So the British line came on, the men on the yards taking in canvas, the leadsmen in the chains coolly calling the soundings. The battery roared from the island, the leading French ships broke into smoke and flame, but the steady British line glided on. The _Goliath_ by this time led; and at half-past five the shadow of its tall masts cast by the westering sun fell over the decks of the _Guerrier_, and as Foley, its captain, swept past the Frenchman's bows, he poured in a furious broadside, bore swiftly up, and dropped--as Nelson, with that minute attention to detail which marks a great commander, had ordered all his captains--an anchor from the stern, so that, without having to "swing," he was instantly in a fighting position on his enemy's quarter. Foley, however, dropped his anchor a moment too late, and drifted on to the second ship in the line; but Hood, in the _Zealous_, coming swiftly after, also raked the _Guerrier_, and, anchoring from the stern at the exact moment, took the place on its quarter Foley should have taken. The _Orion_ came into battle next, blasted the unfortunate _Guerrier_, whose foremast had already gone, with a third broadside, and swept outside the _Zealous_ and _Goliath_ down to the third ship on the French line. A French frigate, the _Serieuse_, of thirty-six guns, anchored inside the French line, ventured to fire on the _Orion_ as it swept past, whereupon Saumarez, its commander, discharged his starboard broadside into that frigate. The _Serieuse_ reeled under the shock of the British guns, its masts disappeared like chips, and the unfortunate Frenchman went down like a stone; while Saumarez, laying himself on the larboard bow of the _Franklin_ and the quarter of the _Peuple Sovrain_, broke upon them in thunder. The _Theseus_ followed hard in the track of the _Orion_, raked the unhappy _Guerrier_ in the familiar fashion while crossing its bows, then swept through the narrow water-lane betwixt the _Goliath_ and _Zealous_ and their French antagonists, poured a smashing broadside into each French ship as it passed, then shot outside the _Orion_, and anchored with mathematical nicety off the quarter of the _Spartiate_. The water-lane was not a pistol-shot wide, and this feat of seamanship was marvellous.