unprotected, while his men were concealed behind the masses of rocks.
Many fell, wounded or killed; and Vanslyperken, after shifting about
from one position to another, ordered the wounded men to be put into his
boat, and with two hands he pulled off as he said to procure more
ammunition, leaving the remainder of his detachment on shore, to do as
well as they could.

"I thought as how this work would be too warm for him," observed Bill
Spurey.

"Yes," replied Short, who, at the moment, received a bullet in his
thigh, and fell down among the rocks.

The fire upon the seamen continued to be effective. Move from their
post they did not, but one after another they sank wounded on the
ground. The soldiers, who were now without any one to command them, for
those who had forced their way to the western side of the rock, finding
that advance or retreat was alike impossible, crawled under the sides of
the precipice to retreat from a murderous fire which they could not
return. The others were scattered here and there, protecting themselves
as well as they could below the masses of stone, and returning the fire
of the conspirators surely and desperately. But of the hundred men sent
on the expedition, there were not twenty who were not killed or wounded,
and nearly the whole detachment of seamen had fallen where they stood.

It was then four o'clock; the few men who remained unhurt were suffering
from the extreme heat and exertion, and devoured with thirst. The
wounded cried for water. The sea was still, calm, and smooth as a
mirror; not a breath of wind blew to cool the fevered brows of the
wounded men, and the cutter, with her sails hanging listless, floated
about on the glassy water, about a quarter of a mile from the beach.

"Now is our time, Sir Robert."

"Yes, Ramsay--now for one bold dash--off with this woman's gear, my
men--buckle on your swords and put pistols in your belts."

In a very short time this order was complied with, and, notwithstanding
some of the men were wounded in this day's affair, as well as in the
struggle for the deck of the cutter, the three bands from Amsterdam,
Portsmouth, and Cherbourg, mustered forty resolute and powerful men.

The ladder was lowered down, and they descended. Sir Robert ordered
Jemmy Ducks and Smallbones to remain and haul up the ladder again, and
the whole body hastened down to the cove, headed by Sir Robert and
Ramsay, seized the boats, and shoved off for the cutte