that his ship was shot through. Hein was frantic with rage. If he received no reinforcement from the rest of the fleet he would be obliged to retire, but rather than retire he determined to risk a last chance.

'Boys,' he exclaimed, drawing his sword, 'we must get at them somehow. Follow me into the boats.' Three small boats were immediately filled with twenty men each, and rowed towards the Spanish galleons. It seemed the madness of despair, thus to advance against the formidable ships of war, amidst smoke and thunder, and a perfect hail of bullets. They reached the first vessels. The Dutchmen climbed up the rigging like cats and flew at the Spanish sailors, sword in one hand and axe in the other. The Spaniards, still with the memory of Gibraltar fresh upon them, were seized with terror. They fall on their knees and cry for mercy. They jump overboard, leaving their ships in the hands of the Dutchmen, and swimming towards the shore, they exclaim that they will all be blown up. In the meantime Piet Hein, with some of his men, had again jumped into his boat and rowed to the next ship. A panic now seized the whole Spanish fleet. Everybody jumped overboard or rowed to shore. Some set fire to their ships, others bored holes in the bottom. In the space of half-an-hour the Spaniards had lost their fifteen ships-seven were in flames, eight in the Vice-Admiral's hands-and the victory had been gained with less than a hundred men.

But now came the real tug of war. The sudden

defeat had enraged that part of the garrison of St. Salvador whose courage had not as yet given way, and from all sides a murderous fire was directed upon Hein and his small body of men. He had already sent to the admiral for reinforcements, and kept up the fire from his own ships incessantly; but he felt that he could not hold out much longer against the well-directed shots of the rock battery, and would have to retire. At last, through the dense cloud of smoke that surrounded him, he heard the welcome voices of the admiral's men, and fourteen crowded boats came pulling across the bay to his support. Now he felt ready for anything. He jumped into his own boat again, shouted out to the rest to follow, and led straight off to the rock fortress. It was a regular race between the seventeen boats who should get there first. The garrison of the fortress consisted of at least six hundred men. They were all standing firing right and left into

on the walls well armed, and the boats; but when they saw the Dutch sailors coming straight at them, their courage sank into their shoes. Most of them climbed down from the walls and jumped into their boats, or began wading towards the shore, it being at that time low water. Piet Hein's boat reached the battery first. There was a strip of rock all round just broad enough for three men to stand side by side. The wall was nine feet high, and built of white and very slippery stone; but the vice-admiral and his men stopped at nothing. They all jumped on to the rock at once; one half of the

men stooped with their hands on their knees, and the other half climbed on their backs. The trumpeter was on the top of the wall first, and blew the clear notes of the victory-signal across the water. Piet Hein was second, sword in hand, and then the whole lot followed like a rush of the sea itself across the wall inside the fortress, driving the Spaniards before them into the water, who were exposed to the fire from shore as well as from behind. At eight o'clock the fortress had been taken and the Dutch flag was waving from the wall, but it was open towards the town and afforded no shelter. The guns, it is true, were turned towards the enemy, but the falling dusk made a retreat necessary; the guns were spiked, the ammunition blown up or thrown into the sea, and when the night fell Piet Hein and his men had returned to their fleet, with the intention of following up their conquest in the morning.

It may be imagined that a very sharp watch was kept during the night, for, lying with his fleet close to the quay, and not far from the burning remains of the seven Spanish ships, Hein did not know what tricks the enemy might not play upon him. His situation was rendered more difficult by his receiving no communication from the admiral, who had remained at the entrance of the bay with the rest of the fleet. You may judge his surprise next morning, therefore, when on rowing cautiously to the quay he was challenged in right good Dutch, and found the lower part of the town, with all its warehouses and maga