off their retreat, had
simply crumpled up and withered away, leaving the street open for the
retirement of the English; and the latter had accordingly availed
themselves of the opportunity to dash in, and, as they fondly believed,
secure protection for their flanks. But although the soldiers had given
way before that terrible discharge of arrows, they were by no means
beaten; and presently an officer succeeded in rallying about twenty,
whom he drew across the street in a double rank, with their matchlocks
unslung. Bascomb, however, was quick to see the danger.

"Don't let 'em bring their ordnance into use, or it will be all up with
us," he shouted. "Keep 'em moving, lads, keep 'em moving; so long as we
does that we'm so good as they be--and better; but once let 'em bring
their firearms into play, and we'm done. So, keep 'em moving." And he
himself set the example by rushing upon the enemy, sword in hand, and
laying about him so shrewdly that the Spanish line was once more broken
and forced into full retreat.

And indeed what could the heavily accoutred Spanish soldiers, tightly
strapped up in a suffocatingly hot uniform, do against the nimble
English, who, for the most part, fought in shirt, breeches, and shoes
only, whose arrows flew with such irresistible force that they pierced
right through a man's body, flesh, muscle, bones, and all, and who
seemed to be governed by no laws of fighting, but instead of observing
all the niceties, the rules, and the punctilio of fence, simply rushed
in and cut a man down before the poor wretch could guess what they would
be at!

For ten minutes the fight raged with unimaginable fury before a single
Englishman was hit; and then one poor fellow dropped, with a long knife
quivering in his skull, flung from an upper window of one of the houses.
The man who did the dastardly deed was seen to withdraw hurriedly from
the window; but it was enough; half a dozen of the fallen man's comrades
instantly dashed into the house, were gone about half a minute, and then
returned with a perfectly satisfied look upon their faces, and once more
plunged into the melee. No more knives were thrown from that house; but
unfortunately the deed, and not the swift retribution which followed,
had been seen and thought worthy of imitation, and within five minutes
there was scarcely a window within range of the fighting which was not
vomiting missiles of one sort or another, with disastrous effect upon
th