“I have no boat to spare,” Maynard responded; “but as soon as I can reach you with my sloops, I will come on board myself.” Blackbeard took a tumbler of raw brandy. As he poured the burning fluid down his throat he exclaimed in tones of rage and in that fearful profanity with which his every utterance was mingled, that if they fell into his hands they should receive no quarter. “I expect no quarter,” Maynard responded, “neither do I ask for any.” The gunwale of Maynard’s sloop, which took the lead, was scarcely a foot high. The men on the deck were entirely exposed. Blackbeard poured in upon them a broadside of grape-shot. The carnage was awful. Twenty men, by that one discharge, were either killed or wounded. Maynard, apprehensive of another discharge, ordered all the survivors immediately into the hold, he alone remaining on deck, at the helm. The men were directed to have their swords and pistols ready for a rush in boarding, the moment the command should be given. As the sloop approached the pirate they threw in upon her deck a new sort of hand-grenades. They consisted of common junk bottles, filled with powder, balls, and slugs, and were exploded by a fuse passing through the mouth. They would have done great execution had not the men been concealed in the hold. The moment the bows of the sloop touched the pirate’s ship, as the smoke cleared away a little, Blackbeard, seeing but few on deck, shouted to his men: “The villains are all knocked in the head, excepting three or four. Let us jump on board and cut them down.” The order was instantly obeyed. Fourteen pirates, with flashing sabres, leaped over the bows of Maynard’s sloop, upon his deck. There were but twelve men unwounded in the hold. At a given signal they rushed up, and a battle of utter desperation ensued. Blackbeard sprang toward Lieutenant Maynard, who was at the helm. Their pistols were discharged simultaneously. The pirate received a slight, but not a disabling wound. They rushed upon each other with their swords. In the fierce conflict the blade of Maynard’s sword broke in his hand. He stepped back to cock a pistol. Blackbeard was just in the act of cutting him down, when one of Maynard’s men struck him from behind, inflicting a terrible gash upon his neck. At the same moment the desperado, who seemed to be almost insensible to wounds, received a shot in his body from the lieutenant’s pistol. The other sloop, called the Ranger, now came up and boarded the pirate. Blackbeard fought like a tiger. At length a pistol-shot pierced some vital part and he fell dead, after having received twenty-five wounds. Eight more of the pirates who had boarded Maynard’s sloop were weltering in their blood. The rest, many of them severely wounded, leaped overboard. The drowning wretches cried for quarter. It was granted. They were reserved only that they might be hanged.