endeavoring to escape. With undiminished confidence in the
honor of the English gentleman, with continued chivalric spirit Captain
Winslow refuses to have a shot fired, not crediting the flight, saying
that the yacht was "simply coming round," and would not go away without
communicating. "I could not believe that the commander of that vessel
could be guilty of so disgraceful an act as taking our prisoners, and
therefore took no means to prevent it." Without this trust in chivalry,
Captain Winslow might have arrested the yacht in her flight, if only as
a prudential motive, reserving final action as to the seizure of the
passengers when time had been afforded for reflection.

No shot is fired: the Deerhound finally disappears with the great prize,
Semmes, and thus passed an opportunity of making this brilliant
engagement one of the most complete and satisfactory in naval history.

Captain Winslow erroneously thought that the Deerhound would not run
away with the rescued persons: in this opinion he was probably alone. An
excitement occurred as a consequent; an expression of regret for the
escape of the yacht and her coveted prize, after being as it were within
reach of the victors. The bitterness of the regret was manifest. The
famed Alabama, "a formidable ship, the terror of American commerce,
well armed, well manned, well handled," was destroyed, "sent to the
bottom in an hour," but her notorious commander had escaped: the eclat
of victory seemed already lessened.

At 12.24 the Alabama sank in forty-five fathoms of water, at a distance
of about four and a half miles from Cherbourg Breakwater, off the west
entrance. She was severely hulled between the main and mizzen masts, and
commenced settling by the stern before the termination of the conflict.
Her crew had jumped into the sea, supporting themselves by portions of
the wreck, spars, and other accessible objects, the water swept over the
stern and upper deck, and when thus partially submerged, the mainmast,
pierced by a shot, broke off near the head, the bow lifted from the
waves, and then came the end. Suddenly assuming a perpendicular
position, caused by the falling aft of the battery and stores, straight
as a plumb-line, stern first, she went down, the jibboom being the last
to appear above water. Down sank the terror of merchantmen, riddled
through and through, and as she disappeared to her last resting place,
not a cheer arose from the victors. To borrow the lang