emselves. Part of the equipment of the _Chesapeake_
consisted of several hundred pairs of handcuffs, intended for the
wrists of English prisoners. Boston citizens prepared a banquet in
honour of the victors for the same evening, and a small fleet of
pleasure-boats followed the _Chesapeake_ as she came gallantly out to
the fight.

Never was a braver, shorter, or more murderous fight. Laurence, the
most gallant of men, bore steadily down, without firing a shot, to the
starboard quarter of the _Shannon_. When within fifty yards he luffed;
his men sprang into the shrouds and gave three cheers. Broke fought
with characteristic silence and composure. He forbade his men to
cheer, enforced the sternest silence along his deck, and ordered the
captain of each gun to fire as his piece bore on the enemy. "Fire into
her quarters," he said, "main-deck into main-deck, quarter-deck into
quarter-deck. Kill the men, and the ship is yours."

The sails of the _Chesapeake_ swept betwixt the slanting rays of the
evening sun and the _Shannon_, the drifting shadow darkened the English
main-deck ports, the rush of the enemy's cut-water could be heard
through the grim silence of the _Shannon's_ decks. Suddenly there
broke out the first gun from the _Shannon_; then her whole side leaped
into flame. Never was a more fatal broadside discharged. A tempest of
shot, splinters, torn hammocks, cut rigging, and wreck of every kind
was hurled like a cloud across the deck of the _Chesapeake_, and of one
hundred and fifty men at stations there, more than a hundred were
killed or wounded. A more fatal loss to the Americans instantly
followed, as Captain Laurence, the fiery soul of his ship, was shot
through the abdomen by an English marine, and fell mortally wounded.

The answering thunder of the _Chesapeake's_ guns, of course, rolled
out, and then, following quick, the overwhelming blast of the
_Shannon's_ broadside once more. Each ship, indeed, fired two full
broadsides, and, as the guns fell quickly out of range, part of another
broadside. The firing of the _Chesapeake_ was furious and deadly
enough to have disabled an ordinary ship. It is computed that forty
effective shots would be enough to disable a frigate; the _Shannon_
during the six minutes of the firing was struck by no less than 158
shot, a fact which proves the steadiness and power of the American
fire. But the fire of the _Shannon_ was overwhelming. In those same
six fatal