The surgeon then insisted on examining his wound, which he found, except for the concussion, to be of a trifling nature, though it was some time before he could convince the Admiral of this. But as soon as he had done so, the Admiral sought for some means to allay the tremendous excitement under which he was naturally labouring, while winning so glorious a victory, so he began to write a despatch to the Admiralty. The secretary, who was himself wounded, was so affected by the Admiral's condition that he was unable to guide his pen, so the Admiral sent for the chaplain, and though he came almost immediately he grew so impatient of waiting for him that he commenced to write himself, with his trembling left hand:-- "My Lord,--Almighty God has blest His Majesty's arms----." He had written but little when Captain Berry came down to report that the French Admiral's flagship, the tremendous _Orient_ of 120 guns, was on fire; and, severely wounded as he was, the Admiral instantly staggered up on deck, where the first consideration that struck his mind was concern for the danger of so many lives. But now I must return to the progress of the battle. And here I may remark that in only one instance did a British ship fail to get a signal advantage of the Frenchman engaged, and that, oddly enough, was the _Bellerophon_, which afterwards became so historical. And she paid for her temerity in engaging a ship so tremendously her superior in number of guns as the _Orient_, which mounted 120 to her 74, the disparity in weight of metal being almost double as great. But she held on to the _Orient_ like the British bull-dog that she was, till her masts and cables having been entirely shot away, she drifted out of line to the lee side of the Bay, and was saved in spite of herself. The five ships which engaged the French on the outside, where they had concentrated their force, should naturally have suffered the most severely, as indeed the _Bellerophon_, the _Majestic_, our ship, and the _Minotaur_ did; but the _Defence_, like the _Zealous_, bore charmed lives. She had but four men killed and eleven men wounded, though she laid herself alongside of the _Peuple Souverain_, almost as close as we lay to the _Spartiate_. Her immunity illustrated the value of the Admiral's theory of concentrating your force on part of the enemy and risking the rest. Instead of having the fire of a second Frenchman raking her bows, as we had, she was engaged with the Frenchman which had a second English ship, the _Orion_, pouring broadsides into her almost undefended larboard side. The _Majestic_, too, which was the only ship that lost her captain, owed her great loss to fouling the _Heureux_ as she passed on to her duel with the _Mercure_, which resulted in the latter's capture.