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Don Francesco regarded the zealous and lovely girl with intense feeling; then he folded her to his heart once more, blessing her audibly again and again. While thus employed the Foudroyant's bell struck once, and then those of all the surrounding ships, English and Neapolitan, repeated the stroke.
The captain gave the necessary orders, and the master shortened sail accordingly. Still the Plantagenet shot ahead, and, in three or four minutes more, her bows doubled so far on le Foudroyant's quarter, as to permit a gun to bear. This was the signal for both sides, each ship opening as it might be in the same breath.
Shortly afterwards the Monmouth's mizen-mast was shot away, on which the French crew cheered; but the Foudroyant's mizen-mast sharing the same fate, the British seamen returned the compliment, and in a little time down came the French ship's main-mast. Still, she continued working her guns till some time after the arrival of the Swiftsure, when she surrendered.
The omission probably arose from the extreme shortness of his stay in Palermo on the 21st only two hours and a half elapsing, by the "Foudroyant's" log, between the entering of the ship and her sailing again; a time sufficient for an interview and a clear understanding, but scarcely for drawing up a regular commission.
The next instant the oars fell, and the gig whirled round under the Foudroyant's stern and came glancing up toward his own skiff.
He soon knocked away some of the Foudroyant's spars, and then carried his ship close under her starboard-quarter, where for four hours the Monmouth maintained the unequal contest. At 9 p.m. the gallant Gardiner was mortally wounded in the forehead by a musket-ball, when Lieutenant Robert Carket took command.
In the mean time Jervis was left alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating, Jervis, selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack: at twelve, he had approached near enough to see that the chase was a ship of the line. The Foudroyant's superior manoeuvring enabled her to commence the engagement by a raking fire.
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