The Englishmen held their course and blazed away. The _Wasp_ having been squared away by the falling of the mainmast, drew forward and somewhat across the bow of the enemy, and the distance between them lessened until at last the men who were loading two of the broadside guns of the _Wasp_ felt their rammers strike the bluff of the enemy’s bows as they reached out to swab their guns. A moment later the ships came together with a crash, and then as they wallowed together in the trough of the sea two of the _Wasp’s_ guns pointed fairly through the bow ports of the enemy and along her gun-deck. At that instant the order to fire was given and it was obeyed before the waves could shift the position. The slaughter of that raking fire was terrible. With the send of the next wave the _Wasp_ forged ahead until the bowsprit of the enemy fouled in the mizzen rigging of the _Wasp_ and the two ships were held together in an embrace that seemed likely to tear both to pieces. The men of the _Wasp_ had wished to board the instant the ships collided, but were then held back to fire a broadside. Now they would be restrained no longer. Without waiting for orders one, Jack Lang, a brawny fellow from New Brunswick, New Jersey, took his cutlass in his teeth, and grasping the rigging about the bowsprit of the enemy swung himself upon that spar. Captain Jones, of the _Wasp_, who wished to fire another broadside, bawled to him to come down but Jack had been impressed in the British service--he had a score of his own to settle--and he did not obey. And a dozen or more of his shipmates were hurrying from their guns to join him. The enthusiasm of the men could scarcely be restrained and the Captain let them have their way, giving the order to board. [Illustration: The _Wasp_ Boarding the _Frolic_. _From an old wood-cut._] Lieutenant Biddle jumped on the bulwarks to lead the boarders, but because of the surging of his ship he got his feet caught among the hammocks. Little Midshipman Baker, who was entitled to second place, being too small to jump to the top as Biddle had done, saw Biddle’s coat-tails flopping in the gale and grabbed hold of them to help himself up. He got part way up when another surge of the ship threw both of them violently back to the deck. All this time Jack Lang was alone on the enemy, but Biddle soon regained the top of the bulwarks, and then, followed by others, crossed over the enemy’s bowsprit. He found Jack Lang standing alone on the topgallant forecastle and looking away aft over the enemy’s deck.