d guard dashed forth, to fling
an order to those slaves.

"To the woods!" he bade them. "Take to the woods, and lie close there,
until this is over, and we've gutted these Spanish swine."

On that he went off in haste after his men, who were to be added to
those massing in the town, so as to oppose and overwhelm the Spanish
landing parties.

The slaves would have obeyed him on the instant but for Mr. Blood.

"What need for haste, and in this heat?" quoth he. He was surprisingly
cool, they thought. "Maybe there'll be no need to take to the woods at
all, and, anyway, it will be time enough to do so when the Spaniards are
masters of the town."

And so, joined now by the other stragglers, and numbering in all a
round score--rebels-convict all--they stayed to watch from their
vantage-ground the fortunes of the furious battle that was being waged
below.

The landing was contested by the militia and by every islander capable
of bearing arms with the fierce resoluteness of men who knew that
no quarter was to be expected in defeat. The ruthlessness of Spanish
soldiery was a byword, and not at his worst had Morgan or L'Ollonais
ever perpetrated such horrors as those of which these Castilian
gentlemen were capable.

But this Spanish commander knew his business, which was more than could
truthfully be said for the Barbados Militia. Having gained the advantage
of a surprise blow, which had put the fort out of action, he soon showed
them that he was master of the situation. His guns turned now upon the
open space behind the mole, where the incompetent Bishop had marshalled
his men, tore the militia into bloody rags, and covered the landing
parties which were making the shore in their own boats and in several
of those which had rashly gone out to the great ship before her identity
was revealed.

All through the scorching afternoon the battle went on, the rattle and
crack of musketry penetrating ever deeper into the town to show that
the defenders were being driven steadily back. By sunset two hundred and
fifty Spaniards were masters of Bridgetown, the islanders were disarmed,
and at Government House, Governor Steed--his gout forgotten in his
panic--supported by Colonel Bishop and some lesser officers, was being
informed by Don Diego, with an urbanity that was itself a mockery, of
the sum that would be required in ransom.

For a hundred thousand pieces of eight and fifty head of cattle, Don
Diego would forbear from reducing