d
spades. "Now you may bury them all as fast as you like; their fighting
days are over."

The seamen carried the bodies off to a distance from the fort, when
having dug a large grave, they tumbled them in without any ceremony.
Before the sun had risen many degrees above the horizon, the dead
Spaniards were for ever put out of the sight of their fellow-creatures.

Meantime, the proceedings of the frigate had been watched with no
inconsiderable interest by Commander Olding and his officers. The wind
was still blowing a moderate breeze from the south-west, and would
enable her without difficulty to get in much nearer than she was at
present to the island. She was seen to be getting up her anchor. The
topsails were let fall, and, with her boats ahead, she stood in towards
the fort.

"Her captain, finding that he cannot capture us as he expected, intends
to attack the fort with his great guns," observed the commander. "He
will find, if he attempts to do so, that he has made a still greater
mistake than at first. He must be well acquainted, however, with the
navigation or he would not venture to bring his frigate in among these
reefs."

The men had in the mean time been piped to breakfast, the commander and
his two lieutenants alone remaining on the ramparts to watch the
proceedings of the frigate. The wind was light, the sea smooth, and she
was enabled to thread her way amid the reefs without difficulty.

"Her captain maybe a bold fellow, but he is not a wise one," observed
Mr Tarwig. "If it comes on to blow, and I think there is a great
probability that it will do so, he will wish himself well out to sea
again before he can get there. He seems only to be thinking how he can
get near the fort, but if he had kept his eye to windward he would have
observed yonder bank of clouds rising above the horizon."

The Spanish flag was now seen to fly out from the peak of the frigate,
leaving no doubt as to her nationality. She stood on for a few minutes
longer, when her sails were clewed up and her anchor let drop. Though
she had now got near enough to reach the fort with her guns, she had to
get a spring on her cable before she could bring them to bear upon it.

"Now, my lads, let us show the Spaniards what English gunnery is like,"
cried the commander, as the men returned to their quarters. "Fire!"

No sooner was the order given than every gun on that side of the fort
was discharged at the enemy, with so good an