every side.
At a critical moment the two ships fouled, exposing the "Chesapeake"
to a raking broadside, which beat in her stern-ports, and drove the
gunners from the after-port. At this moment, Lawrence was wounded in
the leg, but remained at his post and ordered that the boarders be
called up. Unhappily a negro bugler had been detailed for the duty
usually performed by drummers; and, at this important moment, he could
not be found. Midshipmen and lieutenants ran about the ship, striving
to call up the boarders by word of mouth. In the confusion, the bugler
was found skulking under the stem of the launch, and so paralyzed by
fear that he could only give a feeble blast upon his instrument. In
the din and confusion of battle, the oral orders of the officers only
perplexed the men; and the moment for boarding was lost. At that very
moment, the turning-point of the conflict, Capt. Lawrence was struck
by a musket-ball, and fell mortally wounded to the deck. His officers
rushed to his side, and, raising him gently, were carrying him below,
when in a firm voice he cried,--

"Tell the men to fire faster, and not give up the ship. Fight her till
she sinks."

With these words on his lips, he was carried to the wardroom.

At this moment, the upper deck was left without an officer above the
rank of midshipman. The men, seeing their captain carried below, fell
into a panic, which was increased by the explosion of an arm-chest,
into which a hand-grenade, hurled by a sailor lying out on the
yard-arm of the "Shannon," had fallen. Seeing that the fire of the
Americans had slackened, Capt. Broke left his quarter-deck, and,
running hastily forward, gained a position on the bow of his ship from
which he could look down upon the decks of the "Chesapeake." His
practised eye quickly perceived the confusion on the deck of the
American frigate; and he instantly ordered that the ships be lashed
together, and the boarders called up. An old quartermaster, a veteran
in the British navy, set about lashing the ships together, and
accomplished his task, although his right arm was actually hacked off
by the cutlass of an American sailor. The boarders were slow in coming
up, and but twenty men followed Broke as he climbed to the deck of
the "Chesapeake." Broke led his men straight for the quarter-deck of
the frigate. The Americans offered but little resistance. Not an
officer was in sight to guide the men, and the newly enlisted sailors
and foreign