In this
plight they were discovered by a body of horsemen from the town, who
began firing upon them. The Spaniards must now have thought that their
game was almost bagged and that all they had to do was to stand on the
edge of the bog and shoot down the floundering fellows who could not get
away from them. But these fellows were bloody buccaneers, each one of
them a great deal harder to kill than a cat, and they did not propose to
stay in the bog to be shot down. With their cutlasses they hewed off
branches of trees and threw these down in the bog, making a sort of rude
roadway by means of which they were able to get out on solid ground. But
here they found themselves confronted by a large body of Spaniards,
entrenched behind earthworks. Cannon and musket were opened upon the
buccaneers, and the noise and smoke were so terrible they could scarcely
hear the commands of their leaders.
Never before, perhaps, had pirates been engaged in such a land battle as
this. Very soon the Spaniards charged from behind their earthworks, and
then L'Olonnois and his men were actually obliged to fly back. If he
could have found any way of retreating to his ships, L'Olonnois would
doubtless have done so, in spite of his doughty words, when he addressed
his men, but this was now impossible, for the Spaniards had felled trees
and had made a barricade between the pirates and their ships.
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