cut the centre and the rearguard. As soon as the wind allowed him, Dumanoir went to the aid of the Bucentaure and the Santísima Trinidad. He found the two vessels completely dismasted. The Formidable had suffered a great deal herself and was making six feet of water an hour. Her mast was ready to fall and was only held back by the shrouds. In this situation, Dumanoir simply decided to hold the wind and sent a signal to the other ships in his fleet to do the same. Other authors write that he remained a motionless spectator even though he still had the Formidable, the Duguay-Trouin, the Scipion and the Mont Blanc under his command, and that he walked away without fighting. Only the Intrepid of Captain Infernet and the Neptuno of Captain Valdés disobeyed him and threw themselves into the heart of the battle, to their loss. Dumanoir's four other ships crossed at close quarters and moved away without much fighting. When he saw only English men on the battlefield and the allied squadron was no longer in sight, Dumanoir had his squadron take the western flank. Ten days passed according to the strength of the winds while the wing tried to repair the damage. The Formidable, which continued to make six to seven feet of water per hour, had to throw her battery of forecastles and 22 guns out of service into the sea. Thus the Formidable, in complete disrepair, and the three ships that followed her, encountered an enemy flotilla of four ships and four frigates on 5 November, under Cape Ortegal. Dumanoir fought against Commodore Strachan, lost his four ships, forced to surrender after a bloody battle lasting nearly five hours and wounded in the head, fell to the English. The Duguay-Trouin, the Formidable, the Mont Blanc and the Scipion were taken to Plymouth. In this fight, Dumanoir received three serious injuries. He remained for some time a prisoner on parole and returned to France in July 1806 where his conduct during the Trafalgar campaign was strongly condemned, particularly by some of the surviving captains (Lucas, Infernet, and Villeneuve himself). He remained unassigned, was brought before a board of enquiry in December 1809, and reprimanded; he demanded to appear before a maritime war council composed of senators Fleuriot and Bougainville and admirals Thévenard and de Rosily in March 1810, he was acquitted. Dumanoir explained the retreat