pes of heroes,--another three hundred in the pass
at Thermopylae!

The guns were served on the Randolph with the desperate rapidity of men
who, awfully pressed for time, had abandoned hope and only fought to
cripple and delay before they were silenced; those on the Yarmouth, on
the contrary, were fired with much more deliberation, and did dreadful
execution. The different guns were disabled on the Randolph by heavy
shot; adjacent ports were knocked into one, the sides shattered, boats
smashed, rails knocked to pieces, all of the weather-shrouds cut, the
mizzenmast carried away under the top, and the wreck fell into the
sea,--fortunately, on the lee side, the little body of men in the top
going to a sudden death with the rest. The decks were slippery with
blood and ploughed with plunging shot, which the superior height of the
Yarmouth permitted to be fired with depressed guns from an elevation.
Solid shot from the heavy main-deck batteries swept through and through
the devoted frigate; half the Randolph's guns were useless because of
the lack of men to serve them; the cockpit overflowed with the wounded;
the surgeon and his mates, covered with blood, worked like butchers, in
the steerage and finally in the ward room; dead and dying men lay where
they fell; there were no hands to spare to take them below, no place in
which they could lie with safety, no immunity from the searching hail
which drove through every part of the doomed ship. Still the men,
cheered and encouraged by their officers, stood to their guns and
fought on. Presently the foretopmast went by the board also, as the
long moments dragged along, Seymour was now lying on the quarter-deck,
a bullet having broken his leg, another having made a flesh-wound in
his arm; he had refused to go below to have his wounds dressed, and one
of the midshipmen was kneeling by his side, applying such unskilful
bandages as he might to the two bleeding wounds. Nason had been sent
for, and was in charge, under Seymour's direction. That young man, all
his nervousness gone, was most ably seconding his dauntless captain.

The two ships were covered with smoke. It was impossible to tell on
one what was happening on the other; but the steady persistence with
which the Randolph clung to her big enemy had its effect on the
Yarmouth also, and the well-delivered fire did not allow that vessel
any immunity. In fact, while nothing like that on the frigate, the
damage was so great