nguard of the
English. Baldry and those with him fought madly, the English on foot
made all haste; the prostrate figure, pinned beneath the dying bay,
became the centre of a wild melee, the hotly contested prize of friend
and foe! Then burst from the tunal, came at a run down the hill,
re-enforcements for Mexia....

Erelong, Don Luiz de Guardiola sent to inform Sir John Nevil that he had
for his prisoner one of the latter's captains. It appeared to the
Governor of Nueva Cordoba that the English held the man in some
esteem,--perchance even that he was their leader's close friend. Sir
John Nevil would understand that to a Spanish soldier and good son of
the Church the prisoner was, inevitably, mere pirate and heretic, to be
dealt with as such.

To this announcement John Nevil returned curt answer. Nueva Cordoba lay
in the hollow of his hand, and at his disposal were some Spanish lives
perhaps not altogether valueless in the eyes of Don Luiz de Guardiola,
since their kindred and friends and Spain herself might hold him
responsible for their sudden and piteous taking off.

When an hour had dragged itself away the fortress spoke again, and its
speech was of a piece with the Governor's mind. The peril of the town
and the lives within it were ignored. Bluntly, the price of Sir Mortimer
Ferne's life was this--and this--and this!

The Admiral made reply that Honor was too dear a price for the life of
any English gentleman. He and Sir Mortimer Ferne declined the terms of
Don Luiz de Guardiola. The safety of his friend should, however, ransom
a city. Deliver the captive sound in life and limb, and the English
would withdraw from Nueva Cordoba, and proceed with their ships upon
their way. Reject this offer, let harm befall the prisoner, and Don Luiz
de Guardiola should see how John Nevil mourned his friends!

The Governor answered that his terms held. The evening before, the
English leader had been pleased to announce that if by moonrise of this
night he had not in hand fifty thousand ducats, Nueva Cordoba should lie
in ashes; now Don Luiz de Guardiola, more generous, gave Sir John Nevil
until the next sunrise to heap upon the quay at the Bocca all gold and
silver, all pearls, jewels, wrought work and other treasure stolen from
the King of Spain, to withdraw every English soul from the galleon _San
Jose_, leaving her safe anchored in the river and above her the Spanish
flag, to abandon town and battery and retire to his ships,