At that Lawrence called for boarders, but the bugler, who was a negro landsman, had hidden himself, frightened half to death. Still a few men answered the call, but they were to try to repel boarders rather than to board. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict followed at the rails of the two ships. Brawny Boatswain Stevens, who boasted that he had served under Rodney, lashed the ships together, though an American slashed off his left arm with a cutlass as he took the last turn, and thus inflicted a mortal wound. [Illustration: Diagram of the CHESAPEAKE-SHANNON BATTLE.] But the end was at hand. Lieutenant Law, of the British marines, recognizing Lawrence, fired at him, and the ball pierced his abdomen. A few minutes after he had been carried below he noticed that the fire had slackened greatly. He at once “forgot the anguish of his wounds, and having no other officer near, ordered John Dip, the surgeon’s mate in attendance on him on deck to “_Tell the men to fire faster, and not give up the ship_; the colors shall wave while I live.” But that was an order that could not be obeyed. Captain Broke had called his men to the rail to repel boarders, and quickly observed the confusion following after Lawrence was carried below. Throwing down his trumpet and drawing his sword, he shouted to his men the inspiring order: “Follow me!” And at 6.02 P.M. he stepped over the _Shannon’s_ rail to the muzzle of one of the _Chesapeake_ s quarter-deck guns and thence leaped to the deck of the _Chesapeake_. He was followed by twenty of his men. A few Americans, led by Parson Samuel Livermore, the ship’s chaplain, made a “desperate but disorderly” resistance. The parson fired a pistol at Broke but missed him, and before he could recover his extended arm, the captain with a “backward stroke of his good and mighty Toledo blade,” sliced it almost clear of his shoulder, and “felled the patriot to the deck.” Then the boarders charged along the platforms (gangways) on each side of the _Chesapeake_ leading to the forecastle deck. [Illustration: “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!” Death of Captain Lawrence _From an engraving by Hall of the picture by Chappel._]