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Page 38
In answer came an order for all the fighting men of Fort Caroline to
join the fleet immediately, as the admiral proposed to sail southward
and attack these impudent Spaniards ere they had time to erect
fortifications, or so strengthen their position that to attack it would
be useless.
Then came a time of tremendous bustle and excitement within the fort.
There were men hurrying hither and thither gathering their weapons,
women and children screaming and crying--for many of these had been
brought out with the new colonists--and dogs barking.
R�n� de Veaux begged his uncle to permit him to accompany the fighting
men, but Laudonniere said "No," that the order did not include boys,
and he could be of greatest service by remaining within the fort.
So the fighting men marched away to join the fleet, leaving Fort
Caroline to be defended only by the old, the sick, the women, and the
children. Besides the commandant and R�n� de Veaux, among those who
remained behind were Le Moyne, the artist, and old Simon, the armorer,
to whom was given the command of the guard.
CHAPTER XIV
A NIGHT OF TERROR
Immediately after landing Menendez and his soldiers, with their
supplies, at San Augustin, the ships of the fleet, which on account of
their size had been unable to enter the river, sailed away for Spain,
leaving only a few small vessels at anchor inside the bar. Thus
apparently all was favorable to the bold enterprise of Admiral Ribault,
who, with his six ships, and all the troops from Fort Caroline, had
determined to attack, and if possible to destroy, the newly founded
city before it could be fortified.
When he arrived off the mouth of the river the tide was so low on the
bar that his ships could not pass it. So they stood off and on,
waiting for it to rise, and the Spaniards on shore, seeing them, were
filled with great consternation. Of a sudden, almost without warning,
there came a terrible blast of wind out of the north-east. It was
followed by another and another, until such a gale was raging as had
never been seen by white men on that coast. In vain did the French
ships struggle against it, and against the huge billows that towered as
high as their tallest masts. They could do nothing against its fury,
and soon the Spaniards were filled with joy at seeing them drift
helplessly down the coast towards certain wreck and destruction.
Then Menendez made up his mind, in spite of the terrible gale, to march
overland to the attack of Fort Caroline, thus deprived of its
defenders. Followed by five hundred picked men, he set forth, and for
three days, beaten and drenched by the pitiless storm, he wandered
through over-flowed swamps and tangled forests. He had compelled
several of the Seloy Indians to go with him and act as guides; but
finally, believing that they were purposely leading him astray, he put
them to death with great cruelty, and trusted to his own knowledge to
lead him to the great river. At length he reached it, and following
its course, came during the night to a high bluff, from which he looked
down upon the few twinkling lights of Fort Caroline beneath him.
Meantime the raging of the elements had caused the greatest anxiety to
those who remained within the fort, for they were fearful of its effect
upon the ships of Admiral Ribault; and though they of course knew
nothing of their fate, they were already beginning to regard them as
lost.
Under Simon, the armorer, as captain of the guard, R�n� de Veaux had
done duty with the few old men and invalids who were pressed into
service as sentinels, and he had manfully shouldered his cross-bow, and
paced the walls through many long hours of storm, rain, and darkness.
Although, in his pride at thus performing the duties of a real soldier,
the boy allowed no word of complaint to escape him, he felt what the
others expressed openly--that this guard duty, now that the Spaniards
and savages had departed, and in the midst of a storm so terrible that
it did not seem possible for mortals to face it, was an unnecessary
hardship. So when, towards morning of the fourth night, after two
hours of wearily pacing the walls in the cold, drenching rain, he was
relieved, and flung himself, all wet as he was, upon a couch in his own
quarters, he determined to remonstrate with Simon upon the subject.
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