distinguished from the tri-coloured flag of the enemy. The French ships hoisted their colours about twenty minutes past six, P.M.

The French line of battle, beginning at the van, was as follows:-Guerrier, Conquérant, Spartiate, Aquilon, Peuple Souverain, Franklin, Orient, Tonnant, Heureux, Mercure, Guillaume Tell, Généreux, and Timoléon.

The Goliath, commanded by Captain Foley, led the fleet, and, when within a mile of the French, van, was assailed by their starboard guns, as also a cannonade from the batteries. Undeterred, he rounded the bow of the enemy's van ship; thus, having doubled their line, or got on the inner side of it, he dropped his anchor alongside of the Conquérant, second ship in their van, and in the course of ten minutes, shot away her topmasts. Hood, in the Zealous, followed, and having anchored on the bow of the Guerrier, the van ship, in twelve minutes dismasted her. Next came the Orion, commanded by Sir James de Saumarez: the frigate La Serieuse, lying within the line, gave him a broadside, which Sir James returned with his starboard guns, and she instantly went down. He then proceeded to take his station on the bow of the Franklin and the quarter of Le Souverain Peuple, engaging both. The Audacious came next, and let go her anchor on the bow of the Conquérant, having passed between that ship and the Guerrier. Captain Gould instantly began a destructive fire. The Theseus, commanded by Captain Miller, was the fifth and last ship which came inside of the enemy's line. Passing between the Zealous and her opponent the Guerrier, he poured in a broadside as he brushed their sides. Immediately a hot and close action commenced on the inner side of the enemy's line.

While the advanced ships doubled the French line, the Vanguard, Nelson's flagship, had anchored on the outer side of the enemy's line, within half pistol-shot of the

bay. The Swiftsure and Alexander, commanded by Hallowell and Ball, having been sent to look into the port of Alexandria, did not come into action till eight o'clock at night. At three minutes past eight, the Swiftsure, dropping anchor nearly on the spot which had been occupied by the Bellerophon, took her station alongside of the Orient, and opened fire on the bows of that ship and the quarter of the Franklin. Soon after, the Alexander, passing under the stern of L'Orient, raked her, and anchored withinside on his larboard quarter. These two ships, the Swiftsure and Alexander, entered the bay, and took up their position with as much precision as if they had been performing certain evolutions in a review at Spithead. The Leander, Captain Thompson, which had gone to the assistance of the Culloden, finding that no effort could move that ship till she could be lightened, hastened to the scene of action, and anchoring athwart the Franklin, raked her with great effect. The battle now raged with indescribable fury, though both sea and land were enveloped in darkness, illuminated only at intervals by the fire of the hostile fleets. Nelson's ship suffered severely. The men working the forecastle guns had been three times swept off in the course of the action, and the admiral himself was badly wounded, and had to be taken down to the cockpit. But Captain Berry so well supplied his place, that as Nelson remarked, in his despatch, "the service suffered no loss by that event." Nothing could be more grand than the sight this battle presented to the spectators who witnessed it on shore. The volumes of flame which at intervals burst through the clouds of smoke, and cast a lurid glare upon the combatants, half-naked and begrimed with smoke and gunpowder, gave to the scene a most startling effect; whilst the roar of upwards of 2,000 cannon sounded more like the artillery of heaven in some grand convulsion of nature, than the contest of mortals in those

"Oak leviathans whose huge ribs make Their clay creators the vain title take

Of lords of thee [the sea], and arbiters of war."

The Guerrier, the foremost ship in the French van, received a raking broadside from each of the English ships as they passed her, and having also suffered severely from the broadsides of the Zealous, without being able to do any serious damage to her adversary, was the first to strike her colours. Before doing this, however, she had made a gallant defence, and ere her flag was hauled down, she had lost her three masts and her bowsprit. The whole of her head was shot away; and the two anchors on her bows were each cut in two. Two of her foremost ports were knocked into one; the masts had fallen in-board, and with the rigging, still lay over the dead and living of the crew. 'The Conquérant, also, from the position she occupied in the enemy's line, received a portion of the fire of the various ships that passed her; and the Goliath and Audacious poured such a destructive fire into her, that in a short time her fore and mizen-masts were shot away, and before she was half-an-hour in action she struck her colours. Her opponents in the encounter had not, however, come off scatheless, both vessels having suffered severely. The Spartiate was the next vessel that hauled down her flag, but not till she had felt the weight of the Vanguard's heavy broadside, as well as having stood for some time the direct fire of the Theseus. The French ship, L'Aquilon, occupied a position which enabled her to pour a raking and destructive fire on board the English admiral's ship, and the numbers who fell on board the Vanguard proved the fatal accuracy with which her shot told. The Minotaur and the Theseus, however, in a short time silenced the guns of the Aquilon, and compelled her to surrender. The Souverain Peuple also struck her flag

• Part of L'Orient's mainmast was picked up by the Swiftsure. Captain Hallowell directed his carpenter to make a coffin of it; with which Hallowell sent the following letter to the rearadmiral :-" Sir, I have taken the liberty of presenting you a coffin made from the mainmast of D'Orient, that when you have finished your military career in this world, you may be buried in one of your trophies. But that that period may be far distant, is the earnest wish of your sincere friend, Benjamin Hallowell." An offering, so suited to the occasion,

and quitted the line. Thus by half-past nine, five ships of the hostile fleet had surrendered; and about ten o'clock, L'Orient, the French admiral's flag-ship, with £600,000 sterling on board-the plunder of Maltablew up with so tremendous an explosion, that every ship in both fleets shook to its centre; and so great was the consternation, that the battle was suspended for nearly a quarter-of-an-hour.*

James, in his Naval History, gives the following account of this catastrophe :"At about ten, the Orient blew up with a tremendous explosion. Any description of the awful scene would fall far short: we shall, therefore, confine ourselves to the effect it produced upon the adjacent ships. The Alexander, Swiftsure, and Orion, as the three nearest, had made every preparation for the event; such as, closing their ports and hatchways, removing from the decks all combustible materials, and having ready with their buckets a numerous body of firemen. The shock shook the ships to their kelsons; opened their seams; and, in other respects, did them considerable injury. The flaming mass flew over the Swiftsure, as was wisely conjectured by her commander, when urged to attempt moving further off; but a part of it fell on board the Alexander, who lay at a somewhat greater distance from the Orient, on her lee-quarter. A port-fire set the Alexander's main-royal in flames; and some pieces of the burning wreck set fire to the jib. In both quarters the crew extinguished the flames; but not without cutting away the jib-boom and spritsail-yard. The Alexander, with the little air of wind that the cannonade, and the more mighty concussion that interrupted it, had left, then dropped to a safer distance. Among the French ships, the Franklin received the greatest share of the Orient's wreck: her decks were covered with red-hot seams, pieces of timber, and burning ropes; and she caught fire, but succeeded in extinguishing it. The Tonnant had, just before the explosion, cut or slipped her cable, and

was received by Nelson in the spirit in which it was sent. As if he felt it proper to have death present to his thoughts and eyes, he ordered the coffin to be placed upright in his cabin. But the odd piece of furniture not being quite agreeable to the feelings of his guests, he was persuaded by the entreaties of an old favourite servant, to have it carried below, but with strict injunctions for its preservation until the purpose for which its donor had designed it, occurred. In that singular present he buried.

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