ive men were able to be on deck. The rest, with her commander, were
below, deathly sick with yellow-fever. Under the command of a young
lieutenant, her course was laid for Mobile; and in a few hours the
smoke of the blockading-vessels could be seen rising on the clear air.
An English ensign was hoisted, and the fleet ship dashed towards the
men-o'-war that lay in wait. A blank cartridge was fired to warn her
away, but she paid no heed. Then came a solid shot that ploughed up
the water before her bow. As this evoked no response, the whole fleet
opened fire with shot and shell. "Had they depressed their guns but a
little," said Maffitt afterwards, "the career of the 'Florida' would
have ended then and there." But, as it was, she sped on, with no signs
of damage save the flying ends of cut cordage. She could not respond
to the fire, for but three men remained on her deck. So, silently and
grimly, she rushed through the fleet, and finally passed the last
frigate. Quarter of an hour later she anchored under the guns of Fort
Morgan. She had received eight shots in her hull, and her masts were
chipped by dozens of fragments of shell. After refitting, the
"Florida" waited nearly a month for a chance to get out again. Finally
the moment arrived; and she made her escape, though chased for four
hours by the blockaders. Once on the open sea, she began the regular
career of Confederate cruisers, burned unarmed ships, and avoided
war-vessels, until she was run down in a neutral port by a Union
man-of-war, whose commander acted in utter defiance of all the rules
of modern warfare. In the career of the "Florida," after her escape
from Mobile, there was nothing of moment; and her capture, treacherous
as it was, brought more discredit upon the Northern arms than did her
depredations work injury to the Northern merchant-marine.

CHAPTER XVII.

OPERATIONS ABOUT CHARLESTON. -- THE BOMBARDMENT, THE SIEGE, AND
THE CAPTURE.

We have now reached the period at which the rapid decline in the
prospects of the Confederacy had become apparent, not only to its
enemies, but to its friends. Throughout the South the stars and bars
floated over only three strongholds of any importance,--Charleston,
Mobile, and Wilmington. One after the other these were destined to
fall, and their final overthrow was to be the work of the navy. It was
no easy task in any one of the three instances to dislodge the
Confederates from their positions; for