with a frightful roar and crash, the Randolph blew up.

CHAPTER XXXVII

For Love of Country

The force of the explosion occurring so near to the line-of-battle ship
drove her over with irresistible power upon her beam-ends until she
buried her port main-deck guns under water; her time was not yet come,
however, for, after a trembling movement of sickening uncertainty, she
righted herself, slowly at first, but finally with a mighty roll and
rush as if on a tidal wave. For a few seconds the air was filled with
pieces of wreck, arms, spars, bodies, many of which fell on the
Yarmouth. The horrified spectators saw the two broken halves of the
ill-fated frigate gradually disappearing beneath the heaving sea,
sucking down in their inexorable vortex most of the bodies of those,
alive or dead, who floated near. The fire had come in broad sheets
through the portholes of the main-deck guns of the ship from the
explosion, driving the men from their stations, and, by heating the
iron masses or igniting the priming, caused sudden and wild discharges
to add their quota of confusion to the awful scene. Pieces of burning
wreck had also fallen in the tops, or upon the sails, or lodged in the
standing rigging, full of tar as usual, and dry and inflammable to the
last degree. The Yarmouth, therefore, was in serious danger,--more so
than in any other period of the action,--her little antagonist having
inflicted the most damaging blow with the last gasp, as it were; for
little columns of flame and smoke began to rise ominously in a dozen
places. Then was manifested the splendid discipline for which British
ships were famous the world over. Rapidly and with unerring skill and
coolness the proper orders were given, and the tired men were set to
work desperately fighting once more to check and put out the fire.
Long and hard was the struggle, the issue much in doubt; but in the end
the efforts of her crew were crowned with merited success, and their
ship was eventually saved from the dangerous conflagration which had
menaced her with ruin, not less complete and disastrous than had
befallen the frigate.

While all this was being done, a little scene took place upon the
quarter-deck which was worthy of notice. Something heavy and solid,
thrown upward by the tremendous force of the discharge, struck the rail
with a mighty crash at the moment of the explosion, just at the point
where Katharine, wide-eyed, petrified with horror, af