"Boarders! repel boarders!"
Our crew, leaving the guns on the starboard side, seized their weapons;
some stood armed with cutlasses and pistols, others with pikes, at the
place where the Frenchmen were likely to try and gain a footing on our
deck. Our larboard guns were still replying to the fire of the frigate
on that quarter; but she now making sail, ranged up alongside,
receiving, however, a heavy fire from our guns as she did so. A large
body of her men, with the soldiers, stood on the forecastle, ready to
leap aboard.
"You must drive those fellows back," cried Nettleship. "Come on, my
lads," he shouted to such of the men as were near him, among whom was
Larry. Tom also, who saw what we were about, quickly joined us.
Just as the first Frenchman sprang on to our deck, Nettleship's sword
cut him down. Others, however, followed, but our men fought
desperately. Though the enemy came rushing on board, not an inch of
ground did they gain.
Presently, a big fellow--the boatswain, apparently, from his dress--
joined his shipmates, and attacked Nettleship. I saw another close
behind him, aiming a pistol at his head. I sprang forward and knocked
it up just as it exploded, and the next moment dealt the Frenchman a
blow on his sword arm, which saved Nettleship's life. The fellow whose
pistol I had knocked up, however, had his cutlass uplifted to strike me
down, when Larry, who was by my side, parried the blow with his cutlass,
and, though he got a severe wound, he brought the man to the deck by a
blow which he gave the next moment. Others of our crew now coming to
our assistance, we drove back the enemy, who had nearly gained a
footing.
The fight all the time was going on fiercely on the starboard side, and
we could not tell whether the Frenchmen were getting the best of it.
As we had begun the action with but three hundred men, many of whom had
been killed or wounded, and invalids who had scarcely strength to handle
their weapons, and the French had upwards of six hundred, it might be
seen that our chance of success was very small indeed. Our men,
however, fought with the most desperate courage. Captain Bouchier, with
Captain Drury--who was a passenger--and several of the lieutenants,
headed the men on the starboard side in repelling the enemy; while the
master and two of the other lieutenants and the purser encouraged those
on our side of the deck.
Directly the Frenchmen had been driven back, the second lieutenant,
calling off a portion of the men, hurried to the guns, when their
thundering roar, with the crashing sounds which followed, showed us that
their shot were creating a dire effect on the bows of our antagonist.
All this time a withering fire of musketry had been kept up on us from a
body of troops stationed on the forecastles of the French frigates, and
many of our poor fellows had been struck down.
Again and again the Frenchmen attempted to gain a footing on our deck,
some springing down from the fore-rigging, others clambering up from the
forecastle, and all the time the guns roaring, the musketry and pistols
rattling, the cutlasses clashing, the men shouting and shrieking, while
the ships surged against each other with tremendous crashes,--many of
the Frenchmen who were driven overboard being crushed to death between
them. This continued, not for the few minutes which it has taken me to
describe the scene, but for an hour or more, and it seemed sometimes
that all the three ships must go down together.
Our marines were not idle, for some stationed on the forecastle, and
others on the poop, kept up a hot fire on the enemy.
At length our ship tore herself from her two antagonists almost at the
same moment; and they apparently gave up all hopes of taking us by
boarding, as they didn't attempt again to come close alongside, though
their fire was even more destructive than at first, for now one passed
under our stern and raked us, now the other performed the same
manoeuvre; while we, with our braces shot away, our masts and yards
injured, and our sails shot through and torn, were unable to move with
sufficient swiftness to avoid them.
Already numbers of our men had fallen. I frequently looked round to see
how it fared with Larry, Tom Pim, and Nettleship, and was thankful to
find them still actively engaged at the guns, at which most of the
officers were assisting the men.