by shells and burned, and the villages of Flatlands,
Gravesend, and New Utrecht were quickly destroyed.

Shell after shell then fell in Flatbush, and occasionally a terrific
explosion in Prospect Park, in Greenwood Cemetery, and in the outlying
avenues of Brooklyn, showed that the enemy was throwing his missiles
over distances constantly augmenting.

On the morning of the third day a futile attempt was made to blow up the
"Numancia," first by the Lay and then by the Ericsson submarine
torpedo-boats. The Lay boat, however, ran up on the east bank and could
not be got off, and the Ericsson started finely from the shore, but,
apparently, sank before she had gone a mile.

The attack by the "Alarm" and her attendant fleet of torpedo-tugs had
the effect of stopping the bombardment and of concentrating the enemy's
attention upon his own safety. The tugs advanced gallantly to the onset,
six of them rushing almost simultaneously upon the "Vittoria." That
vessel met them with a broadside which sank four at once, and the other
two were riddled by shell from Hotchkiss revolving cannon from the decks
of the Spaniard; their machinery was crippled, and they drifted
helplessly out to sea. Of the others, some ran aground on the bank, some
were sunk, and not one succeeded in exploding her torpedo near a Spanish
vessel. The "Alarm" planted a shell from her bow-rifle, at close range,
squarely into the stern of the "Zaragoza," piercing the armor and
killing a dozen men, besides disabling two guns. She was rammed,
however, by the "Arapiles," and so badly injured as to compel her to
make her escape into shoal water to prevent sinking. There she grounded,
and the Spaniards leisurely made a target of her, although they
considerately permitted her crew to go ashore in their boats without
firing a shot at them.

Meanwhile the remaining citizens of New York had held a mass meeting,
and appointed a committee of Public Safety, with General Grant at its
head. There had been a great popular movement to have that gentleman put
in supreme command of the army, but the authorities at Washington, for
some occult reason, known only to themselves, had offered him a
major-general's commission, which he promptly declined. Then he
deliberately went to the nearest recruiting-station and tried to enlist
as a private; but the recruiting-officer, after recovering his senses,
with which he parted in dumb astonishment for some seconds, refused him
on the ground