“Not yet, sir,” replied Captain Hull. The captain was waiting for a shorter range. Twice more Lieutenant Morris, to ease the minds of the impatient gunners, walked aft to ask permission to fire, and each time received the same answer. The _Guerrière_ had meantime steered away before the wind; the clipper stem of the Yankee was overreaching the Englishman’s quarter only a few yards away from it; our guns were brought to bear, and then stooping till “he split his knee-breeches from waistband to buckle,” Captain Hull straightened up again to his full height and shouted in a voice heard all over the ship: “Now, boys; pour it into them!” With a yell they obeyed. The broadside was as a single explosion. The crash of the iron balls through the splintering timbers of the _Guerrière_ came back as an echo, and as she rolled with the swell the blood of the dead and wounded gushed from her scuppers. The Yankee gunners had aimed as if feeling still the claws of the British cat in their backs. [Illustration: The _Constitution_ in Close Action with the _Guerrière_. _From an old wood-cut._] It was at 6.05 A.M. that this first broadside was fired from the American ship. For fifteen minutes the roar of the cannon and the rattle of musketry, and the crash of solid shot that struck home were incessant. The ships were literally yard-arm to yard-arm, rising and sinking over the long swells as they drove away before the wind. The British in mad haste pulled their lanyards and fired the moment their guns were primed. The Americans loaded in haste, but paused each time until their gun-sights ranged on hull or spar, and then they fired. At 6.20 A.M. a big round shot from the _Constitution_ crashed through the mizzen-mast of the _Guerrière_, and away it went, over the rail to starboard. Snatching off his hat, Captain Hull waved it above his head. “Hurrah, my boys! we’ve made a brig of her!” he shouted. [Illustration: Action between the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_.--III. _From the painting by Birch, at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._] They had done more. The mast was still held by its rigging, and, dragging in the water, it brought the _Guerrière_ around partly across the wind. The _Constitution_ forged ahead, swung her yards, ported her helm, and ranging across the enemy’s bows gave her a raking broadside. The _Guerrière’s_ main-yard came tumbling down, shot through at the mast. Then, swinging around before the wind, the Yankee brought her port battery to bear and gave the _Guerrière_ a second raking. So close together were the two ships now that the _Guerrière’s_ bowsprit came poking over the quarter-deck of the _Constitution_. A man on the _Constitution_ reached out of a cabin port and placed his hand on the enemy’s figure-head. The _Guerrière’s_ bowsprit fouled the _Constitutions_ port mizzen rigging and the bow-chasers of the _Guerrière_ began to play havoc with the cabin of the _Constitution_, which was soon on fire from blazing wads.