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Page 17
"Harry!" I answered, holding up his head. "Comrade!"
He was cut to pieces. The signal had been secured by the first
pirate party that landed; his hair was all singed off, and his face
was blackened with the running pitch from a torch.
He made no complaint of pain, or of anything. "Good-bye, old chap,"
was all he said, with a smile. "I've got my death. And Death ain't
life. Is it, Gill?"
Having helped to lay his poor body on one side, I went back to my
post. Sergeant Drooce looked at me, with his eyebrows a little
lifted. I nodded. "Close up here men, and gentlemen all!" said the
Sergeant. "A place too many, in the line."
The Pirates were so close upon us at this time, that the foremost of
them were already before the gate. More and more came up with a
great noise, and shouting loudly. When we believed from the sound
that they were all there, we gave three English cheers. The poor
little children joined, and were so fully convinced of our being at
play, that they enjoyed the noise, and were heard clapping their
hands in the silence that followed.
Our disposition was this, beginning with the rear. Mrs. Venning,
holding her daughter's child in her arms, sat on the steps of the
little square trench surrounding the silver-house, encouraging and
directing those women and children as she might have done in the
happiest and easiest time of her life. Then, there was an armed
line, under Mr. Macey, across the width of the enclosure, facing
that way and having their backs towards the gate, in order that they
might watch the walls and prevent our being taken by surprise. Then
there was a space of eight or ten feet deep, in which the spare arms
were, and in which Miss Maryon and Mrs. Fisher, their hands and
dresses blackened with the spoilt gunpowder, worked on their knees,
tying such things as knives, old bayonets, and spear-heads, to the
muzzles of the useless muskets. Then, there was a second armed
line, under Sergeant Drooce, also across the width of the enclosure,
but facing to the gate. Then came the breastwork we had made, with
a zigzag way through it for me and my little party to hold good in
retreating, as long as we could, when we were driven from the gate.
We all knew that it was impossible to hold the place long, and that
our only hope was in the timely discovery of the plot by the boats,
and in their coming back.
I and my men were now thrown forward to the gate. From a spy-hole,
I could see the whole crowd of Pirates. There were Malays among
them, Dutch, Maltese, Greeks, Sambos, Negroes, and Convict
Englishmen from the West India Islands; among the last, him with the
one eye and the patch across the nose. There were some Portuguese,
too, and a few Spaniards. The captain was a Portuguese; a little
man with very large ear-rings under a very broad hat, and a great
bright shawl twisted about his shoulders. They were all strongly
armed, but like a boarding party, with pikes, swords, cutlasses, and
axes. I noticed a good many pistols, but not a gun of any kind
among them. This gave me to understand that they had considered
that a continued roll of musketry might perhaps have been heard on
the mainland; also, that for the reason that fire would be seen from
the mainland they would not set the Fort in flames and roast us
alive; which was one of their favourite ways of carrying on. I
looked about for Christian George King, and if I had seen him I am
much mistaken if he would not have received my one round of ball-
cartridge in his head. But, no Christian George King was visible.
A sort of a wild Portuguese demon, who seemed either fierce-mad or
fierce-drunk--but, they all seemed one or the other--came forward
with the black flag, and gave it a wave or two. After that, the
Portuguese captain called out in shrill English, "I say you!
English fools! Open the gate! Surrender!"
As we kept close and quiet, he said something to his men which I
didn't understand, and when he had said it, the one-eyed English
rascal with the patch (who had stepped out when he began), said it
again in English. It was only this. "Boys of the black flag, this
is to be quickly done. Take all the prisoners you can. If they
don't yield, kill the children to make them. Forward!" Then, they
all came on at the gate, and in another half-minute were smashing
and splitting it in.
We struck at them through the gaps and shivers, and we dropped many
of them, too; but, their very weight would have carried such a gate,
if they had been unarmed. I soon found Sergeant Drooce at my side,
forming us six remaining marines in line--Tom Packer next to me--and
ordering us to fall back three paces, and, as they broke in, to give
them our one little volley at short distance. "Then," says he,
"receive them behind your breastwork on the bayonet, and at least
let every man of you pin one of the cursed cockchafers through the
body."
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