es like men; but let
us wait till we are attacked, and the blood that is shed will lie at the
door of the aggressors."

The Spaniards now saw plainly that they would have to take the stockade
before they could get at us, and the officers seemed consulting
together.

"Halt!" cried Asa, suddenly.

"Messieurs les Americains," said the captain, looking up at our
loopholes.

"What's your pleasure?" demanded Asa.

Upon this the captain stuck a dirty pocket-handkerchief upon the point
of his sword, and laughing with his officers, moved some twenty paces
forward, followed by the troops. Thereupon Asa again shouted to him to
halt.

"This is not according to the customs of war," said he. "The flag of
truce may advance, but if it is accompanied, we fire."

It was evident that the Spaniards never dreamed of our attempting to
resist them; for there they stood in line before us, and, if we had
fired, every shot must have told. The Acadians, who kept themselves all
this time snug behind the cotton-trees, called more than once to the
captain to withdraw his men into the wood; but he only shook his head
contemptuously. When, however, he heard Asa threaten to fire, he looked
puzzled, and as if he thought it just possible we might do as we said.
He ordered his men to halt, and called out to us not to fire till he had
explained what they cane for.

"Then cut it short," cried Asa sternly. "You'd have done better to
explain before you burned down our houses, like a pack of Mohawks on the
war path."

As he spoke, three bullets whistled from the edge of the forest, and
struck the stockades within a few inches of the loophole at which he
stood. They were fired by the Creoles, who, although they could not
possibly distinguish Asa, had probably seen his rifle barrel or one of
his buttons glitter through the opening. As soon as they had fired, they
sprang behind their trees again, craning their heads forward to hear if
there was a groan or a cry. They'd have done better to have kept quiet;
for Righteous and I caught a sight of them, and let fly at the same
moment. Two of them fell and rolled from behind the trees, and we saw
that they were the Creole called Croupier, and another of our
horse-dealing friends.

When the Spanish officer heard the shots, he ran back to his men, and
shouted out "Forward! To the assault!" They came on like mad a distance
of thirty paces, and then, as if they thought we were wild-geese to be
frightened by