So magnificent, indeed, did the situation of the _Royal Sovereign_ appear, fighting single-handed in the thick of the enemy, that it drew remarks from some of our captains, for the time being lookers-on, on board the nearest ships that were then coming up astern. “The English ships,” to quote Admiral Collingwood’s biographer again, “were pressing forward with their utmost speed in support of their leader, but doubtful at times of his fate, and rejoicing when, on the slackening of the _Santa Anna’s_ fire, they discerned his flag still flying above the smoke. One of his most gallant followers and friend, the captain of the _Tonnant_, has often expressed the astonishment with which he regarded the _Royal Sovereign_ as she opened her fire, which, as he declared, ‘so arrested his attention, that he felt for a few moments as if he himself had nothing to do but to look on and admire!’” How Collingwood bore himself in the battle we hear from two sources. Both accounts speak of Collingwood’s unmoved demeanour and cool courage under fire. “The Admiral,” says one, “directed Captain Vallack, of the Marines, an officer of the greatest gallantry, to take his men from off the poop, that they might not be unnecessarily exposed; but he remained there himself much longer. At length, descending to the quarter-deck, he visited the men, enjoining them not to fire a shot in waste; looking himself along the guns to see that they were properly pointed, and commending the sailors, particularly a black man, who was afterwards killed, but who, while he stood beside him, fired ten times directly into the portholes of the _Santa Anna_.” “The Admiral spoke to me,” related Smith, Collingwood’s servant, “about the middle of the action and again for five minutes immediately after its close; and on neither occasion could I observe the slightest change from his ordinary manner. This, at the moment, made an impression on me which will never be effaced, for I wondered how a person whose mind was occupied by such a variety of most important concerns could, with the utmost ease and equanimity, inquire kindly after my welfare, and talk of common matters as if nothing of any consequence were taking place.” Twenty minutes after the _Sovereign_ had by herself beaten off the _Fougueux_, the leading British ships following astern of the _Sovereign_ began to reach the spot, and to take off her enemies one by one, except the _Santa Anna_. With Admiral Alava’s flagship the _Royal Sovereign_ continued in close encounter, until the _Santa Anna’s_ colours came down. It was just at that moment that Collingwood received, by an officer of the _Victory_, Captain Hardy’s first message that Lord Nelson had been “dangerously wounded.”