al men.
The sailors are restless at their double-shotted guns.

Now the two frigates are fairly abreast, and within pistol shot of
each other.

"Now, boys, do your duty. Fire!" shouts the gallant commander, at the
top of his voice.

Hull is a short and stout man. As he leans over to give the order to
fire, his breeches burst from hip to knee. The men roar with
laughter. There is no time to waste, however, and so he finishes the
battle in his laughable plight.

An officer, pointing to the captain, cries, "Hull her, boys! hull
her!"

The men, catching the play upon words, shout, "Hull her! Yes, we'll
hull her!"

{178} "Old Ironsides" now lets fly a terrible broadside at close
range. The Guerriere's mizzenmast goes overboard.

"My lads, you have made a brig of that craft!" cries Hull.

"Wait a moment, sir, and we'll make her a sloop!" shout back the
sailors.

Sure enough, the Guerriere swings round and gets a raking fire, which
cuts away the foremast and much of the rigging, and leaves her a
helpless hulk in the trough of the sea. The flag goes down with the
rigging, and there is nothing to do but to surrender.

In just thirty minutes, the British frigate is a wreck.

During the hottest part of the battle, a sailor, at least so runs the
story, saw a cannon ball strike the side of the vessel and fall back
into the sea.

"Hurrah, boys! hurrah for 'Old Ironsides'!" he shouted to his mates;
"her sides are made of iron."

Some say that from this incident the nickname of "Old Ironsides" took
its origin.

Captain Hull received his old friend Dacres, kindly, on board the
Constitution, and said, "I see you are wounded, Dacres. Let me help
you."

When the British captain offered his sword, Hull said, "No, Dacres, I
cannot take the sword of a man who knows so well how to use it, but I
will thank you for that hat!"

[Illustration: Hull refuses Dacres's Sword]

Just as they were ready to blow up the Guerriere, Dacres remembered
that a Bible, his wife's gift, which {179} he had carried with him
for years, had been left behind. Captain Hull at once sent a boat
after it.

Twenty-five years after this incident, Captain Dacres, then an
admiral, gave Hull a dinner on his flagship, at Gibraltar, and told
the ladies the story of his wife's Bible.

When "Old Ironsides" came sailing up the harbor, on the last day of
August, what a rousing reception the people of Boston gave Captain
Hull and his gallant men!

All th