upon the Royal-Sovereign. "Quel but avantageux," says French writer, "offraient aux canonniers ces deux groupes de vaisseaux, dont chacun présentait une quantité de mats et de vergues et une masse de cordages et de voiles, ou pas un boulet ne devait être perdu."*

At 1 P.M. † the 68-pounder carronade on the larboard side of the Victory's forecastle, containing its customary charge of one round shot and a keg filled with 500 musket-balls, was fired right into the cabin windows of the Bucentaure. As the Victory slowly moved ahead, every gun of the remaining 50 upon her broadside, all double, and some of them treble shotted, was deliberately discharged in the same raking manner. So close were the ships, that the larboard main yard-arm of the British three-decker, as she rolled, touched the vangs of her opponent's gaff: so close indeed, that had there been wind enough to blow it out, the large French ensign trailing at the Bucentaure's peak might, even at this early period of the action, have been a trophy

*  Victoires et Conquetes, tome xvi., p. 170.

†  According to the Victory's log, at four minutes past noon ; but that would allow 14 minutes only for the Victory, with scarcely a breath of wind, to go a distance of at least a mile and a half. We know also that, owing to the death early in the action of the two persons whose places (in succession) it was to take minutes, the log entries were written the next day. Moreover the log of the Spartiate one of the best kept in the fleet, says: "At 12 h. 59 m. Victory commenced firing,"

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