“An incessant cannonade was then kept up which could not be silenced, for our people had no artillery, and a few rockets that were discharged deviated so much from their object as to afford only amusement for the enemy. Under such circumstances, therefore, all were ordered to leave their fires and shelter themselves under the dikes, where they lay each as he could find room, listening in painful silence to the iron hail among the boats and to the shrieks and groans of those that were wounded.” By the 27th of the month, however, the British got a heavy battery of five guns located where it would bear on the schooner, while the schooner could only reply with the long twelve. Then they opened on her with red-hot shot. There was a northerly wind blowing to help the current. The schooner could not retreat up river against it, and to go down stream was to fall in with British ships. After a loss of seven killed and wounded she was fired and abandoned. The other American ship was the _Louisiana_, carrying eight long twenty-fours on each side. She was valuable in annoying the British when they were advancing on the city, during which time she is said to have thrown eight hundred shot among them. And in the battle that followed, on January 8, 1815, she served as guard to the American flank. CHAPTER XI ONCE MORE THE _CONSTITUTION_ SHE WAS A LONG TIME IDLE IN PORT--A TOUCHING TALE OF SENTIMENT--AWAY AT LAST--CAPTAIN STEWART’S PRESENTIMENT--FOUND TWO OF THE ENEMY AS HE HAD PREDICTED--A BATTLE WHERE THE YANKEE SHOWED MASTERY OF THE SEAMAN’S ART--CAPTAIN STEWART SETTLED A DISPUTE--CAUGHT NAPPING IN PORTO PRAYA--SWIFT WORK GETTING TO SEA--A MOST REMARKABLE CHASE--THREE BRITISH FRIGATES IN CHASE OF TWO YANKEE CHOSE TO FOLLOW THE SMALLER WHEN THE TWO SPLIT TACKS--ASTOUNDING EXHIBIT OF BAD MARKSMANSHIP--A CAUSE OF SUICIDE--THE POEM THAT SAVED _OLD IRONSIDES_. For almost two years, and long and weary ones they were to the ambitious officers connected with her, the famous old frigate _Constitution_ lay idle in the port of Boston, while the ships of less repute in the Navy were telling the world of the prowess of Yankee seamen when fighting for freedom. She had been found in such a state of decay on her return from her combat with the British frigate _Java_, that it was necessary to haul her out and rebuild her. More than half of her crew were transferred to the Great Lakes, and, as has been told, some of them were on Lake Erie to help Perry win lasting fame, while some saw Chauncey fill and back in the presence of Sir James Yeo on Lake Ontario.