anish soldiery appeared
before the battery, and, according to the tactics of the time, began to
make thorny with abattis, poisoned stakes, and other devices the way of
the enemy across the open space which it guarded. English marksmen
picked them off, others took their place; they falling also, one great
gun from the fort bellowed defiance. Its echoes ceasing, silence again
wrapped the white ascent and all that crowned it. For days now each
antagonist had that knowledge of the other that ammunition was the pearl
of price only to be fully shown by warrant of circumstance.

The sun in sinking cast a strange light. It stained the sea, and the air
so partook of that glow that town and fortress sprang into red
significance. The river also, where swung the dark ships, was
ensanguined, as was every ripple upon the shore, where now the birds
grew very clamorous. There were no clouds; only the red ball of the sun
descending, and a clear field for the stars. The evening wind arose; at
last the day died; unheralded by any dusk, on came the night. Color of
blood changed to color of gold, gleamed and glistened the sea, sparkled
the fire-flies, shone the deep stars; over the marsh flared the
will-o'-the-wisp like a torch lit to bad ends.

Nueva Cordoba was held by two-thirds of the English force; now for the
Spaniards' greater endangering down from each ship's side came, man by
man, wellnigh all of that division which looked to the safety of the
fleet. So great was the prize, so intolerable any idea of defeated
purpose, that for this night--this night only--the balances could not be
evenly held. Precaution lifted from one side added weight to the other,
and the borrowing from Peter became of less moment than the paying of
Paul. Day by day, north and east and west, watchmen in the tops of the
_Mere Honour_, the _Cygnet_, the _Marigold_, and the _Phoenix_ had seen
no hostile sail upon the bland and smiling ocean. The river ran in
mazes; undulating like a serpent it came from hidden sources, and its
heavy borders of tamarind and mangrove sent long shadows out towards
midstream. The watchmen looked to the river also; but no greater thing
ever appeared than some Indian canoe gliding down from illimitable
forests. Now the ships were left maimed for what was meant to be the
briefest while. The sick manned them; together with a handful of the
unhurt they looked down from the decks and whispered envious farewells
to their comrades in the boa