rd them and divert them from their fleet, would be simply anxious
to get out of their way with the utmost possible despatch. The French,
meanwhile, having watched their enemy lying inert for weeks, and
confident in the gigantic boom which acted as their shield to the
front, and the show of batteries which kept guard over them on either
flank and to the rear, awaited the coming attack in a spirit of
half-contemptuous gaiety. They had struck their topmasts and unbent
their sails, and by way of challenge dressed their fleet with flags.
One ship, the _Calcutta_, had been captured from the English, and by
way of special insult they hung out the British ensign under that
ship's quarter-gallery, an affront whose deadly quality only a sailor
can understand.

The night of the 9th set in stormily. The tide ran fast, and the skies
were black and the sea heavy--so heavy, indeed, that the boats of the
English fleet which were intended to follow and cover the fire-ships
never left the side of the flagship. Cochrane, however, had called the
officers commanding the fire-ships on board his frigate, given them
their last instructions, and at half-past eight P.M. he himself,
accompanied only by a lieutenant and four sailors, cut the moorings of
the chief explosion vessel, and drifted off towards the French fleet.
Seated, that is, on top of 1500 barrels of gunpowder and a sort of
haystack of grenades, he calmly floated off, with a squadron of
fire-ships behind him, towards the French fleet, backed by great shore
batteries, with seventy-three armed boats as a line of skirmishers.
"It seemed to me," says Marryat, who was an actor in the scene, "like
entering the gates of hell!"

The great floating mine drifted on through blackness and storm till,
just as it struck the boom, Cochrane, who previously made his five
assistants get into the boat, with his own hand lit the fuse and in
turn jumped into the boat. How frantically the little crew pulled to
get clear of the ignited mine may be imagined; but wind and sea were
against them. The fuse, which was calculated to burn for twelve
minutes, lasted for only five. Then the 1500 barrels of gunpowder went
simultaneously off, peopling the black sky with a flaming torrent of
shells, grenades, and rockets, and raising a mountainous wave that
nearly swamped the unfortunate boat and its crew. The fault of the
fuse, however, saved the lives of the daring six, as the missiles from
the exploding ve