[Illustration: THE “PEACOCK” AND “HORNET” AT CLOSE QUARTERS] A boat belonging to the _Peacock_ broke away with four of her crew in it before the vessel sank. They probably tried to make their escape to land. In writing about this little episode afterwards, Lawrence says, “I sincerely hope they reached the shore; but from the heavy sea running at the time, the shattered state of the boat, and the difficulty of landing on the coast, I am fearful they were lost.” Captain Lawrence’s treatment of his prisoners was such as uniformly characterized the officers of our navy, “who won by their magnanimity those whom they had conquered by their valor.” The loss on board the _Hornet_, outside of the three seamen drowned, was trifling--one man killed and three wounded, two by the explosion of a cartridge. The vessel received little or no damage. All the time that the action was being fought the other brig lay in full sight, about six miles off (she proved afterwards to have been _L’Espiègle_, of 16 guns), but she showed no desire to enter into the conflict. Thinking that she might wish to meet the _Hornet_ later, Lawrence made every exertion to prepare his ship for a second action, and by nine o’clock a new set of sails was bent, wounded spars secured, boats stowed away, and the _Hornet_ was ready to fight again. At 2 A.M. she got under way, and stood to the westward and northward under easy sail. On mustering the next morning it was found that there were 277 souls on board, including the crew of the American brig _Hunter_, of Portland, Maine, captured by the _Peacock_ a few days before. The latter was one of the finest vessels of her class in the English navy; she was broader by five inches than the _Hornet_, but not so long by four feet. Her tonnage must have been about the same. Her crew consisted of 130 men. To quote from an account of the times which describes the return of the victorious _Hornet_ to the United States: “The officers of the _Peacock_ were so affected by the treatment they received from Captain Lawrence that on their arrival at New York they made grateful acknowledgment of it in the papers. To use their own phrase, ‘They ceased to consider themselves prisoners.’ Nor must we omit to mention a circumstance highly to the honor of the brave tars of the _Hornet_. Finding that the crew of the _Peacock_ had lost all their clothing by the sudden sinking of their vessel, they made a subscription, and from their own chest supplied each man with two shirts and a blue jacket and trousers. Such may rough sailors be made when they have before them the example of high-minded men.” It was not long before poor Lawrence was to be borne on the shoulders of his enemies and laid to rest, with all honors, in a foreign soil, a last return of the courtesy he had extended to all those whom the fortunes of war had placed under his care and keeping. VIII THE “CHESAPEAKE” AND THE “SHANNON” [June 1st, 1813]