m 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 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 tremendous explosion 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 hei