{"id":"01KG8AKMX68QECNP1665GAHKMM","cid":"bafkreieijuvvfqscvbs4wrqllly3fxvwrw5bwm2f5ild7ylx7rmnu7gs4a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5577,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.591Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":5516,"text":"To get some idea of the events enacting in that cloud, it will be\r\nnecessary to enter it; to go and possess it, as a ghost may rush into a\r\nbody, or the devils into the swine, which running down the steep place\r\nperished in the sea; just as the Richard is yet to do.\r\n\r\nThus far the Serapis and the Richard had been manoeuvring and chasing\r\nto each other like partners in a cotillion, all the time indulging in\r\nrapid repartee.\r\n\r\nBut finding at last that the superior managableness of the enemy’s ship\r\nenabled him to get the better of the clumsy old Indiaman, the Richard,\r\nin taking position, Paul, with his wonted resolution, at once sought to\r\nneutralize this, by hugging him close. But the attempt to lay the\r\nRichard right across the head of the Serapis ended quite otherwise, in\r\nsending the enemy’s jib-boom just over the Richard’s great tower of\r\nPisa, where Israel was stationed; who, catching it eagerly, stood for\r\nan instant holding to the slack of the sail, like one grasping a horse\r\nby the mane prior to vaulting into the saddle.\r\n\r\n“Aye, hold hard, lad,” cried Paul, springing to his side with a coil of\r\nrigging. With a few rapid turns he knitted himself to his foe. The wind\r\nnow acting on the sails of the Serapis forced her, heel and point, her\r\nentire length, cheek by jowl, alongside the Richard. The projecting\r\ncannon scraped; the yards interlocked; but the hulls did not touch. A\r\nlong lane of darkling water lay wedged between, like that narrow canal\r\nin Venice which dozes between two shadowy piles, and high in air is\r\nsecretly crossed by the Bridge of Sighs. But where the six yard-arms\r\nreciprocally arched overhead, three bridges of sighs were both seen and\r\nheard, as the moon and wind kept rising.\r\n\r\nInto that Lethean canal—pond-like in its smoothness as compared with\r\nthe sea without—fell many a poor soul that night; fell, forever\r\nforgotten.\r\n\r\nAs some heaving rent coinciding with a disputed frontier on a volcanic\r\nplain, that boundary abyss was the jaws of death to both sides. So\r\ncontracted was it, that in many cases the gun-rammers had to be thrust\r\ninto the opposite ports, in order to enter to muzzles of their own\r\ncannon. It seemed more an intestine feud, than a fight between\r\nstrangers. Or, rather, it was as if the Siamese Twins, oblivious of\r\ntheir fraternal bond, should rage in unnatural fight.\r\n\r\nEre long, a horrible explosion was heard, drowning for the instant the\r\ncannonade. Two of the old eighteen-pounders—before spoken of, as having\r\nbeen hurriedly set up below the main deck of the Richard—burst all to\r\npieces, killing the sailors who worked them, and shattering all that\r\npart of the hull, as if two exploded steam-boilers had shot out of its\r\nopposite sides. The effect was like the fall of the walls of a house.\r\nLittle now upheld the great tower of Pisa but a few naked crow\r\nstanchions. Thenceforth, not a few balls from the Serapis must have\r\npassed straight through the Richard without grazing her. It was like\r\nfiring buck-shot through the ribs of a skeleton.\r\n\r\nBut, further forward, so deadly was the broadside from the heavy\r\nbatteries of the Serapis—levelled point-blank, and right down the\r\nthroat and bowels, as it were, of the Richard—that it cleared\r\neverything before it. The men on the Richard’s covered gun-deck ran\r\nabove, like miners from the fire-damp. Collecting on the forecastle,\r\nthey continued to fight with grenades and muskets. The soldiers also\r\nwere in the lofty tops, whence they kept up incessant volleys,\r\ncascading their fire down as pouring lava from cliffs.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRQ4SKWG11NYNT96ERE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKM4VS453WKDB65TBFD6B","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKMX6JSGG1ASW31B3A9G1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.174Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.197Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}