Almost at once two successive spurts of flame
leapt from the brass cannon on the Arabella's beak-head, and
scarcely had the watchers on the poop seen the shower of spray,
where one of the shots struck the water near them, then with a
rending crash and a shiver that shook the Milagrosa from stem to
stern, the other came to lodge in her forecastle. To avenge that
blow, the Hidalga blazed at the Englishman with both her forward
guns. But even at that short range - between two and three hundred
yards - neither shot took effect.
At a hundred yards the Arabella's forward guns, which had meanwhile
been reloaded, fired again at the Milagrosa, and this time smashed
her bowsprit into splinters; so that for a moment she yawed wildly
to port. Don Miguel swore profanely, and then, as the helm was put
over to swing her back to her course, his own prow replied. But
the aim was too high, and whilst one of the shots tore through the
Arabella's shrouds and scarred her mainmast, the other again went
wide. And when the smoke of that discharge had lifted, the English
ship was found almost between the Spaniards, her bows in line with
theirs and coming steadily on into what his lordship deemed a
death-trap.
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