Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/65

Rh Soon, however, the fight closed. The Flamand, 50, drew upon herself the fire, which she returned, of the Hero, 74, and the Exeter, 64; whilst the Annibal, 74, engaged in a murderous conflict with the Isis, 56. Simultaneously the Sévère, 64, and the Barford, 74; the Brillant, 64, and the Sultan, 74; the French commodore's ship, the Héros, 74, and the English admiral's ship, the Superb, 74; engaged in an almost hand to hand encounter.

Of the other vessels it may be noted that the Sphinx, 64, fought the Monarca, 74; but the position of this latter, on the starboard quarter of the Superb, rendered it impossible for her to deliver any but an oblique fire. The Worcester, the Monmouth, the Eagle, and the Magnamine, which followed in her wake, could only form a line at an angle of forty-five with the French line. It followed that the fire between these and the Petit Annibal, the Artésien, and the Vengeur was at a long distance, whilst the Bizarre and the Orient, notwithstanding the efforts of their captains, remained in forced inaction. The Flamand was the first French ship to feel the weight of her two powerful antagonists. She managed, however, to forge ahead and clear herself, and they were in too crippled a condition to follow her. The Brillant at the same time was suffering much from the well-directed fire of the Sultan, when Suffren, signalling to the Sphinx to replace him alongside the Superb, came to her rescue. The fight was then renewed with extraordinary vigour; when at one o'clock the wind suddenly