That brave officer, Captain Riou, was killed by a raking shot, when the Amazon showed her stern to the Trekroner.

He was sitting on a gun, was encouraging his men, and had been wounded in the head by a splinter.
He had expressed himself grieved at being thus obliged to retreat, and nobly observed, 'What will Nelson think of us ?' His clerk was killed by his side; and by another shot, several of the marines, while hauling on the main-brace, shared the same fate.

Riou then exclaimed, 'Come then, my boys, let us all die together!' The words were scarcely uttered, when the fatal shot severed him in two.

Thus, and in an instant, was the British service deprived of one of its greatest ornaments, and society of a character of singular worth, resembling the heroes of romance." Fortunately for the British, not a ship-of-the-line budged.

Graves had indeed transmitted the order by repeating it, but as he kept that for close action also flying, and did not move himself, the line remained entire throughout a period when the departure of a single ship would have ruined all, and probably caused its own destruction.
This incident of refusing to see the signal has become as hackneyed as a popular ballad, and in its superficial aspect, showing Nelson as the mere fighting man, who, like a plucky dog, could not be dragged off his antagonist, might well now have been dismissed with the shortest and most summary mention.