of a scene scarcely to be conceived by those who
have never seen a cockpit in time of action, and the heroism which is

displayed amid its horrors,--with a natural and pardonable eagerness,
quitted the poor fellow then under his hands, that he might instantly

attend the admiral. "No!" said Nelson, "I will take my turn with my
brave fellows." Nor would he suffer his own wound to be examined till

every man who had been previously wounded was properly attended to.
Fully believing that the wound was mortal, and that he was about to die,

as he had ever desired, in battle, and in victory, he called the
chaplain, and desired him to deliver what he supposed to be his dying

remembrance to lady Nelson; he then sent for Captain Louis on board
from the MINOTAUR, that he might thank him personally for the great

assistance which he had rendered to the VANGUARD; and ever mindful of
those who deserved to be his friends, appointed Captain Hardy from the

brig to the command of his own ship, Captain Berry having to go home
with the news of the victory. When the surgeon came in due time to exa-

mine his wound (for it was in vain to entreat him to let it be examined
sooner), the most anxious silence prevailed; and the joy of the wounded

men, and of the whole crew, when they heard that the hurt was merely
superficial, gave Nelson deeper pleasure than the unexpected assurance

that his life was in no danger. The surgeon requested, and as far as he
could, ordered him to remain quiet; but Nelson could not rest. He called

for his secretary, Mr. Campbell, to write the despatches. Campbell had
himself been wounded, and was so affected" target="_blank" title="a.做作的；假装的">affected at the blind and suffering

state of the admiral that he was unable to write. The chaplain was then
sent for; but before he came, Nelson with his characteristic eagerness

took the pen, and contrived to trace a few words, marking his devout
sense of the success which had already been obtained. He was now left

alone; when suddenly a cry was heard on the deck that the ORIENT was on
fire. In the confusion he found his way up, unassisted and unnoticed;

and, to the astonishment of every one, appeared on the quarter-decks
where he immediately gave order that the boats should be sent to the

relief of the enemy.
It was soon after nine that the fire on, board the ORIENT broke out.

Brueys was dead; he had received three wounds, yet would not leave his
post: a fourth cut him almost in two. He desired not to be carried

below, but to be left to die upon deck. The flames soon mastered his
ship. Her sides had just been painted; and the oil-jars and paint

buckets were lying on the poop. By the prodigious light of this
conflagration, the situation of the two fleets could now be perceived,

the colours of both being clearly distinguishable. About ten o'clock the
ship blew up, with a shock which was felt to the very bottom of every

vessel. Many of her officers and men jumped overboard, some clinging to
the spars and pieces of wreck with which the sea was strewn, others

swimming to escape from the destruction which they momently dreaded.
Some were picked up by our boats; and some even in the heat and fury of

the action were dragged into the lower ports of the nearest British
ships by the British sailors. The greater part of her crew, however,

stood the danger till the last, and continued to fire from the lower
deck. This tremendousexplosion was followed by a silence not less

awful: the firing immediately ceased on both sides; and the first sound
which broke the silence, was the dash of her shattered masts and yards,

falling into the water from the vast height to which they had been
exploded. It is upon record that a battle between two armies was once

broken off by an earthquake. Such an event would be felt like a miracle;
but no incident in war, produced by human means, has ever equalled the

sublimity of this co-instantaneous pause, and all its circumstances.
About seventy of the ORIENT's crew were saved by the English boats.

Among the many hundreds who perished were the commodore, Casa-Bianca,
and his son, a brave boy, only ten years old. They were seen floating on

a shattered mast when the ship blew up. She had money on board (the
plunder of Malta) to the amount of L600,000 sterling. The masses of

burning wreck, which were scattered by the explosion, excited for some
moments apprehensions in the English which they had never felt from any

other danger. Two large pieces fell into the main and fore tops of the
SWIFTSURE without injuring any person. A port-fire also fell into the

main-royal of the ALEXANDER; the fire which it occasioned was speedily
extinguished. Captain Ball had provided, as far as human foresight could

provide, against any such danger. All the shrouds and sails of his ship,
not absolutely necessary for its immediate management, were thoroughly

wetted, and so rolled up that they were as hard and as little
inflammable as so many solid cylinders.

The firing recommenced with the ships to leeward of the centre, and
continued till about three. At daybreak, the GUILLAUME TELL and the

GENEREUX, the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only French ships of
the line which had their colours flying; they cut their cables in the

forenoon, not having been engaged, and stood out to sea, and two
frigates with them. The ZEALOUS pursued; but as there was no other ship

in a condition to support Captain Hood, he was recalled. It was
generally believed by the officers that if Nelson had not been wounded,

not one of these ships could have escaped. The four certainly could not
if the CULLODEN had got into action; and if the frigates belonging to

the squadron had been present, not one of the enemy's fleet would have
left Aboukir Bay. These four vessels, however, were all that escaped;

and the victory was the most complete and glorious in the annals of
naval history. "Victory," said Nelson, "is not a name strong enough for

such a scene:" he called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the line,
nine were taken and two burned. Of the four frigates, one was sunk,

another, the ARTEMISE, was burned in a villanous manner by her captain,
M. Estandlet, who, having fired a broadside at the THESEUS, struck his

colours, then set fire to the ship and escaped with most of his crew to
shore. The British loss, in killed and wounded, amounted to 895 Westcott

was the only captain who fell; 3105 of the French, including the
wounded, were sent on shore by cartel, and 5225 perished.

As soon as the conquest was completed, Nelson sent orders through the
fleet to return thanksgiving in every ship for the victory with which

Almighty God had blessed his majesty's arms. The French at Rosetta, who
with miserable fear beheld the engagement, were at a loss to understand

the stillness of the fleet during the performance of this solemn duty;
but it seemed to affect many of the prisoners, officers as well as men;

and graceless and godless as the officers were, some of them remarked
that it was no wonder such order was Preserved in the British navy, when