As he obeyed me, tears fell fast from his eyes: his father, a soldier, lay dead in the breach close by. The bugle-blast was caught, in various cadence, by the wind; and could be barely heard above the noise of the conflict: the assembly, and the retreat, poured in rapid succession on the ear; and the last shrill note of the warning to retire _double-quick_ had scarcely been given, ere the bugle flew from his grasp, and struck by a shot, the poor boy rolled at my feet, bleeding and beating the earth. Sixty men, the last remnant of my comrades, assembled from every point. Lloyd spiked the mortar, and the whole rushed helter-skelter down the steep staircase and sprang into the boats; which were pushed off as soon as they were filled. I was the last to leave the fort, and as I turned to go, "O, Captain Dundas, don’t leave me, sir!" cried an imploring voice: it was the little bugler of the 62nd. A score of wounded men were crying the same thing: it was impossible to attend to them all: but snatching up the boy, I bore him off, and leaped into the launch of the _Electra_; in the stern sheets of which sat Bianca, rolled up in my regimental cloak, to protect her from the chill morning air and damp sea atmosphere. She sobbed convulsively with terror and joy. Santugo was in one of the gun-boats; Macnesia sat beside him—Lloyd, Lascelles, and the soldiers, were crowded into other craft, and the whole gave a reckless cheer of defiance. "Shove off!" cried the captain of the _Electra_, through his speaking trumpet; "give way lads—cheerily now!" and the oars dipped in the water, as the sails were trimmed, and the sterns were turned to Scylla. The whole embarkation had been effected with matchless rapidity and order; notwithstanding that the cannon-shot, the bursting shells, the grenades, and musketry, lashed and tore the water into foam around us: the sea all the while, roaring and rolling in mighty mountains of froth against the cliffs; where it boiled as if in impotent wrath—recoiling from the slippery and frowning bluff, to run its waves in quick succession into the vast and gloomy Dragara: which has often been compared to the mouth of some wondrous monster essaying to engulf all ocean. One seaman was killed, and ten dangerously wounded: but these casualties were deemed trifling, under so heavy a fire; and when the sea was heaving and breaking beneath us, threatening every instant to swamp the boats, to dash them against each other, or on these inhospitable rocks, which nearly proved so fatal to the "sacred argo" of old. With three hearty cheers we moved off. Scarcely had we done so, when the tricolor waved over Scylla, and the tall red plumes and glancing bayonets of the 101st appeared among the ruined walls; while a party of the 23rd rushed shouting down the staircase, with such impetuosity that many fell headlong into the seething sea.