roadside, in addition to
bringing down the brig's masts, had swept her crew practically out of
existence. I was therefore most disagreeably surprised to discover
that, despite the havoc which we had undoubtedly wrought, and the
evidences of which became clearly visible as the breeze swept the smoke
away, the pirates still numbered at least two to our one, and were
apparently in nowise dismayed at the havoc which that last broadside of
ours had wrought; on the contrary, they received us with the utmost
intrepidity, and in an instant we of the _Francesca_ found ourselves
hemmed in and pressed so vigorously that, instead of sweeping the decks
and carrying the brig with a rush, as I had fully expected we should, it
was with the utmost difficulty that we were able to hold our ground at
all. The pirate captain, easily distinguishable among the rest by his
good looks and the smartness of his dress, was here, there, and
everywhere apparently at the same moment, urging on and encouraging his
men in fluent Spanish, while he defended himself from the simultaneous
attack of three of our people with consummate ease. He fought
cheerfully, joyously, like a man who enjoys fighting, with a reckless
jest on his lips, but with a ferocity that was terrible to behold.
Twice I crossed swords with him. On the first occasion I had hardly
engaged when I was so severely jostled that I suddenly found myself
completely at his mercy, and gave myself up as lost, for his sword was
descending straight upon my defenceless head as his eyes glared tiger-
like into mine, when, apparently through sheer caprice, he diverted his
stroke, and, instead of cleaving me to the chin, as he could easily have
done, vigorously attacked the man next to me; while on the second
occasion, which occurred a minute or two later, he contented himself
with simply parrying my thrust, and then permitted himself to be
separated from me by a rush of our men. For ten long minutes the fight
raged most furiously on the brig's deck, fortune sometimes favouring us
for a moment and then deserting us in favour of the pirates. The battle
occasionally resolved itself for a moment into a series of desperate
single combats, during which men savagely clutched each other by the
throat and stabbed at each other with shortened weapons, and then merged
again into a general melee in which each man seemed to strike recklessly
at every enemy within reach, regardless of his own safety. And then,