ast 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.

The buccaneers formed into a body and marched toward the town, which
surrendered without firing a gun, and L'Olonnois and his men, who, but
an hour before, had been in danger of being shot down by their enemy as
if they had been rabbits in a pen, now marched boldly into the centre of
the town, pulled down the Spanish flag, and hoisted their own in its
place. They were the masters of Gibraltar. Never had ambitious villany
been more successful.

Chapter XV

A Just Reward

When L'Olonnois and his buccaneers entered the town of Gibraltar they
found that the greater part of the inhabitants had fled, but there were
many people left, and these were made prisoners as fast as they were
discovered. They were all forced to go into the great church, and then
the pirates, fearing that the Spaniards outside of the town might be
reenforced and come back again to attack them, carried a number of
cannon into the church and fortified the building. When this had been
done, they felt safe and began to act as if they had been a menagerie of
wild beasts let loose upon a body of defenceless men, women, and
children. Not only did these wretched men rush into the houses, stealing
everything valuable they could find and were able to carry away, but
when they had gathered together all they could discover they tortured
their poor prisoners by every cruel method they could think of, in order
to make them tell where more treasures were concealed. Many of these
unfortunates had had nothing to hide, and therefore coul