Revenge_ on either side. "Boarders away!" yelled
the Spanish colonels. "Repel Boarders!" shouted Grenville in reply.
And the boarders were repelled, leaving a hundred killed behind them.
Only fifty English now remained. But they were as defiant as before,
giving the Spaniards deadly broadsides right along the water-line, till
two fresh enemies closed in and grappled fast. Again the boarders
swarmed in from both sides. Again the dauntless English drove them
back. Again the English swords and pikes dripped red with Spanish
blood.

But now only twenty fighting men were left, while Grenville himself had
been very badly wounded twice. Two fresh enemies then closed in,
grappled, boarded, fought with fury, and were barely driven back.
After this there was a pause while both sides waited for the dawn.
Four hundred Spaniards had been killed or drowned and quite six hundred
wounded. A hundred Sea-Dogs had thus accounted for a thousand enemies.
But they themselves were now unable to resist the attack the Spaniards
seemed unwilling to resume; for the first streak of dawn found only ten
men left with weapons in their hands, and these half dead with more
than twelve hours' fighting.

"Sink me the ship, Master Gunner!" was the last order Grenville gave.
But meanwhile the only two officers left alive, both badly wounded, had
taken boat to treat for terms; and the terms had been agreed upon. Don
Bazan promised, and worthily accorded, all the honours of war. So
Grenville was carefully taken on board the flagship, laid in Don
Bazan's cabin, and attended by the best Spanish surgeon. Then, with
the Spanish officers standing before him bareheaded, to show him all
possible respect, Grenville, after thanking them in their own language
for all their compliments and courtesies, spoke his farewell to the
world in words which his two wounded officers wrote home:

"'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that
I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, that hath fought
for his Queen and Country, honour and religion.' And when he had said
these and other such like words he gave up the ghost with a great and
stout courage."

THE REVENGE

_A Ballad of the Fleet_

At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away:
"Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty three!"

* * * * * *