ng on board, and they were
at once killed or made prisoners. Captain Lucas, of the "Redoutable," in
the report on the loss of his ship, told how out of a crew of 643 officers
and men, sailors and soldiers, three hundred were killed, and more than two
hundred badly wounded, including most of the officers; the ship was
dismasted, stern-post damaged, and steering gear destroyed, and the stern
on fire; she was leaking badly, and most of the pumps had been shot
through; most of the lower-deck guns were dismounted, some by collision
with the enemy's sides, some by his fire, and two guns had burst. Both
sides of the ship were riddled, in several places two or more ports had
been knocked into one, and the after-deck beams had come down, making a
huge gap in the upper-deck. The "Redoutable," already in a desperate
condition, became a sinking wreck when the "Temeraire" added her fire to
that of the flagship.

But the "Victory" had not inflicted this loss herself unscathed. One of her
masts had gone over the side, and there had been heavy loss on her upper
decks and in her batteries. The wheel was shot away. Several men had been
killed and wounded on the quarter-deck, where Nelson was walking up and
down talking to Captain Hardy. One shot strewed the deck with the bodies of
eight marines. Another smashed through a boat, and passed between Nelson
and Hardy, bruising the latter's foot, and taking away a shoe-buckle. All
the while there came a crackle of musketry from a party of sharpshooters in
the mizen-top of the "Redoutable," only some sixty feet away, and Nelson's
decorations must have made him a tempting target, even if the marksmen did
not know who he was.

At twenty minutes past one he was hit in the left shoulder, the bullet
plunging downwards and backwards into his body. He fell on his face, and
Hardy, turning, saw some of the men picking him up. "They have done for me
at last, Hardy," he said. "I hope not," said the captain. And Nelson
replied: "Yes, my backbone is shot through." But he showed no agitation,
and as the men carried him below he covered his decorations with a
handkerchief, lest the crew should notice them and realize that they had
lost their chief, and he gave Hardy an order to see that tiller-lines were
rigged on the rudder-head, to replace the shattered wheel.

His flag was kept flying, and till the action ended the fleet was not aware
of his loss, and looked to the "Victory" for signals as far as the smok