r way toward the
Resolution.

"Well, gentlemen," the captain said, "I think you will agree with me
that nothing further can be done. The ship is already half full of
water, the magazine is flooded, and the whole of the powder wetted.
The ship is a wreck, and I should be only throwing away the men's lives
uselessly by attempting further resistance."

The officers thoroughly agreed, and with the greatest coolness the
captain gave his orders for the abandonment of the vessel. Although the
French man of war had now opened fire, all the wounded, the whole of
the crew, the flags, papers, and everything of value were placed in the
boats, and the vessel was then set on fire in a dozen places.

After superintending everything personally, and making sure that the
fire had obtained such a hold that it could not be extinguished, Captain
Mordaunt ordered the officers to descend into the boats. Just as he
was about to leave the deck himself, the last man on board the ship,
a cannon shot from the French man of war struck him in the leg. The
officers ran back and raised him from the deck.

"It might have been worse," he said cheerfully. "Now, gentlemen, will
you carry me down and place me in my gig, and then take your boats as
arranged? Be careful, as you row toward shore, to keep the Resolution
between you and the Frenchman's guns."

Everything was done steadily and in order, and the survivors of the crew
of the Resolution reached the shore without further loss. The Resolution
was now in a blaze from end to end, and by eleven o'clock she was burned
to the water's edge. Mordaunt and his crew were kindly received by the
people of the country. As the captain himself would not be able to move
for some time, Jack and Graham said adieu to him and posted to Turin,
where the earl had told them that he should go direct from Leghorn.

They arrived before him, but twenty-four hours after they had reached
the capital of Savoy the earl arrived. He had already heard rumors of
the desperate fight between the Resolution and the enemy, and that his
son had been wounded. His aides de camp were now able to assure him
that, although serious, Captain Mordaunt's wounds were not likely to be
fatal, and Peterborough was delighted with the narrative of the gallant
achievement of his son. Shortly afterward an imperative order for his
return reaching the earl, he set out for England through Germany with
his two aides de camp. Peterborough was suffering fr