FOUNDER OF HIS RACE 149 



the morning advanced, the force weighed anchor and 

 moved forward in a body. The wind was fair and at 

 eight bells all was ready for the approaching enemy — 

 not more than a league away. 



As the British ships came nearer the Americans swung 

 their broadsides to bear — an intense stillness fell whose 

 influence extended to the watchers on land. 



The "Saratoga" was silent — waiting — every man at 

 his post, every nerve at the highest tension — some in 

 fear, some in restraint, some in suspense — but every ear 

 astrain against the rending of that awful silence. 



And suddenly it was rent! 



A cock, escaped from a coop, having mounted a gun- 

 sHde, on the "Saratoga," stretched his neck, flapped his 

 wings, and crowed ! 



His defiance of the British was answered with a rous- 

 ing cheer^ — the strain was broken — the depressed re- 

 vived ! 



It was an omen presaging Victory, the Americans 

 said. 



Commodore Macdonough, himself, fired the first gun 

 from the flagship. Death shrieked through the air, ugly 

 and resistless ; the ball fairly mowed down the men as it 

 whizzed the entire deck-length of the "Confiance." 



The men on the Saratoga shivered as the smoke lifted 

 and they saw the devastation and the gallant enemy 

 advance, without reply. Then at the distance of a quar- 

 ter of a mile Captain Downie anchored and the other 

 British vessels came to. 



The Americans continued to pound away — still the 

 "Confiance" did not respond until secured. Then, with 

 startling suddenness she seemed to point all her guns at 

 the "Saratoga" and become a solid sheet of flame. The 

 air rocked with the blazing of the cannon. 



