In general summary, therefore, it may be said that the broadsides of the ships-of-the-line were opposed from end to end to the heavy central batteries on the mole, while the lighter vessels engaged the flanking works on the shore to the southward, thus diverting the fire which would have harassed the chief assailants,—­a service in which the Dutch squadron, composed entirely of frigates, rendered important assistance.  The bomb vessels from the rear threw their shells over the fighting ships into the town and arsenal, and in the admiral’s report are credited with firing all the shipping in the harbor, except one frigate, creating a conflagration which spread over the arsenal and storehouses.  Soon after the contest opened, the thirty-seven Algerine gunboats, crowded with troops, were seen advancing under cover of the smoke to board the flag-ship.  The attempt, rash to insanity, met the fate it should have expected; thirty-three were sent to the bottom by the guns of the Leander, stationed ahead of the Queen Charlotte, and commanding the entrance to the port.  An hour later, Lord Exmouth determined to set fire to the remaining frigate.  The service was performed by an officer and boat’s crew, with a steadiness which elicited from him such admiration that, on the return of the party, he stopped the working of the ship’s upper battery to give them three cheers.  As the hostile vessel burned, she drifted so near the Queen Charlotte as nearly to involve her in the same fate.

From three to ten P.M. the battle lasted, steady disciplined valor contending with a courage in no way inferior, absolutely insensible to danger, but devoid of that coherent, skilful direction which is to courage what the brain and eye are to the heart.  “I never,” wrote Exmouth to his brother, “saw any set of men more obstinate at their guns, and it was superior fire only that could keep them back.  To be sure, nothing could stand before the Queen Charlotte’s broadside.  Everything fell before it, and the Swedish consul assures me we killed above five hundred at the very first fire, from the crowded way in which the troops were drawn up, four deep above the gunboats, which were also full of men.  It was a glorious sight,” he continues, “to see the Charlotte take her anchorage, and to see her flag towering on high, when she appeared to be in the flames of the mole itself; and never was a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop.  We were obliged to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire.”  He was himself struck thrice, though not seriously injured.  A cannon-ball carried away the skirts of his coat, and one glass of the spectacles in his pocket was broken, and the frame bulged, by a shot.