that the Marrack garrison was in a
state of sleepy security, and, with his two boats' crews, counting
thirty-five officers and men, he determined to make a midnight dash on
the fort, an exploit which 430 men were reckoned too weak a force to
attempt.

Lyons crept in at sunset to the shore, and hid his two boats behind a
point from which the fort was visible. A little after midnight, just
as the moon dipped below the horizon, Lyons stole with muffled oars
round the point, and instantly the Dutch sentries gave the alarm.
Lyons, however, pushed fiercely on, grounded his boats in a heavy surf
under the very embrasures of the lower battery, and, in an instant,
thirty-five British sailors were tumbling over the Dutch guns and upon
the heavy-breeched and astonished Dutch gunners. The battery was
carried. Lyons gathered his thirty-five sailors into a cluster, and,
with a rush, captured the upper battery. Still climbing up, they
reached the top of the hill, and found the whole Dutch garrison forming
in line to receive them. The sailors instantly ran in upon the
half-formed line, cutlass in hand; Lyons roared that he "had 400 men,
and would give no quarter;" and the Dutch, finding the pace of events
too rapid for their nerves, broke and fled. But the victorious British
were only thirty-five in number, and were surrounded by powerful
forces. They began at once to dismantle the guns and destroy the fort,
but two Dutch gunboats in the bay opened fire on them, as did a heavy
battery in the rear.

At daybreak a strong Dutch column was formed, and came on at a resolute
and laborious trot towards the shattered gate of the fort. Lyons had
trained two 24-pounders, loaded to the muzzle with musket balls, on the
gate, left invitingly open. He himself stood, with lighted match, by
one gun; his second in command, with another lighted match, by the
other. They waited coolly by the guns till the Dutch, their officers
leading, reached the gate, raising a tumult of angry guttural shouts as
they came on. Then, from a distance of little over ten yards, the
British fired. The head of the column was instantly smashed, its tail
broken up into flying fragments. Lyons finished the destruction of the
fort at leisure, sank one of the two gunboats with the last shot fired
from the last gun before he spiked it, and marched off, leaving the
British flag flying on the staff above the fort, where, in the fury of
the attack, it had been hoisted