adsides into the nearest battery, so
well directed and with such deadly effect that it was effectually
silenced, while, as for the other, she soon passed beyond the range of
its guns and dropped her anchor as near to the spot which she had
previously occupied as could be determined by the elusive light of the
stars.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

HOW THEY EMPTIED THE STRONG ROOMS OF THE TWELVE PLATE SHIPS.

The first thing done aboard the _Nonsuch_, as soon as she and the other
ships had come to an anchor, was to ascertain the amount of loss and
damage attendant upon this fresh display of Spanish treachery, and this
proved, upon examination, to be very much less than might reasonably
have been expected. The most serious were the casualties resulting from
musketry fire, but even these were by no means considerable, the loss
amounting only to three killed and seven wounded--two of the latter,
however, being reported by Chichester as serious cases. The ship
herself had escaped damage in a manner that was little short of
miraculous, a few shots through her canvas and two in her hull covering
the full extent of her injuries; but this was probably due to ignorance
on the part of the artillerymen in the batteries, who, unused to
distinguishing one ship from another, had failed to identify the
_Nonsuch_ in the uncertain starlight, and had expended most of their
ammunition upon their friends, with disastrous results to the latter, as
subsequently appeared.

Meanwhile, the hostages, startled out of a light and troubled sleep upon
the first alarm that the plate ships were attempting to escape, had sat
huddled together in the great state cabin throughout the succeeding hour
and a half, quaking at every command which reached their ears from the
deck above, quaking still more when the firing began, roundly denouncing
and execrating the criminal folly of those, whoever they might be, who
were responsible for this fresh breach of faith, and anxiously debating
the question as to whether the young English Captain would hang the
whole of them in reprisal, or whether he would spare a certain number,
and if so, how many, and who. The alcalde had not returned to the ship
after leaving her in company with the Captain and his armed guard on the
previous day, having parted with George outside the Government building
when the Englishmen set out to visit the Inquisition, which circumstance
had been duly communicated to the hostages by Saint Leger u