code my biddance
Upon our only mast, and tell the van
At once to wear, and come into the fire.
[Aside] If it be true that, as HE sneers, success
Demands of me but cool audacity,
To-day shall leave him nothing to desire!

[Musketry continues. DAUDIGNON falls. He is removed, his post
being taken by LIEUTENANT FOURNIER. Another crash comes, and
the deck is suddenly encumbered with rigging.]

FOURNIER

There goes our foremast! How for signalling now?

VILLENEUVE

To try that longer, Fournier, is in vain
Upon this haggard, scorched, and ravaged hulk,
Her decks all reeking with such gory shows,
Her starboard side in rents, her stern nigh gone!
How does she keep afloat?--
"Bucentaure," O lucky good old ship!
My part in you is played. Ay--I must go;
I must tempt Fate elsewhere,--if but a boat
Can bear me through this wreckage to the van.

FOURNIER

Our boats are stove in, or as full of holes
As the cook's skimmer, from their cursed balls!

[Musketry. VILLENEUVE'S Head-of-Staff, DE PRIGNY, falls wounded,
and many additional men. VILLENEUVE glances troublously from
ship to ship of his fleet.]

VILLENEUVE

How hideous are the waves, so pure this dawn!--
Red-frothed; and friends and foes all mixed therein.--
Can we in some way hail the "Trinidad"
And get a boat from her?

[They attempt to distract the attention of the "Santisima
Trinidad" by shouting.]

Impossible;
Amid the loud combustion of this strife
As well try holloing to the antipodes!...
So here I am. The bliss of Nelson's end
Will not be mine; his full refulgent eve
Becomes my midnight! Well; the fleets shall see
That I can yield my cause with dignity.

[The "Bucentaure" strikes her flag. A boat then puts off from the
English ship "Conqueror," and VILLENEUVE, having surrendered his
sword, is taken out from the "Bucentaure." But being unable to
regain her own ship, the boat is picked up by the "Mars," and
the French admiral is received aboard her. Point of view changes.]

SCENE IV

THE SAME. THE COCKPIT OF THE "VICTORY"

[A din of trampling and dragging overhead, which is accompanied
by a continuos ground-bass roar from the guns of the warring
fleets, culminating at times in loud concussions. The wounded
are lying around in rows for treatment, some groaning, some
silentl