ed from their quarters to the ramparts. They had evidently been
found napping, for before a single gun had been discharged from the
fort, the shot from another broadside came plunging into it.

The game, however, was not to be all on one side. The Frenchmen's guns
were heard going off as fast as they could get their matches ready.
They could easily be distinguished by the far louder noise they made.
Those from the two other forts at the same time could be heard firing
away. Cries and shrieks rose from wounded men, and a loud explosion, as
if a gun had burst, rent the air.

"The vessel attacking is a corvette," cried Rayner. "She must have run
close in for her shot to strike in the way they are doing. It is a bold
enterprise, and I pray she may be successful for her sake as well as
ours."

"Can she be the _Ariel_ or _Lily_?" asked Oliver.

"Whichever she is, the attempt would not have been made without good
hope of success," remarked Rayner.

"I wish that we were out of this, and aboard her," exclaimed Jack.

"So do I," cried Brown. "I don't like being boxed up here while such
work is going on. Couldn't we manage to break out?"

"We are safe here, and we'd better remain where we are," said Tom; "only
I hope none of those round shot will find their way into this place."

On the impulse of the moment Jack and Brown made a rush at the door, but
it was far too strongly bolted to allow them to break it open. The
other prisoners sat with their hands before them, hoping probably, as
Tom did, that no shot would find its way among them.

Rayner and Oliver looked up at the windows near the roof, but they were
strongly-barred and too narrow to enable a grown man to squeeze through
them. To sit down quietly seemed impossible. They stood therefore
listening, and trying to make out by the sounds which reached their ears
how the fight was going. Presently some more guns were heard coming
from the sea.

"There must be another vessel!" exclaimed Rayner. "Hark! she must be
engaging the upper fort. I thought that one would scarcely venture
singly to attack the three forts."

The roar of the artillery continued. Suddenly there burst forth a loud
thundering sound. The ground beneath their feet shook, the walls
trembled, and the roof seemed about to fall on their heads, while the
glare of a vivid flame penetrating through the windows lighted up the
whole interior of the building, shrieks, groans, and cries echoing