his main-deck ports.

Although the _Cleopatra's_ jibboom had given way, her larboard
main-topmast studding-sail boom-iron had hooked on to the leech rope of
our main-topsail, and was producing so powerful a strain on the mast
that it seemed as if it could not possibly stand a minute longer.
Seeing this, a brave fellow named Burgess, a maintop man, sprang aloft,
and, in spite of the bullets aimed at him by some of the French marines
stationed aft, cut the leech rope from the end of the main-yard.

Our third lieutenant had in the meantime cut away our best bower anchor,
which had hooked on to the enemy's ship.

I was one of those who had got through the main-deck ports. Following
our gallant master, we fought our way aft, the Frenchmen for some time
defending themselves bravely; but they could not resist the impetuosity
of our charge, our cutlasses slashing and hewing, and our pistols going
off within a few inches of their heads. At last many of them began to
cry for quarter.

Although they numbered eighty more men than we did, most of them,
throwing down their weapons, leapt below, tumbling head over heels upon
each other. The rest fled aft, and seeing we had won the day, made no
further resistance. Remarking that the Frenchman's flag was still
flying, I sprang aft to the halyards, and down I hauled it, cheering
lustily as I did so, the cheer being taken up by the remaining crew of
the _Nymph_.

The _Cleopatra_ was ours. Never did I witness a more fearful sight.
The decks fore and aft were slippery with gore, and covered with the
dead and dying. During the short time we had been engaged, upwards of
sixty had been struck down who, not an hour before, full of health and
spirits, had attempted to reply to our cheer. Among them, on one side
of the quarter-deck, lay the gallant Captain Mullon, surrounded by a
mass of gore, for a round shot had torn open his back and carried away
the greater part of his left hip. In one hand he was holding a paper,
at which, strange as it may seem, he was biting away and endeavouring to
swallow. I, with two other men, went up to him to ascertain what he was
about. In the very act his hand fell, his jaw dropped, and there was
the paper sticking in his mouth. He was dead. It evidently, however,
was not the paper he intended to destroy, but, as it turned out, was his
commission; for in his right pocket was found the list of coast signals
used by the French, which, with his last