At three o'clock they were drawn up in line in the woods, about two miles from the fort, where the men stacked arms, and stretched themselves out in the shade of the trees.
In the mean time the iron-clads had been preparing for the fight.

The magazines were opened and lighted; the casemates covered with a coat of grease, to glance the shot which might strike them; the men were at their stations, and when all was ready, they steamed down toward the fort, the Ticonderoga leading the way.
Frank, by attention to his duties, had rapidly learned the gun-drill, and had been promoted to the command of one of the guns in the turret.

He thought he had become quite accustomed to the noise of bullets, but he could not endure the silence that then reigned in the ship.

The men, stripped to the waist, stood at their guns as motionless as so many statues; and, although Frank tried hard to exhibit the same indifference that they did, his mind was exceedingly busy, and it seemed to him that he thought of every thing he had done during his life.

Oh, how he longed to hear the order passed to commence firing! Any thing was preferable to that awful stillness.
At length, the captain came into the turret, where he always took his station in action, and glanced hastily at the countenance of each of the officers and men.