Sir John Boswell had been wounded, but not so seriously as to altogether
disable him, and he was in command of one of the prizes, having Sir
Adam Tedbond, Harcourt, Gervaise, and a German knight, with him. Sir
Marmaduke Lumley, who, after the first fight was over, was found, to the
surprise and pleasure of his comrades, to be still living, was, with the
rest of the wounded, on board one of the galleys. Two of the pirates
had fallen dead across him, and in the ardour of their attack on the
knights, he had lain there unnoticed until the return of Sir Louis and
his comrades had driven the pirates overboard. The leech was of opinion
that he might yet recover from his wound.
On arriving at the island, sixty of the knights disembarked. The woods
near the shore were first searched, but were found untenanted. They were
about to advance up the hill when a man appeared on the crest above them
waving a white flag. He was told to come down, and on his arrival said
that he was sent by his companions to offer to surrender, on the promise
that their lives should be spared. The knights were well pleased to be
saved the trouble of a long search through the woods, and the messenger
left at once to acquaint the pirates that their terms were accepted. In
a short time some eighty men made their way down the hill. On reaching
the beach they were disarmed, divided equally between the galleys, and
distributed among the rowers, filling up the places of those who had
been killed by the fire of the Moslems, and of the men drafted into the
prizes. They begged for food and water before they began work, and, on
being questioned, admitted that their surrender was due principally
to the fact that they had been unable to find food of any sort on the
island, and that after searching all over it no spring of water could be
discovered.
“In that case,” Sir John Boswell said, “I have no doubt they have all
surrendered. I before thought it probable that a good many of them would
have remained hidden, trusting to be able to make a raft after we
had left, and so get away, believing rightly enough that we should be
disinclined to search every foot of the island for them. As it is, I
doubt not, all are here.”
The little fleet anchored that night at the rendezvous, and after two
more days' rowing reached Rhodes, where the appearance of the three
galleys, followed by their five prizes, was greeted with great
acclamation. The news, however, that twenty-seven knights had fallen,
and that thirteen or fourteen others were very gravely wounded, damped
the satisfaction that every one had at first felt. D'Aubusson came
down as soon as they reached the mole, and was greatly affected when he
received Ricord's report.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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