Suddenly the wind fell. With topmasts hanging over the side, and canvas torn to ribbons, the _Arethusa_ lay shattered and moveless on the sea. The shot-torn but loftier sails of the _Belle Poule_, however, yet held wind enough to drift her out of the reach of the _Arethusa's_ fire. Both ships were close under the French cliffs; but the _Belle Poule_, like a broken-winged bird, struggled into a tiny cove in the rocks, and nothing remained for the _Arethusa_ but to cut away her wreckage, hoist what sail she could, and drag herself sullenly back under jury-masts to the British fleet. But the story of that two hours' heroic fight maintained against such odds sent a thrill of grim exultation through Great Britain. Menaced by the combination of so many mighty states, while her sea-dogs were of this fighting temper, what had Great Britain to fear? In the streets of many a British seaport, and in many a British forecastle, the story of how the Arethusa fought was sung in deep-throated chorus:-- "The fight was off the Frenchman's land; We forced them back upon their strand; For we fought till not a stick would stand Of the gallant _Arethusa_!" A fight even more dramatic in its character is that fought on August 10, 1805, between the _Phoenix_ and the _Didon_. The _Didon_ was one of the finest and fastest French frigates afloat, armed with guns of special calibre and manned by a crew which formed, perhaps, the very elite of the French navy. The men had been specially picked to form the crew of the only French ship which was commanded by a Bonaparte, the _Pomone_, selected for the command of Captain Jerome Bonaparte. Captain Jerome Bonaparte, however, was not just now afloat, and the _Didon_ had been selected, on account of its great speed and heavy armament, for a service of great importance. She was manned by the crew chosen for the _Pomone_, placed under an officer of special skill and daring--Captain Milias--and despatched with orders for carrying out one more of those naval "combinations" which Napoleon often attempted, but never quite accomplished. The _Didon_, in a word, was to bring up the Rochefort squadron to join the Franco-Spanish fleet under Villeneuve.