for a
hand-to-hand fight.

So, at least, we and all who watched them thought: when suddenly, scarce
a cable's length away, she put about full in the wind, and letting fly
at us with every shot in her broadside, slipped gaily under our helm, on
her way to regain the course she had left, and finish her career down
the line of the Dons. Don Alonzo was so taken by surprise, and unready
for this sudden move, that he had not a word to say. His broadside,
when it went off, fell wide of the mark in the open sea, at the very
moment when the English shot rang about his stern, riddling his sails,
and knocking the gilded cross in shivers by the board. Nor did they
give us shot only, for a cloud of cloth-yard arrows whistled through the
rigging, picking off a dozen or so of the men perched there, and grazing
the polished breastplates of not a few of the bewildered grandees on the
quarter-deck.

Never shall I forget the howl of Spanish curses which greeted this
misadventure. The grandees swore at the sailors, and bade them put
about and give chase; the sailors swore at the grandees, and bade them
come and try to turn the ship quicker than they, if they knew how. The
gunners blamed the captain for holding them back, and the captain blamed
men and crew alike for behaving like spoiled children, and forgetting
their honour and dignity. As for Ludar, he was so tickled by the whole
business that he laughed outright, and I had much ado to sober him in
the presence of the angry foreigners.

But presently a message came for hands to go aft and look to the damage
done to the stern; and we, partly from curiosity, partly from duty, went
with them.

'Twas sad to see how the stately poop was battered about. Windows were
knocked in, flags tumbled, guns unmounted, and, as I said, the great
cross shot in pieces; while all around lay bodies of men dead or
wounded. I think what troubled the Dons almost as much as the better
sailing of the English was to find that these thick wooden walls of
theirs were no proof against the enemy's shot, which crashed through the
stout timbers, sometimes letting daylight in, and here and there leaving
us plenty of work to do to make them good against the inroad of the
water.

By the time the _Rata_ had put back into line, the _Ark_ and her
consorts had ended their merry jaunt by tumbling over the mizzen-mast of
the Vice-Admiral's ship. And the other English ships having by this
time come up, showing the