d at short range, had done no
little execution on the crowded ship; but the officers rallied their
men speedily with cool words of encouragement.

"Steady, men, steady."

"Give it back to them."

"Look sharp now."

"Aim! Fire!"

And the forty-odd heavy guns roared out in answer to the determined
attack. The effect of such a broadside at close range would have been
frightful, had not the Randolph drawn so far ahead, and her course been
so changed, that a large part of it passed harmlessly astern of her.
One gun, however, found its target, and that was one aimed and fired by
the hand of Lord Desborough himself: a heavy shot, a thirty-two, from
one of the massive lower-deck guns of the Yarmouth, which the pleasant
weather permitted them to use effectively, came through one of the
after gun-ports of the Randolph, and swept away the line of men on the
port side of the gun. Some of the other shot did slight damage also
among the spars and gear, and several of the crew were killed or
wounded in different parts of the ship; but the Randolph was
practically unharmed, and standing boldly down to cross the stern of
the Yarmouth to rake her. But the English captain was a seaman, every
inch of him, and his ship could not have been better handled; divining
his bold little antagonist's purpose, the Yarmouth's helm was put up at
once, and in the smoke she fell off and came before the wind almost as
rapidly as did the Randolph, her promptness frustrating the endeavor,
as Seymour was only able to make an ineffectual effort to rake her, as
she flew round on her heels. The starboard battery of the Yarmouth had
been manned as she fell off, and the port battery of the Randolph was
rapidly reloaded again. The manoeuvre had given the Englishmen the
weather-gage once more, the two ships now having the wind on the port
quarter. The two batteries were discharged simultaneously, and now
began a running fight of near an hour's duration.

Seymour was everywhere. Up and down the deck he walked, helping and
sustaining his men, building up new gun's crews out of the shattered
remains of decimated groups of men, lending a hand himself on a tackle
on occasion; cool, calm, unwearied, unremitting, determined, he
desperately fought his ship as few vessels were ever fought before or
since, imbuing, by his presence and example and word, his men with his
own unquailing spirit, until they died as uncomplainingly and as nobly
as did those prototy