THE TOLL OF THE BRAVE 347 



board, and some frozen to death. Throughout that 

 unspeakable day of sorrow, gloom, and suffering, which 

 heralded Merry Christmas at home, the survivors strove 

 to keep the life within them. 



The shattered ship was crowded with the living and 

 the dead but only that part of her which was still above 

 the level of the livid sea. The dead outnumbered the 

 living. Many of the corpses had been swept overboard ; 

 but clusters were left, amongst them that of the gallant 

 Reynolds and the valiant Guion. 



Death had levelled all distinctions, and abolished 

 rank and pride ; a body was a body in that awful remnant 

 which had been a flagship and a row of bodies was a 

 rampart against the sea, just as it was proving under 

 Wellington in the Peninsula. So it happened that 

 survivors, who could crawl or move, put their strength 

 together and made a rampart of corpses as a shield 

 against the seas which surged resistlessly against and 

 over them. 



Admiral and captain helped to build that ghastly 

 barricade. They were morticed in the fourth row of 

 corpses which was put to windward, and against which 

 the freezing waters swept in sinister procession. 



More than five hundred officers and men had perished ; 

 two hundred wretches still remained, but not so utterly 

 bereft of hope that they did not make a last attempt to 

 get to shore. They got a topsail yard and a cross-jack 

 yard, the only spars remaining, and these, with infinite 

 labour, they lashed together and launched. 



The savage seas were waiting for the sorry and im- 

 perfect structure, on which only ten men ventured, and 

 the first wave smashed adrift the timbers. Five men 



