esperate battle was now at its fiercest, raging all round
this furious fire, which lit the blackness of that warm Egyptian night
with devils' tongues of flame. The cannonade went on. But even the
thunder of two thousand guns could not drown the roar of that seething
fire, now eating into the very vitals of the ship, nearer and nearer to
the magazine. Every near-by ship that could move now hauled clear as far
as possible; while the rest closed portholes and hatchways, took their
powder below, sent all hands to fire stations, and breathlessly waited
for the end. Suddenly, as if the sea had opened to let Hell's lightning
loose, the _Orient_ burst like a gigantic shell and crashed like Doomsday
thunder. The nearest ships reeled under the terrific shock, which racked
their hulls from stem to stern and set some leaking badly. Masts, boats,
and twisted rigging flew blazing through the air, fell hissing on the
watered decks, and set two British vessels and one French on fire. But
the crews worked their very hardest, and they saved all three.

[Illustration: THE BLOWING UP OF _L'ORIENT_ DURING THE BATTLE OF THE
NILE.]

For a few awed minutes every gun was dumb. Then the _Franklin_, the
French ship that had taken fire, began the fight again. But the
_Defence_ and _Swiftsure_ brought down her masts, silenced nearly all her
guns, and forced her to surrender. By midnight the first seven ships in
that gallant French line had all been taken or sunk; every man who could
be saved being brought on board the victorious British men-of-war and, of
course, well treated there. The eighth Frenchman, the _Tonnant_, still
kept up the fight, hoping to stop the British from getting at the five
astern. Her heroic captain, Thouars, had, first, his right arm, then his
left, and then his right leg, smashed by cannon balls. But, like Brueys,
he would not leave the deck, and calmly gave his orders till he died.

Dawn found the _Tonnant_ still trying to stem the British advance against
the French rear, and the French frigate _Justice_ actually making for the
disabled British battleship, _Bellerophon_, which she wished to take.
But the light of day soon showed the remaining French that all they could
do for their own side now was to save as many ships as possible. So the
rear then tried to escape. But one blew up; two ran ashore; and, of all
the fleet that was to have made Napoleon's foothold sure, only four
escaped, two from the line of b