and the CONQUERANT, fixed herself on the larboard bow of the latter, and
when that ship struck, passed on to the PEUPLE SOUVERAIN. The THESEUS,
Capt Miller, followed, brought down the GUERRIER's remaining main and
mizzen masts, then anchored inside of the SPARTIATE, the third in the
French line.

While these advanced ships doubled the French line, the VANGUARD was
the first that anchored on the outer side of the enemy, within half
pistol-shot of their third ship, the SPARTIATE. Nelson had six colours
flying in different parts of his rigging, lest they should be shot
away; that they should be struck, no British admiral considers as a
possibility. He veered half a cable, and instantly opened a tremendous
fire; under cover of which the other four ships of his division, the
MINOTAUR, BELLEROPHON, DEFENCE, and MAJESTIC, sailed on ahead of the
admiral. In a few minutes, every man stationed at the first six guns in
the fore part of the VANGUARD's deck was killed or wounded. These guns
were three times cleared. Captain Louis, in the MINOTAUR, anchored just
ahead, and took off the fire of the AQUILON, the fourth in the enemy's
line. The BELLEROPHON, Captain Darby, passed ahead, and dropped her
stern anchor on the starboard bow of the ORIENT, seventh in the line,
Brueys' own ship, of one hundred and twenty guns, whose difference of
force was in proportion of more than seven to three, and whose weight of
ball, from the lower deck alone, exceeded that from the whole broadside
of the BELLEROPHON. Captain Peyton, in the DEFENCE, took his station
ahead of the MINOTAUR, and engaged the FRANKLIN, the sixth in the line,
by which judicious movement the British line remained unbroken. The
MAJESTIC, Captain Westcott, got entangled with the main rigging of one
of the French ships astern of the ORIENT, and suffered dreadfully from
that three-decker's fire; but she swung clear, and closely engaging the
HEUREUX, the ninth ship on the starboard bow, received also the fire of