emotion as he
recounted the favors which Heaven had showered upon their enterprise.
His admiring historian gives it in proof of his humanity, that, after
the rage of the assault was spent, he ordered that women, infants, and
boys under fifteen should thenceforth be spared. Of these, by his own
account, there were about fifty. Writing in October to the King, he says
that they cause him great anxiety, since he fears the anger of God,
should he now put them to death, while, on the other hand, he is in
dread lest the venom of their heresy should infect his men.

A hundred and forty-two persons were slain in and around the fort, and
their bodies lay heaped together on the shore. Nearly opposite was
anchored a small vessel, called the Pearl, commanded by James Ribaut,
son of the Admiral. The ferocious soldiery, maddened with victory and
drunk with blood, crowded to the beach, shouting insults to those on
board, mangling the corpses, tearing out their eyes, and throwing them
towards the vessel from the points of their daggers. Thus did the Most
Catholic Philip champion the cause of Heaven in the New World.

It was currently believed in France, and, though no eye-witness attests
it, there is reason to think it true, that among those murdered at Fort
Caroline there were some who died a death of peculiar ignominy.
Menendez, it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed over
them the inscription, "I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to
Lutherans."

The Spaniards gained a great booty: armor, clothing, and provision.
"Nevertheless," says the devout Mendoza, after closing his inventory of
the plunder, "the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which
our Lord has granted us, whereby His holy gospel will be introduced into
this country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from
perdition." Again, he writes in his journal,--"We owe to God and His
Mother, more than to human strength, this victory over the adversaries
of the holy Catholic religion."

To whatever influence, celestial or other, the exploit may best be
ascribed, the victors were not yet quite content with their success. Two
small French vessels, besides that of James Ribaut, still lay within
range of the fort. When the storm had a little abated, the cannon were
turned on them. One of them was sunk, but Ribaut, with the others,
escaped down the river, at the mouth of which several light craft,
including that bought from the English, had bee