Crowding on the ramparts, the 62nd cheered, and threw their caps into the air; a response arose from the deck of the distant sloop, when lo! a most unlooked-for misfortune took place. Scylla, that place of horror and mystery to the ancient mariner, and before whose "yawning dungeon" Æneas and Ulysses quailed with terror, was still fraught with danger. Under a press of canvass, the _Delight_ sailed obliquely, to keep company with her boats: there was a stiff breeze blowing straight from Sicily, and she stood close along shore, with every inch of her snowy canvass filled, when we beheld her shaken by a tremendous shock: her stately masts shook like willow wands, her long pendant fluttered, her broad sails shivered in the breeze, and she careened suddenly over. An exclamation burst from every lip.
"Ashore!" cried the soldiers, with sorrow and dismay, as her tall fore-topmast fell overboard; the main and the mizen followed it with a hideous crash: the beautiful vessel, which a moment before had been sailing so smoothly and swan-like, so trimly and saucily, lay a dismasted wreck, bulged on a sunken rock within a few furlongs of the beach, with her lee guns buried in the water, and all her seamen and marines who were not floundering in the wreck around her, clinging to her windward bulwarks.
A triumphant _vivat!_ burst from the enemy, who plied their field-pieces with redoubled ardour; and a cry, loud, fierce and hoarse, answered from the English boats. The oarsmen paused, and the utmost confusion took place: there seemed a doubt whether to advance to the attack, or return to the assistance of their drowning messmates. Exasperated by the wreck of his dashing vessel, and filled with a desire for vengeance, the gallant Hanfield (an officer of great professional knowledge, and high individual worth) ordered the boats to advance: but his efforts were fruitless. His craft were soon crippled by the French cannon-shot and grape, which killed or wounded the majority of his force before it came near the Sicilian prizes. Hanfield, with many of his sailors, was killed, and Captain Seccombe, of the _Glatton_ frigate, who happened to be on board the _Delight_, received a severe wound, of which he died a few days after. The boats’ crews were all captured; and those men on the wreck went off in two remaining boats to save themselves from the same fate. To prevent Regnier from using the cannon remaining in the _Delight_, in prosecution of the siege, the moment it was dark enough I left the sea-staircase, in a boat, with ten soldiers, and setting fire to the vessel, burned her to the water’s edge: so ended this catastrophe, which shed a gloom over us all for some time.
