ently after laid her alongside a rude
stone pier, where she was hastily made fast, and lay ducking and
grinding in the dark.

CHAPTER V

THE "GOOD HOPE" (_continued_)

The pier was not far distant from the house in which Joanna lay; it now
only remained to get the men on shore, to surround the house with a
strong party, burst in the door and carry off the captive. They might
then regard themselves as done with the _Good Hope_; it had placed them
on the rear of their enemies; and the retreat, whether they should
succeed or fail in the main enterprise, would be directed with a greater
measure of hope in the direction of the forest and my Lord Foxham's
reserve.

To get the men on shore, however, was no easy task; many had been sick,
all were pierced with cold; the promiscuity and disorder on board had
shaken their discipline; the movement of the ship and the darkness of
the night had cowed their spirits. They made a rush upon the pier; my
lord, with his sword drawn on his own retainers, must throw himself in
front; and this impulse of rabblement was not restrained without a
certain clamour of voices, highly to be regretted in the case.

When some degree of order had been restored, Dick, with a few chosen
men, set forth in advance. The darkness on shore, by contrast with the
flashing of the surf, appeared before him like a solid body; and the
howling and whistling of the gale drowned any lesser noise.

He had scarce reached the end of the pier, however, when there fell a
lull of the wind; and in this he seemed to hear on shore the hollow
footing of horses and the clash of arms. Checking his immediate
followers, he passed forward a step or two alone, even setting foot upon
the down; and here he made sure he could detect the shape of men and
horses moving. A strong discouragement assailed him. If their enemies
were really on the watch, if they had beleagured the shoreward end of
the pier, he and Lord Foxham were taken in a posture of very poor
defence, the sea behind, the men jostled in the dark upon a narrow
causeway. He gave a cautious whistle, the signal previously agreed upon.

It proved to be a signal for more than he desired. Instantly there fell,
through the black night, a shower of arrows sent at a venture; and so
close were the men huddled on the pier that more than one was hit, and
the arrows were answered with cries of both fear and pain. In this first
discharge, Lord Foxham was struck down; Hawksle