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'The last you will ever give, my fine fellows! observed Cain, with a sneer. In a few moments the schooner had run a mile astern of the ship. 'Now then, Hawkhurst, let her come to and about; man the long gun, and see that every shot is pitched into her, while the rest of them get up a new foretopmast, and knot and splice the rigging.
Her build at once made us suspect that she was a whaler like ourselves. All her boats and bulwarks were gone, and her stern was much stove in. Her main and mizzen-masts had been carried away, so had her foretopmast and the head of the foremast below the top, the stump only remaining.
I found the foretopmast gone over the side, in a tangle of torn rope at which all hands were furiously hacking. The mate was on the fo'c'sle hacking at some gear with a tomahawk. I did not see the captain. "Mr. mate," I cried. "I want some balsam, quick." "Get out of this," he shouted. "Get out of this. I can't attend to your hurts. Don't come bothering here."
I trembled as I saw the third mate, with several other men, taking in the jib. Having let go the halliards, and eased off the sheets, hauling away on the down-hauler; and having got it down on the bowsprit-cap, though nearly blown out of the bolt-ropes, stowing it away in the foretopmast staysail-netting.
It blew like hell from the N.E., and the foretopmast she was a barque went like a carrot the second day. We hove to, trying to rig a jury mast, when up popped a Fritz." The speaker laughed, a pleasant, deep laugh of complete enjoyment. "I thought we were in for a swim that would knock the cross-Channel record silly!
The mate approached him, and, in a whisper of awe and terror, exclaimed, whilst his eyes sought the shadow up in the foretopmast cross-trees, 'I believe the Dutchman's right, sir, and that we've been boarded by the devil himself. "'What are you talking about? "'I never saw the like of such a thing, said the mate, in shaking tones.
Glynn and his comrades were once more ordered aloft to furl the remaining sails, but before this could be done the foretopmast was carried away, and in falling it tore away the jib-boom also. At the same moment a tremendous sea came rolling on astern; in the uncertain light it looked like a dark moving mountain that was about to fall on them.
As they swept along under the stern of the brig, each gun of their other broadside poured in its fire in succession, raking the crowded deck from end to end. A moment later, the mainmast was seen to sway, and a tremendous cheer broke from the Madras as it went over the side, dragging with it the foretopmast, with all its gear. "Down with the helm again!" the captain shouted.
"Why, the Frenchmen have shot away the `Thisbe's' foretopmast, as far as I can make out her jury-masts, too," answered Rawson. "The `Thisbe's' done for, I'm afraid." "What's that you say, Rawson?" exclaimed Lieutenant Calder. "Done for! not she; she's not done firing, at all events."
Fifteen minutes later, the sixth ship, and rearmost of the van, the Intrepid, lost her foretopmast, which crippled her. The seventh ship, which was the leader of the rear, Byng's own division, got out of his hands before he could hold her.
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