Jacques de la Mare and me
at first to stay their attack, for the first comer and the next, struck
ere they strove to pass us, fell down helpless among the rocks below.
But the third, running in quickly, closed with Jacques, and forcing him
back, left room for another to close with me, and by this a shout above
our heads warned us that the rest would be upon us as it were from the
sky. I dimly saw Jacques locked arm to arm and breast to breast with a
villain, his equal in strength and stature; and then, as I had seen
wrestlers in peaceful times, so each now on that narrow spot, grasping
cutlasses the while, strove with all manner of feint and twist and turn
to throw his adversary. Close to the side they were, when I saw the
thickset pirate swing as easy as a child across Jacques' back. The two
clung together for a moment. Jacques struggled to get loose. But the
villain clung too well. And so they both fell together into the deep
well below. Creux de la Mort the islanders call it to this day.

I sought rather with sword play to strike the villain in my path, and
old Simon by my side saw soon his place to strike in, and gave him a
deadly stroke. But as he did so the first two rogues dropped from above,
and the little narrow ledge of rock, with its far outlook over the
waves, and pleasant vision of white surf running over the rocks, and
still gulls seated thereon, was soon like hell itself, full of dark and
evil faces. Now Simon was attacked at back and front, as he stumbled
back over the bodies; a great knife was thrust into his back, even as he
faced a rogue before his face, and I saw the old faithful soul fall
forward, and making a kind of stagger with his arms up, ere he fell,
drop into the pool below. So, according to his prayer, he died in the
sea, and nobly, as any knight of great fame, was true to death.

Now, what of myself. The villains would not kill me, though this they
could have done many times. Yet like a young lion I fought fiercely with
my back against the rock, and I know not how many I slashed and cut with
my weapon, till, with a swift stroke, one struck it out of my hand, and
I seemed at their mercy. But my great knife was in my hand in its place,
and with that I hastened another of these evil men to his last account.
And then two, rushing at me from either side, pinioned me as I stood
with a rope, and I, seeing no hope in struggling longer, like a naughty
child, let myself be led or carried to their bo