they sank wounded on the ground. The
soldiers who were now without any one to command them, for those who had
forced their way to the western side of the rock, finding that advance
or retreat was alike impossible, crawled under the sides of the
precipice to retreat from a murderous fire which they could not return.
The others were scattered here and there, protecting themselves as well
as they could below the masses of stone, and returning the fire of the
conspirators surely and desperately. But of the hundred men sent on the
expedition, there were not twenty who were not killed or wounded, and
nearly the whole detachment of seamen had fallen where they stood.

It was then four o'clock, the few men who remained unhurt were suffering
from the extreme heat and exertion, and devoured with thirst. The
wounded cried for water. The sea was still, calm, and smooth as a
mirror; not a breath of wind blew to cool the fevered brows of the
wounded men, and the cutter, with her sails hanging listless, floated
about on the glassy water, about a quarter of a mile from the beach.

"Now is our time, Sir Robert."

"Yes, Ramsay--now for one bold dash--off with this woman's gear, my
men--buckle on your swords and put pistols in your belts."

In a very short time this order was complied with, and, notwithstanding
some of the men were wounded in this day's affair, as well as in the
struggle for the deck of the cutter, the three bands from Amsterdam,
Portsmouth, and Cherbourg mustered forty resolute and powerful men.

The ladder was lowered down, and they descended. Sir Robert ordered
Jemmy Ducks and Smallbones to remain and haul up the ladder again, and
the whole body hastened down to the cove, headed by Sir Robert and
Ramsay, seized the boats, and shoved off for the cutter.

Chapter LI

In which the Jacobite cause is triumphant by sea as well as by land.

The great difficulty which Sir Robert Barclay had to surmount, was to
find the means of transport over the channel for their numerous friends,
male and female, then collected in the cave: now that their retreat was
known, it was certain that some effective measures would be taken by
government, by which, if not otherwise reduced, they would be surrounded
and starved into submission.

The two boats which they had were not sufficient for the transport of so
numerous a body, consisting now of nearly one hundred and fifty
individuals, and their means of subsistence were limit