MESSRS.  OGILVIE and COLLINGWOOD, Midshipmen of the Victory, were sent in a small boat to take charge of the prize, which they effected.[19] After this, the ships of the Enemy’s van that had shewn a disposition to attack the Victory, passed to windward; and fired their broadsides not only into her and the Temeraire, but also into the French and Spanish captured ships indiscriminately:  and they were seen to back or shiver their topsails for the purpose of doing this with more precision.[20] The two Midshipmen of the Victory had just boarded the Redoutable, and got their men out of the boat, when a shot from the Enemy’s van ships that were making off cut the boat adrift.  About ten minutes after taking possession of her, a Midshipman came to her from the Temeraire; and had hardly ascended the poop, when a shot from one of those ships took off his leg.  The French Officers, seeing the firing continued on the prize by their own countrymen, entreated the English Midshipmen to quit the deck, and accompany them below.  The unfortunate Midshipman of the Temeraire was carried to the French Surgeon, who was ordered to give his immediate attendance to him in preference to his own wounded:  his leg was amputated, but he died the same night.  The Redoutable suffered so much from shot received between wind and water, that she sunk while in tow of the Swiftsure on the following evening, when the gale came on; and out of a crew originally consisting of more than eight hundred men, only about a hundred and thirty were saved:  but she had lost above three hundred in the battle.[21]

It is by no means certain, though highly probable, that Lord NELSON was particularly aimed at by the Enemy.  There were only two Frenchmen left alive in the mizen-top of the Redoutable at the time of His LORDSHIP’S being wounded, and by the hands of one of these he fell.  These men continued firing at Captains HARDY and ADAIR, Lieutenant ROTELY of the Marines, and some of the Midshipman on the Victory’s poop, for some time afterwards.  At length one of them was killed by a musket-ball:  and on the other’s then attempting to make his escape from the top down the rigging, Mr. POLLARD (Midshipman) fired his musket at him, and shot him in the back; when he fell dead from the shrouds, on the Redoutable’s poop.

The Writer of this will not attempt to depict the heart-rending sorrow, and melancholy gloom, which pervaded the breast and the countenance of every individual on board the Victory when His LORDSHIP’S death became generally known.  The anguish felt by all for such a loss, rendered doubly heavy to them, is more easy to be conceived than described:  by his lamented fall they were at once deprived of their adored commander, and their friend and patron.