The
buccaneers were now in a very tight place; their enemy was behind
defences and firing at them steadily, without showing any intention of
coming out to give the pirates a chance for what they considered a fair
fight. Every now and then a buccaneer would fall, and L'Olonnois saw
that as it would be utterly useless to endeavor to charge the barricade
he must resort to some sort of trickery or else give up the battle.
Suddenly he passed the word for every man to turn his back and run away
as fast as he could from the earthworks. Away scampered the pirates, and
from the valiant Spaniards there came a shout of victory. The soldiers
could not be restrained from following the fugitives and putting to
death every one of the cowardly rascals. Away went the buccaneers, and
after them, hot and furious, came the soldiers. But as soon as the
Spaniards were so far away from their entrenchments that they could not
get back to them, the crafty L'Olonnois, who ran with one eye turned
behind him, called a halt, his men turned, formed into battle array, and
began an onslaught upon their pursuing enemy, such as these military
persons had never dreamed of in their wildest imagination. We are told
that over two hundred Spaniards perished in a very short time. Before a
furious pirate with a cutlass a soldier with his musket seemed to have
no chance at all, and very soon the Spaniards who were left alive broke
and ran into the woods.
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