Two Gallant Sons of Devon: A Tale of the Days of Queen BessCollingwood, Harry
General
Two Gallant Sons of Devon: A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess
Collingwood, Harry
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction
"Don't let 'em bring their ordnance into use, or it will be all up with
us," he shouted. "Keep 'em moving, lads, keep 'em moving; so long as we
does that we'm so good as they be--and better; but once let 'em bring
their firearms into play, and we'm done. So, keep 'em moving." And he
himself set the example by rushing upon the enemy, sword in hand, and
laying about him so shrewdly that the Spanish line was once more broken
and forced into full retreat.
And indeed what could the heavily accoutred Spanish soldiers, tightly
strapped up in a suffocatingly hot uniform, do against the nimble
English, who, for the most part, fought in shirt, breeches, and shoes
only, whose arrows flew with such irresistible force that they pierced
right through a man's body, flesh, muscle, bones, and all, and who
seemed to be governed by no laws of fighting, but instead of observing
all the niceties, the rules, and the punctilio of fence, simply rushed
in and cut a man down before the poor wretch could guess what they would
be at!
For ten minutes the fight raged with unimaginable fury before a single
Englishman was hit; and then one poor fellow dropped, with a long knife
quivering in his skull, flung from an upper window of one of the houses.
The man who did the dastardly deed was seen to withdraw hurriedly from
the window; but it was enough; half a dozen of the fallen man's comrades
instantly dashed into the house, were gone about half a minute, and then
returned with a perfectly satisfied look upon their faces, and once more
plunged into the melee. No more knives were thrown from that house; but
unfortunately the deed, and not the swift retribution which followed,
had been seen and thought worthy of imitation, and within five minutes
there was scarcely a window within range of the fighting which was not
vomiting missiles of one sort or another, with disastrous effect upon
the English, who, under this new form of attack, began to fall thick and
fast. For now that the populace had the support of several hundred
soldiers, their courage became so reckless that they could no longer
restrain themselves; and they accordingly engaged in the attack upon the
English with avidity--from the comparatively safe position of the
upstairs windows of the houses on either side of the street. Stukely
and Dick were with the rearguard, making a vigorous and successful stand
against the attack of the soldiery, when this new feature in the
fighting was introduced, and they knew nothing about it until a great
stone, hurled from the attic window of the house in front of which they
were fighting, crashed down fair upon young Chichester's head and sent
him reeling senseless to the ground.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
HOW PHIL AND DICK ESCAPED FROM CARTAGENA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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