had he wished to do so.
For three hours the ships lay there, side by side, pouring broadsides
into each other; their decks were soon covered with dead and wounded;
two of the Richard's guns burst and her main battery was silenced, but
Jones kept fighting on, for a time with so few guns that the captain of
the Serapis thought he had surrendered.

"Have you struck?" he shouted, through his trumpet.

"No," Jones shouted back, "I have not yet begun to fight!"

The Serapis was on fire and the Richard was sinking, but at this
juncture, one of the men of the Richard crept out along a yardarm, and
dropped a hand grenade down a hatchway of the Serapis. It wrought
fearful havoc, and Pearson struck his flag.

It was time, for the Richard was on fire in two places, all her
main-deck guns were dismounted, and she was sinking fast. She was kept
afloat with great difficulty until morning, giving Jones time to place
his wounded on the Serapis, and to save such of her fittings as could be
removed. The Pallas, another of Jones's ships, had captured the
Scarborough, and with these prizes, Jones put back to France. He was
welcomed with great enthusiasm there, received the thanks of the
Congress, and was designated to command the ship-of-the-line then
building. But he fought no more battles under the Stars and Stripes.
After a brief service with Russia, he returned to Paris, broken in
health, and died there in 1792. His body was only recently brought to
this country and interred with national honors at Annapolis.

We have said that there was only one other naval commander of the
Revolution whose name shines with any lustre to-day--Nicholas Biddle.
His career was a brief and brilliant one. Born in Philadelphia, he had
gone to sea at the age of thirteen, was cast away on a desert island,
was rescued, and enlisted in the English navy, but returned to America
as soon as revolution threatened. He was given command of a little brig
called the Andrea Doria, took a number of prizes, and made so good a
record that in 1776 he was appointed to command the new frigate,
Randolph. Using Charleston, South Carolina, as his base, he captured
four prizes within a few days, but on his second cruise, fell in with a
British sixty-four, the Yarmouth. After a sharp action of twenty
minutes, fire got into the magazine of the Randolph, in some way, and
she blew up, only four of her crew of 310 escaping. The blow was a heavy
one to the American navy, for Biddle