The dreadful scenes on the decks of the _Santissima Trinidad_ might almost have been paralleled on some of the British ships. Thus the _Belleisle_, Collingwood's immediate supporter, sustained the fire of two French and one Spanish line-of-battle ships until she was dismasted. The wreck of her mizzen-mast covered her larboard guns, her mainmast fell upon the break of the poop; her larboard broadside was thus rendered useless; and just then another French line-of-battle ship, the _Achille_, took her position on the _Belleisle's_ larboard quarter, and opened on her a deadly fire, to which the British ship could not return a shot. This scene lasted for nearly an hour and a half, but at half-past three the _Swiftsure_ came majestically up, passed under the _Belleisle's_ stern--the two crews cheering each other, the _Belleisle's_ men waving a Union Jack at the end of a pike to show they were still fighting, while an ensign still flew from the stump of the mainmast--and the fury with which the _Swiftsure_ fell upon the _Achille_ may be imagined. The _Defiance_ about the same time took off the _Aigle_, and the _Polyphemus_ the _Neptune_, and the much-battered _Belleisle_ floated free. Masts, bowsprit, boats, figure-head--all were shot away; her hull was pierced in every direction; she was a mere splintered wreck. The _Temeraire_ fought a battle almost as dreadful. The _Africa_, a light ship carrying only sixty-four guns, chose as her antagonist the _Intrepide_, a French seventy-four, in weight of broadside and number of crew almost double her force. How dreadful were the damages sustained by the British ship in a fight so unequal and so stubborn may be imagined; but she clung to her big antagonist until, the _Orion_ coming up, the _Intrepide_ struck.