t was required, they wished to be burdened as lightly as possible.
Their horses were brought along in the train of the Viceroy's party
which moved out upon the open road to the pass at the same time. These
last went forward with great ostentation, the forlorn hope secretly,
lest some from the buccaneers might be watching.

The fifty volunteers were to ascend the mountain with all speed, make
their way along the crest as best they could, until they came within
striking distance of the camp of the pirates. Then they were to conceal
themselves in the woods there and when the Viceroy made a feigned attack
with the main body of his troops from the other side of the mountain,
they were to leave their hiding-place and fall furiously upon the rear
of the party. Fortunately, they were not required to ascend such a path
as that Alvarado had traversed on the other side, for there were not
fifty men in all Venezuela who could have performed that tremendous feat
of mountaineering. The way to the summit of the range and thence to the
pass was difficult, but not impossible, and they succeeded after an hour
or two of hard climbing in reaching their appointed station, where they
concealed themselves in the woods, unobserved by Teach's men.

The Viceroy carried out his part of the programme with the promptness of
a soldier. Alvarado's men had scarcely settled themselves in the thick
undergrowth beneath the trees whence they could overlook the buccaneers
in camp on the road below them, before a shot from the pirate sentry
who had been posted toward Caracas called the fierce marauders to arms.
They ran to the rude barricade they had erected covering the pass and
made preparation for battle. Soon the wood was ringing with shouts and
cries and the sound of musketry.

Although Teach was a natural soldier and L'Ollonois an experienced and
prudent commander, they took no precaution whatever to cover their rear,
for such a thing as an assault from that direction was not even dreamed
of.

Alvarado and de Tobar, therefore, led their men forward without the
slightest opposition. Even the noise they made crashing through the
undergrowth was lost in the sound of the battle, and attracted no
attention from the enemy. It was not until they burst out into the open
road and charged forward, cheering madly, that the buccaneers realized
their danger. Some of them faced about, only to be met by a murderous
discharge from the pistols of the forlorn hope,