For more than two hours the Packet and the Privateer lay locked together, and during all that time the cannonade was furious, while the losses on both sides were very heavy. The French gunnery seems to have been defective, and though men were falling fast on the “Windsor Castle,”—out of eight-and-twenty men and boys three were killed and ten wounded—they were dropping infinitely faster on the Privateer. “At every discharge,” says the account already quoted, “we began to hear them scream, which so inspired our gallant crew that many of the wounded returned to their quarters,”—a vivid touch of description, which helps one to realize the desperate character of this long day’s fighting off the shore of Barbados. At three o’clock this stage of the action terminated. The French, seeming to feel the necessity for some great effort, formed a second boarding party, mustering every available man for the attack. Happily Mr. Rogers detected their design, and bringing to bear on them one of his 6–pounders, “crammed with double grape, canister, and one hundred musket balls,” let fly this murderous charge into their midst at the very moment when they were grouped together for the assault. A great number fell, the rest made a dash under cover. They were becoming demoralized, and Mr. Rogers saw that the moment for which he was waiting was at hand. His men saw it too, and were growing eager, but there were only fifteen of them unwounded, and the French were still at the smallest computation, two to one. And so Mr. Rogers held his men back, and let the gunners have their way a little longer. At last, about a quarter-past three, he leapt upon the bulwarks, and, followed by five or six of his best men, sprang down, sword in hand, on the decks of the Privateer. There ensued a fierce scuffle, but it lasted only a few minutes. The French captain led his men on bravely, but he fell dead, and his men, dismayed at the loss of their commander, wavered, lost heart, and were driven below decks. A Packetsman exultingly hauled the French colours down, and the day was won.