ldiers
besides her crew, replied with rapid volleys of musketry, and, as the
frigate passed ahead, sheered impetuously towards her, attempting to
board, and in her turn grazing the stern of the _Indefatigable_. In
another hour the _Amazon_ drew up, and then the British vessels took
their positions, one on either bow of the _Droits de l'Homme_, whence,
by movements of the helm, they alternately raked her. The labor of the
gunners, however, was arduous, due to the deep rolling of the ships, on
board which, also, the seas poured in volumes through the gun-ports. On
the main decks the men fought up to their middles in water, the heavy
cannon broke away from the breechings, or ropes used to control them,
and even iron bolts tore out from the ships' sides under the severe
recoil of the guns. Thus through the long winter night the three ships
rushed headlong before the gale towards the French coast, intent on
mutual destruction; the constant storm of shot, though flying wild under
the violent motions of the vessels, tearing through spars and rigging,
and crippling them in much that was essential to their safety.

At four o'clock in the morning of the 14th, long before daybreak, land
was sighted right ahead. The _Indefatigable_ hauled at once to the
southward, the _Amazon_ to the northward; the enemy alone, seemingly
unconscious of the danger, kept on, and as she passed Pellew's ship
fired a broadside which severely wounded all the masts. The situation of
the combatants was well-nigh desperate. They had reached the coast of
France at a point where it forms a deep recess, called Audierne Bay,
from either side of which project capes that must be cleared in order to
gain once more the open sea. One only of the three escaped. The _Droits
de l'Homme_, unmanageable for want of sail power, tried to anchor, but
drove, and struck on a shoal some distance from the beach. Of sixteen
hundred souls on board when the battle began, over one hundred had been
killed; and of those who survived the fight three hundred perished in
the wreck. The _Amazon_, likewise crippled, though not so badly, had
gone ashore to the northward only ten minutes after she ceased firing.
Of her people, but six were drowned. The _Indefatigable_, beating back
and forth against the gale before the scene of the French disaster, upon
which her crew gazed with the solemn feeling that such might soon be
their own fate, succeeded at last in clearing the southern cape. At
ele