down after we had
been in action little more than an hour. Suddenly as I turned my head I
saw a sight which I would rather have died than have seen. Lord Nelson
was just falling. He went on his knees, then rested on his arm for a
moment, and it, too, giving way, he rolled over on his left side, before
even Captain Hardy could run to save him. Captain Hardy had to remain
on deck. I, with a sergeant of marines and another seaman, carried him
below, covering his face with a handkerchief. We placed him in one of
the midshipmen's berths. Then the surgeons came to him. We feared the
worst, but it was not generally known what had happened. I can tell you
I was glad enough to get on deck again. It was bad enough there to see
poor fellows struck down alongside me, but the sights and sounds in the
cockpit were enough to overcome the stoutest heart--to see fine strong
fellows mangled and torn, struggling in their agony--to watch limb after
limb cut off--to hear their groans and shrieks, and often worse, the
oaths and imprecations of the poor fellows maddened by the terrible
pain; and there lay our beloved chief mortally wounded in the spine,
parched with thirst and heat, crying out for air and drink to cool the
fever raging within. For two hours and a half there he lay suffering
dreadful pain, yet eagerly inquiring how the battle was going. Twice
Captain Hardy went below to see him; the first time to tell him that
twelve of the enemy had struck; the last time that still more had given
in, and that a few were in full flight, after whom our guns were still
sending their shot. Thus Lord Nelson died at the moment the
ever-to-be-remembered battle of Trafalgar was won.

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"It was a sad voyage we had home, and great was the sorrow felt by all,
from the highest to the lowest in the land, for the death of our beloved
leader. I will not describe his funeral. It was very grand, that I
know. Many of the old `Victory's' attended his coffin to his grave in
Saint Paul's Cathedral. When they were lowering his flag into the
tomb--that flag which had truly so long and so gloriously waved in the
battle and the breeze--we seized on it and tearing it in pieces, vowed
to keep it as long as we lived, in remembrance of our noble chief. Here
is my bit--see, I keep it safe in this case near my heart."

England's greatest military chief now lies by the side of one wh