The fire upon the seamen continued to be effective.  Move from their post they did not, but one after another they sank wounded on the ground.  The soldiers who were now without any one to command them, for those who had forced their way to the western side of the rock, finding that advance or retreat was alike impossible, crawled under the sides of the precipice to retreat from a murderous fire which they could not return.  The others were scattered here and there, protecting themselves as well as they could below the masses of stone, and returning the fire of the conspirators surely and desperately.  But of the hundred men sent on the expedition, there were not twenty who were not killed or wounded, and nearly the whole detachment of seamen had fallen where they stood.

It was then four o’clock, the few men who remained unhurt were suffering from the extreme heat and exertion, and devoured with thirst.  The wounded cried for water.  The sea was still, calm, and smooth as a mirror; not a breath of wind blew to cool the fevered brows of the wounded men, and the cutter, with her sails hanging listless, floated about on the glassy water, about a quarter of a mile from the beach.

“Now is our time, Sir Robert.”

“Yes, Ramsay—­now for one bold dash—­off with this woman’s gear, my men—­buckle on your swords and put pistols in your belts.”

In a very short time this order was complied with, and, notwithstanding some of the men were wounded in this day’s affair, as well as in the struggle for the deck of the cutter, the three bands from Amsterdam, Portsmouth, and Cherbourg mustered forty resolute and powerful men.

The ladder was lowered down, and they descended.  Sir Robert ordered Jemmy Ducks and Smallbones to remain and haul up the ladder again, and the whole body hastened down to the cove, headed by Sir Robert and Ramsay, seized the boats, and shoved off for the cutter.

Chapter LI

In which the Jacobite cause is triumphant by sea as well as by land.

The great difficulty which Sir Robert Barclay had to surmount, was to find the means of transport over the channel for their numerous friends, male and female, then collected in the cave:  now that their retreat was known, it was certain that some effective measures would be taken by government, by which, if not otherwise reduced, they would be surrounded and starved into submission.

The two boats which they had were not sufficient for the transport of so numerous a body, consisting now of nearly one hundred and fifty individuals, and their means of subsistence were limited to a few days.

The arrival of the cutter with the detachments was no source of regret to Sir Robert, who hoped, by the defeat of the troops, to obtain their boats, and thus make his escape; but this would have been difficult, if not impossible, if the cutter had been under command, as she carried four guns, and could have prevented their escape, even if she did not destroy the boats; but when Sir Robert observed that it had fallen calm, it at once struck him, that if, after defeating the troops, they could board and carry the cutter, that all their difficulties were over:  then they could embark the whole of their people, and run her over to Cherbourg.