In the half-hour that the _Temeraire_ stood by, the battle passed through its crisis, although fighting went on fiercely at many points for another two hours yet. Before half-past two, six or seven of the enemy had given in and could be seen 'lying with British ensigns displayed at the stern over tricolours or Spanish flags.' By three o'clock nearly a third of the enemy's fleet had either struck their colours or were on the point of striking them, and another third were hauling out of line and preparing to quit the battle and run for Cadiz. The Spanish flagship _Santa Ana_, with every mast down and her starboard side shattered to matchwood, had surrendered to the _Royal Sovereign_. The French flagship _Bucentaure_ had hauled down her ensign and Admiral Villeneuve was a prisoner on board the British _Mars_. The surrender of the _Bucentaure_--although perhaps it only comes incidentally into the _Temeraire's_ story--was one of the most dramatic events of Trafalgar. When the French flagship, beaten to a standstill, with her three masts shot down, one after the other within five minutes, was on the point of surrendering, Admiral Villeneuve ordered a boat to be lowered to take him on board another French ship. 'Le _Bucentaure_,' said Villeneuve as he gave the order, 'a rempli sa tache, la mienne n'est pas encore achevee.'[107] But every one of the _Bucentaure's_ boats was found to have been smashed to pieces. Then Villeneuve's flag-captain, Majendie, hurried aft and clambering into the wreckage of the ship's stern gallery with his speaking-trumpet hailed the _Santisima Trinidad_ to send a boat at once. There was no reply. The _Trinidad_ was lying quite close to the _Bucentaure_ at that moment, so close that only a very few yards separated Majendie from her as he hailed, but the tremendous thunder of the guns all round completely overpowered his voice. Nor did any one on board the Spanish ship see him. There was no means of attracting help from elsewhere. The _Bucentaure_ had indeed done her work--and Villeneuve's too. There was left now but one thing to do. The colours of the _Bucentaure_ were hauled down to the nearest British ship,--a seventy-four named, by something of a coincidence, the _Conqueror_,--'and a white handkerchief was waved from her in token of submission.' Captain Israel Pellew was in command of the _Conqueror_. He was at the moment unable to spare Lieutenant Couch, his First Lieutenant, to whom in ordinary course the duty of boarding the prize would have fallen, and being unaware, from the absence throughout the battle of Villeneuve's flag from the _Bucentaure's_ mast-head, that the enemy's Commander-in-Chief had surrendered to him, he told Captain Atcherley of the _Conqueror's_ marines to go in the First Lieutenant's place and take possession of the _Bucentaure_. Atcherley went off in a small boat with two seamen and a corporal and two marines. He was pulled alongside and clambered