Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/91

 provoke hostility by interposing between belligerent ships, or firing into them, as was the case in the Nile, when Sir James Saumarez, in the Orion, was under the necessity of sinking the Artemise, which he did with one broadside, as a reward for her temerity. Under this pax-in-bellum sort of compact, we might have come off scot-free, had we not partaken very liberally of the shot intended for larger ships, which did serious damage among our people.

The two British lines running down parallel to each other, and nearly perpendicular to the crescent line of the combined fleets, was the grandest sight that was ever witnessed. As soon as our van was within gun-shot of the enemy, they opened their fire on the Royal Sovereign and the Victory; but when the firstnamed of these noble ships rounded to, under the stern of the Santa Anna, and the Victory had very soon after laid herself on board the Redoutable, the clouds of smoke enveloped both fleets, and little was to be seen except the