L VILLENEUVE, the FLAG-CAPTAIN
MAGENDIE, LIEUTENANTS DAUDIGNON, FOURNIER, and others, anxiously
occupied. The whole crew is in desperate action of battle and
stumbling among the dead and dying, who have fallen too rapidly
to be carried below.]

VILLENEUVE

We shall be crushed if matters go on thus.--
Direct the "Trinidad" to let her drive,
That this foul tangle may be loosened clear!

DAUDIGNON

It has been tried, sir; but she cannot move.

VILLENEUVE

Then signal to the "Hero" that she strive
Once more to drop this way.

MAGENDIE

We may make signs,
But in the thickened air what signal's marked?--
'Tis done, however.

VILLENEUVE

The "Redoubtable"
And "Victory" there,--they grip in dying throes!
Something's amiss on board the English ship.
Surely the Admiral's fallen?

A PETTY OFFICER

Sir, they say
That he was shot some hour, or half, ago.--
With dandyism raised to godlike pitch
He stalked the deck in all his jewellery,
And so was hit.

MAGENDIE

Then Fortune shows her face!
We have scotched England in dispatching him. [He watches.]
Yes! He commands no more; and Lucas, joying,
Has taken steps to board. Look, spars are laid,
And his best men are mounting at his heels.

VILLENEUVE

Ah, God--he is too late! Whence came the hurl
Of heavy grape? The smoke prevents my seeing
But at brief whiles.--The boarding band has fallen,
Fallen almost to a man.--'Twas well assayed!

MAGENDIE

That's from their "Temeraire," whose vicious broadside
Has cleared poor Lucas' decks.

VILLENEUVE

And Lucas, too.
I see him no more there. His red planks show
Three hundred dead if one. Now for ourselves!

[Four of the English three-deckers have gradually closed round
the "Bucentaure," whose bowsprit still sticks fast in the gallery
of the "Santisima Trinidad." A broadside comes from one of the
English, resulting in worse havoc on the "Bucentaure." The main
and mizzen masts of the latter fall, and the boats are beaten to
pieces. A raking fire of musketry follows from the attacking
ships, to which the "Bucentaure" heroically continues still to
keep up a reply.

CAPTAIN MAGENDIE falls wounded. His place is taken by LIEUTENANT
DAUDIGNON.]

VILLENEUVE

Now that the fume has lessened,