er fire-ships followed. He was accompanied by a
boat's crew of four volunteers only, in addition to the lieutenant.
Having nearly reached the boom, he ordered the lieutenant and his men to
get into the boat while he ignited the port-fires. It was supposed that
the fusees would burn fifteen minutes, by the end of which time the boat
might be well out of the range of the grenades; but scarcely five
minutes had elapsed ere a terrific explosion occurred, throwing up a
huge wave which nearly swamped the boat, while grenades and rockets were
darting round them on all sides, shells and missiles of every
description rising in the air. The escape of Lord Cochrane and his
companions was almost miraculous, for not one of them was hit. The
fire-ship, too, had performed her destined work, if not as completely as
had been desired, sufficiently so to enable the _Mediator_ fire-ship,
Commander Woolridge, to force her way. In his eagerness to direct her
against the enemy, he remained till the explosion actually occurred,
when he, with two lieutenants, a seaman, and the gunner, who was killed,
were blown out of the ship. So well directed were the six other
fire-ships that two fell on board the _Ocean_, of 120 guns, and the
_Regulus_, a 74, the former being compelled to cut her cables, and she
soon afterwards, narrowly escaping the Pallas Shoal, ran on shore, where
she again had a narrow escape from another fire-ship. So panic-stricken
were the French crews that every effort to escape was made. The scene
was indeed truly terror-inspiring, the darkness rendering the effect of
the burning ships, the flight of shells and rockets, and the flashes of
the guns awful in the extreme.

The danger in which the French ships were placed will best be understood
from an account written by one of the officers of the _Ocean_, the
French admiral's flag-ship. After the _Ocean_, narrowly escaping being
blown up, had grounded, a burning fire-ship grappled her athwart her
stern. Every effort was made to prevent the fire from catching the
ship; the engine playing, completely wetted the poop, while spars were
used to heave off the fire-ship, and axes to cut the lashings of her
grapnels fastened to the end of her yards; but the _chevaux-de-frise_ on
her sides held her firm. The flames from the fire-ship covering the
whole of the poop, it seemed impossible that the _Ocean_ could escape.
At this juncture two other line-of-battle ships, the _Tonnerre_ and