Flashes from a lighthouse on shore show the men leaping overboard and
the boat sinking lower and lower. The Austrians have ceased their fire.
"We marched forward singing the 'Marseillaise,'" said Joffry, "and with
a cry of 'Vive la France!' we jumped. Then, nothing under our feet.
Good-by _Monge_!"
We felt the shock of an explosion. The floating debris of the deck
helped us to swim. Twelve of us clung to a floating gangway, swimming
with our feet, for half an hour. Quartermasters Morel and Goulard were
missing.
At last boats from the enemy destroyers came and picked us up.
And Morillot? He went down with the _Monge_. The details of his end are
uncertain, but it is not difficult to reconstruct them. Joffry says:
"He did not come up on deck. He remained at his post. Very calmly he
stood watching the manometer reveal the gradual sinking of the vessel
under him. He was surely saying in his heart 'If only my men can get
away in time!' He told the last of us to hurry, and he helped us to
find our way. What he did when he saw us all safe I do not know, but it
seemed to me that the _Monge_ sank more swiftly. He might have opened
the water ballast valves to make her sink before the hand of the Boches
could touch her. That is undoubtedly what he did, but I did not see
him, nor did any one."
And Mahe, who was in the control chamber, says: "The captain told us:
'Our poor _Monge_ is lost, but you have yet time. Come this way, my
lads.' He opened the door and added: 'Au revoir, and courage, my lads!'
I dared not tell him to come up with us, for I saw he had made up his
mind to die with his ship, as he had already told some of us he would."