Neither account exactly tallies with the story of Gardiner's fall that reached England. According to that, poor Gardiner was conscious for some moments after he was struck down, and was able to recognise Carkett, as the first lieutenant bent over him. He bade Carkett, it was said, as his last orders, 'to fight the _Foudroyant_ to the last, and sink alongside rather than quit her.' In reply, the account proceeds, Carkett swore to the captain to fight the battle out to the very last, and sent on the spot for the carpenter and had the _Monmouth's_ ensign nailed to the staff, after which he declared with an oath that he would shoot dead on the spot any man who should even whisper a thought of lowering it. So, indeed, it well may have been. Robert Carkett could be trusted to die hard. He was just the man to make such a threat and to keep it. Lieutenant Carkett was a rough sea-dog. As senior officer after Captain Gardiner's fall, Carkett took charge on the quarter-deck, and the battle went on with even more desperate fury than before:-- Spars were splinter'd, decks were shatter'd, Bullets fell like rain; Over mast and deck were scatter'd Blood and brains of men. Hour after hour, from half-past nine to twelve o'clock, the _Monmouth_ hung doggedly on the quarter of the great _Foudroyant_ and refused to be shaken off. She kept pace with the Frenchman steadily, not losing a foot, and not drawing nearer; mercilessly pounding away into the _Foudroyant's_ hull at a short seventy-yards range, as fast as the shot could be brought to the guns. Nor did the _Foudroyant's_ fire in reply slacken appreciably until midnight was past. Then, at length, the enemy seemed to tire, and the _Foudroyant's_ fire began to grow irregular and gradually to weaken. [Illustration: THE _MONMOUTH_ FIGHTING THE _FOUDROYANT_ AT CLOSE QUARTERS. THE FINAL ROUND--1.30 A.M. From a contemporary print. ['At half past [one] her main-mast was shot away. She then ceased firing' (Log of Lieutenant Carkett of the _Monmouth_).]] It was the beginning of the end. Aided by the clear moonlight,--by half-an-hour after midnight the moon was well up,--the _Monmouth's_ gunners made better practice than before. They redoubled their efforts, as gun after gun in the _Foudroyant's_ ports stopped firing, until, a few minutes after one o'clock, the big vessel ceased resisting altogether, and not a shot came from her. The _Foudroyant_ lay helpless, like a log on the water, dismasted, hammered to a standstill, a silenced and beaten ship. Lieutenant Carkett in his log thus summarises what passed in the last hour. 'Half-past 12: Our mizen was shot away. At 1 A.M. the enemy's was shot away. Also at half-past her main-mast was shot away. She then ceased firing, having slackened her fire for some time before.'