leared away the furniture. He
then went out on to the balcony, and addressed the crowd of
soldiers who were standing, uncertain what step to take next, many
of them having already gone off in search of plunder elsewhere.

"Listen to me, men," he shouted. "Hitherto I have refrained from
employing force against men who, after behaving as heroes, are now
acting like madmen; but I shall do so no longer. I will give you
two minutes to clear off, and anyone who remains at the end of that
time will have to take his chance."

Derisive shouts and threats arose in reply. He turned round and
nodded to the count, who was standing at the door of the room with
a pistol in his hand. He raised it and fired and, in a moment,
soldiers appeared at every window, menacing the crowd below with
their rifles. At the same moment the door opened, and the
Portuguese poured out, with Ryan at their head, trampling over the
pile raised in front of it.

There was a moment of stupefied dismay amongst the soldiers.
Hitherto none had believed that there were any in the houses, with
the exception of a few officers; and the sudden appearance of a
hundred men at the windows, and a number pouring out through the
door, took them so completely by surprise that there was not even a
thought of resistance.

Men who had faced the terrors of the deadly breaches turned and
fled and, save a few leaning stupidly against the opposite wall,
none remained by the time Ryan had formed up the two lines across
the street. Each of these advanced a short distance, and were at
once joined by the defenders of the other house, and by those at
the windows.

"Do you take command of one line, Bull; and you of the other,
Macwitty. I don't think that we shall be meddled with but, should
any of them return and attack you, you will first try and persuade
them to go away quietly. If they still attack, you will at once
fire upon them.

"Herrara, will you send out all your officers, and bring the men in
at the back doors, as before. We shall soon have the greater part
of the regiment here, and with them we can hold the street, if
necessary, against any force that is likely to attack it."

In half an hour, indeed, more than fifteen hundred men had been
rallied and, while two lines, each a hundred strong, were formed
across the street, some eighty yards apart, the rest were drawn up
in a solid body in the centre; Terence's order being that, if
attacked in force, half of them were