hree decks, those that belonged to the gunner-room were
all to be there, and break up the lower deck. The English slaves, who
belonged to the middle deck, were to do the same with that, and watch
the scuttles. Rawlins himself prevailed with the gunner to give him as
much powder as would prime the guns, and told them all there was no
better watchword than, when the signal gun was heard, to cry:

'For God, and King James, and Saint George for England.'

Then, all being prepared, and every man resolute, knowing what he had to
do, Rawlins advised the gunner to speak to the captain, that he might
send the soldiers to the poop, to bring the ship aft, and, weighing it
down, send the water to the pumps. This the captain was very willing to
do; and so, at two o'clock in the afternoon the signal was given, by the
firing of the gun, whose report tore and broke down all the binnacle and
compasses.

But when the Turks heard this, and the shouts of the conspirators, and
saw that part of ship was torn away, and felt it shake under them, and
knew that all threatened their destruction--no bear robbed of her whelps
was ever so mad as they, for they not only called us dogs, and cried in
their tongue, 'The fortune of war! the fortune of war!' but they tried
to tear up the planking, setting to work hammers, hatchets, knives, the
oars of the boat, the boat hook, and whatever else came to hand, besides
the stones and bricks of the cook-room, still trying to break the
hatches, and never ceasing their horrible cries and curses.

Then Rawlins, seeing them so violent, and understanding that the slaves
had cleared the decks of all the Turks and Moors underneath, began to
shoot at them through different scoutholes, with their own muskets, and
so lessened their number. At this they cried for the pilot, and so
Rawlins, with some to guard him, went to them, and understood by their
kneeling that they cried for mercy and begged to come down. This they
were bidden to do, but coming down one by one, they were taken and slain
with their own curtleaxes. And the rest, perceiving this, some of them
leapt into the water, still crying: 'The fortune of war!' and calling
their foes English dogs, and some were slain with the curtleaxes, till
the decks were well cleared, and the victory assured.

[Illustration]

At the first report of the gun, and the hurly-burly on deck, the captain
was writing in his cabin, and he came out with his curtleaxe in hand,
thinki