of the night. At first the moon was up, and would have
discovered us to the enemy. The fort mounted fifty-four heavy guns, and
had a garrison of one hundred and eighty regulars; but what did we care
for that! We waited eagerly for the moon to go down, and then we both
pulled away with muffled oars for the fort. There was a good deal of
surf on the shore, but we hoped its noise, aided by the darkness, would
prevent our approach being discovered. However, the Dutchmen had
learned to be more awake than when we took Fort Belgica, and as we got
close under the land, the sentinels let off their muskets to give the
alarm. No time was to be lost. Lieutenant Lyons ordered us to run the
boats through the surf right on to the shore, under the very muzzles of
the guns in the lower tier. `On, my lads!--on!' he exclaimed, leading
us, sword in hand, right up over the embankment into the lower battery
before the Dutchmen had time to look round them. We found the gunners
as before, with their matches in their hands, and had to kill three of
them to prevent their firing. Having knocked down every man we found,
we did not stop to look around, but followed our gallant leader into the
upper battery, which, in as little time as I have taken to describe, was
in our possession. It was `Hurrah, my boys!--at them!' and after a
minute's cutting, and slashing, and firing of pistols, and dashing them
at each other's heads, the place was ours. That's the way we used to do
things in the war, when once a plan had been determined on by our
officers!

"But we had still plenty of work to do, for when we went on and reached
the highest part of the fort, we found a large body of Dutch troops
drawn up to receive us. Nothing daunted by this, our gallant
lieutenant, singing in Dutch, and French, and English, and all sorts of
languages, that he had got four hundred men at his back, and would give
no quarter if any opposition was offered, we fired a volley, and at them
again we went, cutlass, and pike, and bayonet in hand. Whether they had
Dutch courage in them or not, I don't know, but certainly they did not
like our appearance; and as we came up with them they turned tail, and
off they went helter-skelter through a gateway in the rear of the fort.
After them we went, and sent the last man out with a hearty good kick,
and shut the gate after him!

"No sooner had we got the fort to ourselves than the enemy began
peppering away at us from a fort i