harged at the same
moment. Nor did the _Aspasia_ suffer less, for her mizen-topmast was
shot through, and her starboard anchor, cut from her bows, fell under
her bottom and tore away the cable (a short range of which Captain
M--- had had the precaution to have on deck, as they fought so close in
shore). This threw the men at the guns into confusion, and brought the
ship up in the wind. The cable was at last separated, and flew out of
the hawse-hole after the anchor, which plunged to the bottom but this
was not effected, until, like an enormous serpent, it had enfolded in
its embraces three or four hapless men, who were carried with dreadful
velocity to the hawse-hole, where their crushed bodies for a time
stopped it from running out, and gave their shipmates an opportunity of
dividing it with their axes.

Order was eventually restored, and the _Aspasia_, who had been raked by
her active opponent during the time that she was thrown up in the wind,
continued her course, and as she passed the stern of the French frigate,
luffed up and returned the compliment. The latter, anxious in his
crippled state for the support of the batteries, which had already
seriously injured his opponent, continued to forge inshore.

"We shall weather her now;--'bout ship, Mr Pearce. Recollect, my
lads," said Captain M---, when the ship was about, "you'll reserve your
fire till we touch her sides; then all hands to board."

The _Aspasia_ ranged up on the weather quarter of her antagonist--
Pearce, the master, conning her by the captain's directions, so that the
fore-chains of the French vessel should be hooked by the spare anchor of
the _Aspasia_. The enemy, who, in his disabled state, was not in a
situation to choose whether he would be boarded or not, poured in a
double-shotted and destructive broadside; and it was well for Captain
M--- that his ship's company had received the reinforcement which they
had from the _Susanne_, for the French frigate was crowded with men, and
being now within pistol-shot, the troops, who were so thick on deck as
to impede the motions of each other, kept up an incessant fire of
musketry, cutting the _Aspasia's_ running rigging, riddling her sails,
and disabling her men.

"Hard a-port now!" cried Pearce, and the vessels came in collision, the
spare anchor in the _Aspasia's_ fore-chains catching and tearing away
the backstays and lanyards of the enemy's fore-rigging, and, with a
violent jerk, bringing down