who stepped
over the bows stood ready to push off the boats again, each with its two
boat-keepers, at the low-spoken word of the officer in command. Every
man knew exactly what his duty was up to the moment of landing, and did
it; and so excellent were the arrangements that within two minutes of
grounding the boats were again afloat, while those who had come in them
were drawn up in two unequal parties on the beach, the duty of the
smaller party, under Mr Richard Basset, being to surprise and capture
the shore battery, while the other, numbering some forty men, under
Saint Leger's leadership, was to march upon the Grand Plaza and seize
it, and the Governor's house, which was situated therein. But with so
small a force, and the numbers of the enemy unknown, it was necessary to
exercise a very considerable amount of precaution lest some unforeseen
accident should wreck the entire enterprise; therefore, while the force
under George stood to their arms, motionless, close down by the water's
edge, Basset with his contingent crept warily up the sand toward the
shore battery and presently were swallowed up within its shadows.

Then ensued an anxious five or six minutes of breathless waiting on the
part of George and his company, during which no sound save the gentle
wash of the miniature breakers on the shore immediately behind them
broke the breathless stillness of the night. Then, from the direction
of the battery, there suddenly came to the ears of the eagerly listening
party the sounds of subdued scuffling, the faint clink of steel, and a
shout which suddenly ended in a choking gurgle. The sounds were by no
means loud; indeed, so subdued were they that at double the distance of
the listening party from the battery they would probably not be heard at
all. Nor did they last long; the whole affair, whether for good or for
ill, was over in less than five minutes. But George knew that the
termination of it was for good, so far as the English were concerned,
for had it been otherwise the subdued sounds of the scuffle would have
risen into shouts of alarm and the firing of musketry, instead of dying
down again into silence, as they did. And presently a man came running
down the beach from the battery, bearing a message from Basset to George
to the effect that the former had succeeded in taking the garrison
completely by surprise and capturing them and the battery practically
without striking a single blow--"and Mester Bass